All Chapters of I Was Never Her First Choice: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

Owen's POVBy the time I got home, it was the middle of the night. The rain had soaked me through, over and over, until there wasn't a dry thread on me.Claire White hadn't left a single light on in the living room.Her study door stood half open. I could hear her patiently coaching someone."If the project's too much, I'll have a manager walk you through it. It's fine."And if you'd rather move to another position, just tell me.""I don't know. That wouldn't look…" Adrian's voice came from her laptop, hesitant and embarrassed."Don't worry about it," Claire cut in gently. "With me here, no one's going to say a word."I stood outside the door. The cold sank deeper.In five years at Aldridge Group, I'd asked for a promotion more times than I could count.She'd shut me down every time."We can't give people a reason to talk. You're a grown man. Is riding my coattails really all you think about?"I could never make sense of it. I'd led teams. My performance ranked first or sec

When I got to work the next morning, excited voices spilled out of the break room."Adrian landed that deal yesterday, and Claire promoted him today. Must be nice.""Come on. Haven't you seen their matching pictures? It's obvious.""There's more to it than that. I saw his posts. They used to date. Looks like they're back together."I stopped in the hallway, my fists tightening.A few years ago, Claire would never have allowed people to talk like that.Three years earlier, I'd worried that all the drinking at business dinners was hurting her stomach. I made her a gentle lunch at home and brought it to her office.She dumped it into the dog bowl in front of everyone."Haven't you heard people talking about us?" she shouted. "Stop doing stupid things that give them the wrong idea."She docked my bonus and banned me from her office.Today, I opened her door anyway.I wanted to know what, exactly, was wrong with me.Claire kept working through the documents on her desk. She didn

"This is final. We're over."Claire stared at the message.She couldn't understand what had gotten into Owen. First he kept threatening to break up. Now he'd quit a job he'd spent five years building."When did this happen? Why wasn't I told?"Diane looked at her blankly."He wasn't management. He wanted to leave, so I processed it. You said resignations at his level didn't need to come to you."Something tightened in Claire's chest.She picked up his resignation letter and looked at the date. It was the night he'd come home in the rain.He'd been soaked, shivering where he stood.But Adrian had called about the woman from his blind date who wouldn't leave him alone…Claire tightened her grip on the paper.Had Owen really quit over something that small?Before she could make sense of it, Adrian came in."Maybe he's still angry with us."I did make a scene today. Crying in front of everyone like that. I must have embarrassed him."Claire looked at his miserable face and s

Owen's POVWhen I landed in London, my former boss, Evelyn Grant, was waiting at the airport herself.From the passenger seat, I watched the city pass outside the window. Being back felt unreal.I should have stayed here years ago, kept my department-manager job, and built a life.Instead, I'd insisted on going back to Chicago to help Claire build her company.Evelyn had hated to see me go."A relationship is no guarantee of a future," she'd told me. "Are you sure you want to give up your career for her?"I'd spent all night thinking about it.Then I'd packed my suitcase anyway.I thought Claire would give me a comparable position. I thought she'd never let me down.I couldn't have been more wrong."Thank you, Evelyn," I said. I meant every word.Once I started at her company, things began looking up.Then my old work group chat started filling with messages."Owen, we were wrong about what happened. I'm sorry.""I can't believe Adrian staged the whole thing. Shows how m