Chapter 2

The red wine soaked my hair and splashed onto the front of my pristine shirt. The cold liquid immediately woke me up from my senses.

Then, Valerie went up to the podium and began her speech.

"In view of Mr. Alexander Hall's recent harassment toward me, I have decided to remove him from his senior management position and transfer him to an administrative position instead to reflect on his actions.

"In the meantime, Mr. Thomas Freeman will be the one temporarily replacing him in his original position."

The entire room was in uproar. For a moment, countless pitying, sympathetic, and even gloating gazes fell upon me.

Thomas grinned smugly at me, his dimples deepening and making it feel as though he'd just bitten me on the neck with his venomous fangs.

Valerie left the hall with Thomas, and the people around me began gossiping amongst each other.

"See what happens when you're a pig thinking you can fly? Does Alex not have enough sense to realize that he's just a nobody who will never amount to Ms. Palmer? To think that he ever dreamed of trying to court her in the first place!"

"I don't even know how he managed to get into the senior management position in the first place. I bet Ms. Palmer's sick of playing with him already. Thomas is so much younger and more handsome than Alex anyway."

"This is basically akin to Ms. Palmer kicking Alex out of the company. She's really quite ruthless after all!"

I was first shocked by the announcement. However, I felt myself growing numb and despaired afterward.

This company was the culmination of both our blood, sweat, and tears, and yet, she just kicked me out so easily and replaced me with Thomas like this.

Still, I knew that Valerie was someone who'd always do something like this. No matter what it was she did wrong, she would still expect me to be the one apologizing to her before forcing me to crawl into a hole and stay there.

However, I was exhausted by now. I'd had enough of her.

I walked out of the hall in a daze, completely lost in thought. It suddenly began to rain, but I hadn't brought an umbrella with me. The rain streamed down my face, mingling with the tears as they washed my will away.

When Valerie and I first met, I learned she came from a poor family, so I decided to hide my background from her so she wouldn't feel inferior to me.

But now, there was no need for me to continue hiding it anymore. After all, acquiring a small company like hers was just a matter of a single word from Dad anyway.

I went back home. I had been the one to design and decorate this marital home I shared with Valerie, but she barely ever came home anymore.

A small gold pendant fell out of my shirt pocket. It had been given to me by Valerie's grandmother when she passed away.

Valerie's parents divorced when she was very young, and her grandmother raised her. We'd only been together for a very short time before she suddenly fell very seriously ill.

I secretly hired the best doctor in the city to tirelessly care for her at the hospital for two months, and during that time, Valerie and I became each other's only support.

However, fate was cruel to us, and Valerie's grandmother eventually passed away. Before she breathed her last, she held my hand tightly and gave me their family heirloom, this tiny gold pendant, and made me promise to take good care of Valerie.

Valerie was devastated for a long time. She held on to me like she was clutching at straws and said, "I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life, Alex."

From then on, we never separated from each other from college until our postgraduate studies. We had become an indelible symbol in each other's lives, and I thought that nothing could ever separate us.

At least, that was what I thought countless times in the past.

I removed the gold pendant and placed it on her dressing table. This was something that I'd held close to my heart by wearing it around my neck.

But now, I was taking it off and setting it aside, just like how she'd set our relationship aside.