Chapter 5

Before he could finish, I cut him off.

"Marcus, we're breaking up."

He froze. The words he had been about to say vanished.

When he reacted, he asked in shock, "Why?

"I don't accept this!"

Then he remembered the rumors from the office that he and Sophie were together and assumed that was what bothered me.

He immediately explained, "Don't listen to the department gossip. Sophie and I are only close because I mentored her.

"If anything were going to happen between us, would we have waited until now?"

I had heard that excuse so many times I was tired of it.

Every time, he used it to silence me.

And every time before this, I believed him. I thought their relationship was just unusually close.

But every incident after that made doubt impossible to ignore.

What happened today only gave me a chance to say what I should have said long ago.

Seeing the reluctance in his eyes, I exposed him coldly.

"Isn't it exactly what you want if I break up with you first?

"Then you can openly treat Sophie well without coming up with excuses every time.

"And you won't have to argue with me or give me the silent treatment over her anymore."

As soon as I finished, Marcus's face darkened. He stood and slapped me again.

"How many times do I have to say it? Sophie and I have nothing going on!

"Why do you never believe me? How many times do I have to repeat myself?

"After all these years together, do you have no trust in me at all?"

I looked at him coldly and said nothing.

He gritted his teeth.

"Fine. If you don't trust me, then we'll break up.

"Julia, don't regret it."

With that, he knocked over the fruit basket and slammed the door on his way out.

I looked at the oranges scattered across the floor and smiled bitterly.

He could not even remember that I was allergic to oranges. What trust was he talking about?

There was no place for me in his heart. Why should I keep torturing myself with affection he no longer deserved?

The pain in my arms reminded me that I could not let him and Sophie get away with breaking both my hands.

They had to pay.

I asked the nurse to help me dial a number.

Not long after, the board chair's assistant, Mr. Collins, pushed open the door.

After giving him a few instructions, I asked him to retrieve what I had left in my drawer.

Inside were the evidence of Sophie's design fraud and Marcus's cover-up.

Once those documents were made public, both of their careers would be over.

The executive seat Marcus had dreamed of would disappear, and he would be left with a bill large enough to crush him.

On the day the announcement was posted, I had just received approval for my resignation. Only the handover remained.

As soon as I entered the company, I heard several opportunists already congratulating Sophie.

"Congratulations, Sophie. I saw the competition entries. None of them were as good as yours. You're definitely winning this time."

"Exactly. You've really made the younger designers proud. Otherwise, who knows when any of us would ever have a chance?"

Sophie basked in the praise, flushed with triumph.

Then she glanced at me, pretending to be modest.

"My results aren't mine alone. If the director hadn't given up her slot, even someone with my ability would have been buried in the department."

The moment she saw me, she steered the conversation toward me.

With one sentence, she reignited the department's resentment, reminding everyone that I had taken every major competition and kept them from showing themselves to the board.