Chapter 2

Sophia's POV

I looked at him in disbelief. "What am I doing? You just announced your engagement to my assistant!"

"Lower your voice," he ordered, his tone cold and controlled. "You're making a scene."

"A scene?" My voice trembled. "Three years, Alexander. Three years of promises, of 'just wait a little longer, Sophia.' And all this time you were cheating on me with Victoria?"

He adjusted his tie, impassive. "Don't be dramatic. We never defined our relationship as exclusive."

The cruelty of his words hit me like a slap. "You said you loved me."

"And you believed that?" A cold smile curved his lips. "Sophia, you're too smart to be so naive. What we had was convenient, nothing more."

"Convenient?" I repeated, feeling the tears I had held back finally overflow. "I gave you everything. My heart, my trust, my..."

"And I appreciated it," he interrupted, checking his watch as if the conversation bored him. "But Victoria is the woman I need by my side. She comes from a good family, understands my world, shares my ambitions."

"And I don't?" I asked, hating how pathetic I sounded.

Alexander sighed, as if explaining something obvious to a child. "You're a great professional, Sophia. One of the best I've ever hired. But as the wife of a Reed? You really thought I would marry someone like you?"

Each word was a stab. "Someone like me?"

"No family, no connections, no refinement." He looked me up and down. "You were a pleasant distraction, but Victoria was always the obvious choice."

The elevator reached the ground floor, the doors opening to the hotel's brightly lit lobby. Alexander adjusted his shirt cuffs, preparing to leave.

"Oh, and about your position," he added, as if it were an unimportant detail. "Victoria will assume the role of Vice President starting Monday. You will remain as Director, reporting directly to her."

"You can't do that," I protested, indignation momentarily overcoming the pain. "I built that department from scratch!"

"I can and I already have," he replied coldly. "Unless, of course, you prefer to resign. But that would mean paying the severance penalty in your contract, which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivalent to a year's salary. Do you have that kind of money, Sophia?"

He knew I didn't. He knew I had invested all my savings in the small apartment I had recently bought, fulfilling the dream of finally having a place to call my own.

"I thought not," he continued in the face of my silence. "So I suggest you dry those tears, go back to the party, and smile. After all, you still work for me."

With those words, he stepped out of the elevator, leaving me alone with the shattered pieces of my broken heart.

I didn't go back to the party. I couldn't fake a smile while my world was falling apart. Instead, I walked the streets of New York for hours, letting the light rain that began to fall mix with my tears.

How could I have been so blind? So stupid? Alexander never loved me. I was just a temporary amusement, a toy he discarded when he found something better. And now I would have to keep working for him, seeing him every day with Victoria, knowing I had been traded, replaced, discarded.

When I finally got home, soaked and exhausted, I did the only thing I could do. I called Emma, let her come comfort me, and cried until I had no tears left.

But as the sun rose over the New York skyline, I made a promise to myself: those would be the last tears I would ever shed for Alexander Reed. Somehow, I would survive this. I would have to survive.

Monday came too quickly. I spent the entire weekend alternating between crying fits and moments of absolute rage. Emma stayed with me the whole time, bringing ice cream, cheap wine, and creative curses to describe Alexander and Victoria.

"You don't have to go," Emma insisted as she watched me apply extra makeup to hide my puffy eyes. "Send an email saying you're sick. Give yourself a few days to process all this."

I shook my head, applying another layer of concealer under my eyes. "And give them the satisfaction of knowing they affected me? Never."

"Sophia..." Emma sighed, sitting on the edge of my bed. "No one would expect you to be okay after what happened."

"I do," I replied firmly. "I worked too hard to get where I am. I won't let Alexander Reed destroy my career along with my heart."

But even as I said these brave words, my stomach twisted into knots. How would I face the looks, the whispers, the humiliation? Everyone in the company would know by now. Not about my relationship with Alexander we had been too discreet for that but they would know that my assistant had been promoted above me and was engaged to the CEO.

"At least promise me you'll call if things become unbearable," Emma pleaded, squeezing my hand. "I can invent an emergency and get you out of there."

I smiled weakly, grateful to have at least one true person in my life. "I promise."

The Reed Group occupied the top twenty floors of a towering skyscraper in the heart of Manhattan. Normally, I felt a surge of pride entering the marble lobby, greeting the security guards by name, and riding up to the 48th floor, where the marketing department I had built from scratch was located.

Today, every step was an effort. Every greeting, a mask I had to maintain. Every second in the elevator, torture as I imagined what awaited me.

The elevator doors opened on the 48th floor, and I immediately noticed something was different. The usual Monday morning buzz had been replaced by a tense silence. All eyes turned to me as I entered, followed by forced smiles and artificially cheerful greetings.

"Good morning, Miss Morgan!"

"How was your weekend, Miss Morgan?"

"I love your blazer, Miss Morgan!"

I forced a smile and headed toward my office, feeling the weight of their stares on my back. They knew. Everyone knew.

I stopped abruptly when I reached my office door. The name on the plaque had been changed. Where it once read "Sophia Morgan Marketing Director," it now said "Victoria Pierce Vice President of Marketing."

I felt the blood drain from my face. They had already changed the plaque. They hadn't even waited for me to arrive.

"Ah, Sophia! So glad you're here."

Victoria's syrupy voice made me turn. There she was, radiant in a red Chanel suit, the enormous diamond on her ring finger sparkling under the office's fluorescent lights. Her smile was wide, but her eyes remained as cold as ever.