Chapter 4

I did not leave the company right away because I still had a project that I was working on. The project would decide the annual bonus of my team, and I did not want to let my teammates down by walking away from it.

However, one day before the contract was signed, I entered the office to see everyone around my desk.

"Mr. Silverman is here!" Someone shouted, and the others turned to look at me with disgust in their eyes.

"Why did you plagiarize Ryan's work, Hunter?" It was Erica who stood up from behind my computer. "This is Ryan's hard work, and you stole it to make your project look good?"

She looked disappointed. "Do you have any professional ethics?"

I was thunderstruck, and I dashed forward in disbelief to check the document. One document belonged to Ryan, and the other was in my file, which I clicked into. The timestamp for both documents was only one day apart, while mine was a day later than Ryan's.

"This is impossible!" I looked up to say. "I was the one who wrote this proposal from beginning to end. The contents are original. He could have copied my work, but I would never copy his."

"Mr. Silverton, I know you don't like me, but the evidence is clear. My timestamp is earlier than yours." Randy looked aggrieved, standing at the side. "I told you before that I only treat Miss Livingston as family.

"You shouldn't do something like this to me, even if you have feelings for Miss Livingston and feel jealous of me."

His words caused a commotion among our colleagues.

"What? He has feelings for Ms. Livingston? How did Ryan find out about it?"

"Hunter must have gotten caught harassing Ms. Livingston in private."

"Why would he do something so shameless when Ryan and Ms. Livingston are perfectly happy as a couple?"

"He must have stolen Ryan's proposal because Ms. Livingston didn't reciprocate his feelings, and he wanted to force her to give him a promotion."

Everyone was attacking me for becoming the third party and started speculating the worst about me. I stood right in the middle of everyone, like a criminal waiting to be sentenced. I clenched my teeth and looked at Erica.

"Ms. Livingston." My fingers dug into my palms. "What exactly is our relationship?"

Erica looked into my eyes, and hesitation flashed in hers. In the end, she chose to look away. "I'm your boss, and you're my employee. A professionally unethical employee who plagiarized another colleague's work and refuses to admit it."

I released my fists as my heart sank at her words.

"All right. Give the credit to whoever wants it. It's all useless garbage anyway."

I looked up and smiled at everyone around me and turned to leave.

"Hunter!"

Erica suddenly felt unsettled as she noticed a look in my eyes. She was reminded of the time I told her I wanted to break up and resign, but she quickly dismissed the thought because she was confident that it was not possible.

She thought I was just putting on a show to force her to prioritize me at work and in our relationship. She did not believe I would give up on her so easily, and Erica was convinced of it.

However, three days had passed, and I had not texted her. Neither had I returned to the office. That was when she started to feel anxious.

"I need your help to decorate my house. I'm having dinner with someone important tonight."

In a rare moment, Erica got her best friends to help her decorate the house for a candlelight dinner. She even bought a gift, planning to swallow her pride and try to win me back, but when she opened the door, Erica's face turned pale.

All the gifts she had bought me over the past three years had been stuffed into a garbage bag and placed nicely in the middle of the living room.

"What the hell is this?"

"Ms. Livingston, is this the address you want me to deliver the flowers to?"

Erica was still in shock when her phone rang.

"No one picked up when I called. The neighbors say that the person staying here has resigned and moved to another country."

"What did you say?!"