Chapter 3

"It's just helping out an old friend. Is this really necessary?"

His tone was all complaint.

"Would you cut it out with the suspicion? If there were really something between us, you wouldn't even be in the picture."

My head went blank with a sharp ringing.

Then I took my suitcase back out of his hand.

"Perfect. Then I'm out of the picture now."

"I hope you two are very happy."

With that, I ran off and flagged down a cab.

"Nora, stop right there."

I heard Ethan shouting and his footsteps chasing after me.

The cab sped off, and I dissolved into sobs.

I rushed to the office out of breath, and found my department empty.

Two hours later my manager came back from a meeting and laid into me.

"Nora, what is wrong with you? You skip this morning's meeting, you drop the whole pitch. If Mia hadn't stepped in with the proposal, both our jobs would be on the line."

I turned and saw Mia off to the side, eyes darting away from mine.

She was nothing like the naive little girl Ethan imagined.

"She never told me there was a meeting."

"And that proposal, I'm the one who wrote it. It has nothing to do with her."

My voice was ice. Then I walked straight up to her and slapped her across the face.

Take my man, fine.

Take my work, no.

Mia clutched her cheek and ran off with a string of little whimpers.

That afternoon, a story blew up across the whole city.

I opened the video. It was Mia.

She stood on the roof of an office tower, alone, staring down.

Traffic streamed below, crowds stopped to gawk, and even the police and a rescue crew had shown up.

I bolted outside and ran straight into Ethan, who'd just arrived.

"Nora, what did you do to Mia? Why is she up there threatening to jump?"

I knew he was frantic, but I never expected him to point the finger at me without asking me a single question.

Something clenched in my chest, and my nose stung.

"She stole my proposal and took credit for my work."

"All I did was call out her lie."

Sweat beaded on his forehead. He had no patience to hear me out.

"She's new, she doesn't know better. Couldn't you just cut her some slack?"

He shouted it in my face.

I'd never seen Ethan lose his temper like that.

Three years together and he'd always been so even-keeled. I used to tease him, call him Mr. Patient.

It never crossed my mind that the first time he'd ever lose control would be over another woman.

Just then his phone rang.

It was Mia.

"Ethan, I know Nora can't stand me. Please apologize to her for me. I'm new, I shouldn't have shown off and embarrassed her."

Her voice trembled, all pitiful and wronged, the perfect picture of a poor little victim.

Ethan was shaking, wound tight and frantic.

"Don't talk like that. She's the one who should be apologizing."

Then he grabbed my wrist.

"Go apologize to Mia. Now."

"If anything happens to her, I will never forgive you as long as I live."

Something dropped in my chest. I stared at him in disbelief.

I drew a long breath, and waited until the last trace of hurt slowly drained away.

"I don't need your forgiveness, Ethan. We're already done."

"I won't apologize for something I didn't do."

"I'm leaving for the day. Excuse me."

Ethan was breathing hard, his eyes full of scorn.

"Nora, you are unbelievable."

I pushed past him and walked away, every step heavy.

That night, a video showed up on the company's site.

Ethan stood on the rooftop, coaxing Mia with painstaking care.

"Mia, I know Nora. She just got carried away. She wasn't trying to corner you."

"I'll apologize for her. Just come down, don't do anything stupid."

Mia's mouth crumpled, and the tears came spilling down.

"Ethan..."

She choked out his name and threw herself into his arms.