Chapter 3

"Is that the woman from the video who caused a scene at Mr. Carter's wedding at headquarters? Seriously? She took bereavement leave and disappeared for a while. How does she even have the nerve to come back?"

"I bet she's here to resign. She's been with the company for ten years, yet she's still only a minor team leader. I heard she applied for a promotion five times and got rejected every time. Some people really are hopeless."

Those cutting remarks used to leave me miserable. Now, they barely registered. After all, I had heard plenty of comments like that while arranging my mother's funeral.

I kept my eyes straight ahead and knocked on the door of my supervisor's office.

"Come in."

Tessa Wallace glanced at the forms in my hands and nodded with approval.

"Rose, I couldn't believe you when you told me a couple of days ago that you wanted an overseas assignment. Every time I asked you to take one before, you said you wanted to stay close to your boyfriend and couldn't handle a long-distance relationship.

“This time, you made the decision pretty quickly.

"Someone from headquarters is coming tomorrow to inspect the overseas assignments. Come in one more time tomorrow so they can see you, then you're free to go."

She paused, then smiled.

"Come to think of it, we started as interns at the same time. You were always better than me, and you helped me more times than I can count. I'm glad you've finally figured out what you want."

I lowered my eyes.

She was right.

Maybe I had just been unlucky. Every other intern who started with me had climbed into management. I was the only one who had stayed in the same place all those years.

When I walked out of the building, I turned around and looked up at the skyscraper where I had spent ten years of my life.

Over those ten years, Jim's family's company had grown stronger and stronger. Even the branch office now occupied a towering skyscraper.

Why had my relationship with Jim come crashing down?

Jim and I were the classic rich-boy-meets-Cinderella story.

My father died when I was young, and my mother raised me on her own.

Back then, I squeezed work into every spare minute I had outside of class. I took tutoring jobs and filled in for other teachers whenever I could.

One day, one girl not only refused to pay me for tutoring her, but also brought her roommates to corner me and demanded that I hand over all the money I had.

I was terrified and completely helpless. That was when Jim showed up with his bodyguards. He pulled me up from the ground and offered to buy me dinner.

With a red face, he told me his grades were terrible and he was afraid he was going to fail his finals. He asked me to help him cram.

I knew perfectly well that his grades were actually excellent. He was only using that as an excuse to help me.

I was drawn to the bright, carefree warmth he carried with him, as if life had never given him a reason to be afraid of anything.

The day I accepted his confession, he took my hand and announced to everyone on campus, "This is my genius, beautiful girlfriend!"

When we graduated, I gave up a government-sponsored opportunity to study abroad.

When I started working, I turned down a management position at a major overseas company that would have paid me an enormous salary.

All I wanted was to stay by Jim's side.

I had simple dreams: I wanted to marry him, have children, and grow old together.

Everything changed the day Lucia, Jim's childhood sweetheart, came home after studying abroad a year ago.

That day, Jim left me alone for the first time while I was sick because he wanted to pick Lucia up at the airport.

That night, he got completely drunk at her return party. He grabbed Lucia's hand and refused to leave with me. His eyes were red as he looked at her and asked, "Lucia, promise me you won't leave me again, okay?"

After that, Lucia became the reason Jim and I fought constantly.

I wanted him to understand boundaries. He accused me of being controlling and said I was trying to stop him from having friends.

Once, he even looked at me sarcastically and pointed out that he and Lucia had known each other since childhood.

I was the one who came later.

Then, two months ago, Lucia sent him a wedding invitation.

The same man who had rejected my hints about marriage ninety-nine times suddenly placed a piece of meatloaf on my plate.

He stared down at his food and asked quietly, "Rose, how about we get married too?"