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Chapter 5 The Door That Stayed Closed
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This Time, I Walk Away Chapter 9 I Chose Where to Go Next
After Neil returned home, he kept sending me new mystery boxes. The first promised an unconditional apology; the second provided a public explanation; the third committed to returning every favor he had granted others at my cost; and the fourth gave us an opportunity to begin anew. Every box had the same chance of winning: 100%. I never opened a single one. Thirty days later, the system erased the seven years of history attached to our accounts. When Neil opened the mystery-box page again, everything was gone. There were no old rewards, no punishments, and no reconciliation coupons left between us. For the first time, he had truly drawn "Better Luck Next Time." Only this time, there was no next time. … A year later, I was transferred to the company's headquarters. The company held a small welcome reception for me on my first day, and sometime during the afternoon, Neil appeared in the lobby. He had lost weight. The careless arrogance that once seemed permanently
This Time, I Walk Away Chapter 8 The Version of Me He Lost
Neil stayed in the south for another two weeks. Every day, he would wait outside my office. On some days, he brought breakfast; other days, flowers. Sometimes, he arrived empty-handed, just walking a few steps behind me as I headed to work. I never asked him to leave, but I never acknowledged him either. The calmer I became, the more restless he seemed. In the past, I would have cried, demanded answers, or clung to his sleeve until the fabric wrinkled beneath my fingers. Now, I treated him like someone whose presence had nothing to do with me. On the sixteenth night, I worked until after midnight. When I finally walked out of the building, Neil was still waiting in his car. He had fallen asleep against the seat, exhaustion written across his face, with a velvet ring box still clasped in one hand. As I approached, his phone screen lit up. A message from Shelley appeared. 'Mr. Waller, I resigned as you asked. When are you coming back?' Neil opened his eyes almost
This Time, I Walk Away Chapter 7 What I Wanted Was Never a Coupon
I moved south and started over in another city. The new company was smaller than the one I had left behind, and the pay was lower, but my office overlooked the river. When Neil finally found me, I was coming out of the convenience store beneath my office building with dinner in a paper bag. He was leaning against the side of a car, looking almost exactly as he had all those times he used to pick me up after work. His eyes dropped to the food in my hand. "That's what you're having for dinner?" I stopped several feet away from him. "How did you find me?" "You really thought moving to another city would stop me?" Neil opened the car door and took out an insulated food bag. "Get in. I brought you something to eat." "I'm not hungry." His expression tightened. "Gabriella, don't make me stand out here arguing with you." The tone was so familiar that, for a second, it felt as though nothing had changed. Neil still spoke as if showing up should have been enough to make me grat
This Time, I Walk Away Chapter 6 He Finally Came Looking
By the third day without hearing from me, Neil was still going to work as if nothing had changed. When Shelley entered his office carrying a cup of coffee, he was sitting behind his desk going through the project files I had left behind. Beside him sat a cup of warm milk, untouched and already cold. "Mr. Waller, you haven't had breakfast yet?" Neil did not look up. "Leave it and go." Shelley hesitated. "I already took the ring off. We can explain everything to the reporters too. If Gabriella's still upset, I can apologize to her myself." Neil stopped turning the page. "Where is she?" Shelley blinked. "I don't know." Only then did he lift his head. "You were always finding excuses to message her before. Now you suddenly don't know where she is?" Her face paled. "I only contacted Gabriella about work." "Really?" Neil picked up his phone and tossed it onto the desk in front of her. Several messages were still open on the screen. 'Mr. Waller says you've always been th
This Time, I Walk Away Chapter 5 The Door That Stayed Closed
There was no "Better Luck Next Time," no seven days of silence, and no reconciliation coupon. The mystery box contained only one result: Neil Waller permanently lost Gabriella Vasquez, and the chance of winning was 100%. The driver glanced at Neil through the rearview mirror. "Mr. Waller, where to?" Neil did not answer. He stared at the screen for several seconds before letting out a cold laugh. Then he held down the voice-message button and said, "Gabriella, are you done with this yet?" The message failed almost immediately. A gray tick appeared beside it, and the faint amusement on Neil's face disappeared. Shelley sat beside him, watching his expression carefully. "Gabriella's probably still upset. Maybe I should give the ring back to her." Neil turned toward her. His gaze fell on the old diamond sitting on Shelley's ring finger, and his brows drew together. "Take it off." Shelley froze. "But you just put it on me in front of all those reporters." "I told you to
This Time, I Walk Away Chapter 4 My Ring on Her Finger
Before the launch began, Neil pressed a cup of warm milk into my hands. "Forget about last night. Once this is over, we'll go look at wedding venues." He reached for my hand and turned the ring until the diamond sat neatly in the center of my finger. His thumb brushed over the stone my mom had left me. "Stop letting an intern get under your skin. You're the one I'm marrying." I had waited seven years to hear those words. Even after everything that had happened, I still found myself nodding. Maybe some part of me wanted to give our relationship one final chance. A few minutes later, the launch began. At the center of the stage, the host introduced Shelley's special mystery box and opened it before the audience. A moment later, the result appeared on the large screen behind him: Neil Waller's Unconditional Favor—One Time. The reporters immediately started teasing her, "Ms. Vaughn, what exactly can you ask for with that kind of prize? Could you make Mr. Waller your boyfrie
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