ChimeZ
At our company's tenth-anniversary party, my four childhood friends, who were also my business partners, slid a contract in front of me.
"There's a serious PR crisis in Dayaka, and we need the whole team out there.
"Pull this off, and we'll own this industry.
"Cora, you've always been decisive. You're not going to back out just because there might be fighting, right?"
Jared Blake wore his usual confident smile. Standing behind him was Faye Sterling, the illegitimate daughter the Sterling family had only recently brought home.
I signed it right in front of them.
As everyone cheered, Jared made me a promise.
"Cora, once this is over and we're back, we'll get married."
Later, I pushed open the conference room door. The projector was still hooked up to Jared's laptop, and on the screen was a group chat they'd forgotten to close.
"Dayaka's settled?"
"Done. One empty promise was all it took to get her to that hellhole. Now Faye can stay in Nova City and take over as senior partner, fair and square."
"Jared's taking the biggest hit, though. He has to keep playing fiancé to that control freak."
I stood in front of the screen, holding my files.
Behind me, the door opened, and I heard the four of them laughing and talking as they crowded around their little princess.
I turned around. The moment our eyes met, every smile in the room froze.