Chapter 5

The restroom stall door clicked shut behind me, plunging me into a small, sterile box. I leaned against the cold partition, my breath coming in ragged gasps. The sobs I had been holding back erupted, tearing through my chest, raw and uncontrolled. My shoulders shook, my body wracked with a grief that felt too big for me to contain. It was a primal wail, an expression of every crushed hope, every unspoken hurt, every agonizing betrayal. Eight years. Eight years of devotion, of silent sacrifice, of dimming my own light. And for what? To be discarded, dismissed, and now, publicly humiliated.

My brother was gone, my career was a joke, and the man I loved was sleeping with his assistant. The weight of it all was suffocating.

"I can't... I can't take this anymore," I whispered, the words choked and broken. "I can't."

A sudden burst of voices from outside the stall cut through my despair. Footsteps approached, then stopped just outside. Two women from the office. I recognized their voices. Sarah from accounting and... Daniella. My breath caught in my throat. I pressed myself against the cold wall, heart hammering, every nerve ending screaming.

"Did you hear?" Sarah's voice was hushed, excited. "Mr. Davies is leaving. Going to start his own consulting firm. And everyone thought Kinsley would get his position. I mean, she's practically been running the department for years."

Daniella's laugh was sharp, brittle, cutting through the air like glass. "Kinsley? Please. That ungrateful little gold-digger? Mr. House would never let her anywhere near a senior management position. A marketing specialist is all she's good for. And barely that, if you ask me."

My blood ran cold. Gold-digger? Ungrateful? I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.

"But... she's been with him for so long," Sarah continued, a note of confusion in her voice. "I heard he even promised her marriage if she proved herself in the company."

Daniella scoffed. "Marriage? To Kinsley? Don't be naive, Sarah. Mr. House has standards. And besides, I made sure she never 'proved' herself. Every single one of her promotion applications? Rejected. Her performance reviews? 'Adequate.' Her bonuses? Conveniently 'miscalculated' and redirected." Her voice was laced with a chilling pride. "It wasn't hard. A few strokes of a pen, a couple of strategically placed emails. She was so busy being his 'secret girlfriend' she never noticed her paychecks shrinking, or her career stalling."

The words hit me like a barrage of physical blows. My head reeled, a sickening wave of clarity washing over me. The suppressed wages, the denied promotions, the miniscule bonuses. It wasn't incompetence. It wasn't my fault. It was her. It was all Daniella. For eight years, she had systematically sabotaged my career, my financial independence, my future. She had stolen my salary, my promotions, my self-worth.

And the loan for Liam? The fifty thousand dollars that would have brought my brother home without Jaren's intervention? She had blocked that too. Purposefully. Maliciously. She had watched me drown in grief and desperation, knowing full well I was struggling, and she had laughed. The sheer malevolence of it made my stomach churn, a burning hatred rising in my throat. My brother's body had been held hostage because of her petty jealousy, her calculated cruelty.

A guttural growl escaped my lips. I pushed open the stall door, my eyes blazing, my body trembling with a fury so potent it tasted like battery acid. Daniella and Sarah jumped, startled, their faces draining of color as they saw me.

"You!" I hissed, my voice barely a whisper, but laced with enough venom to make them flinch. My gaze locked on Daniella, her smug expression now crumbling into fear. "You did this? You sabotaged me? For eight years?"

Daniella tried to recover, her lips twisting into a sneer. "Kinsley, don't be dramatic. I don't know what you're talking about."

My hand flew out before I even registered the thought. SLAP! The sound cracked like a whip in the silent restroom, echoing off the tiled walls. Daniella's head snapped back, a bright red mark blooming on her pale cheek. Her eyes, wide with shock, instantly filled with a cold, hard fury.

But before she could retaliate, she suddenly dropped to her knees, clutching her cheek, her body swaying precariously. "Oh, Kinsley, please! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it! Please, forgive me, I was just... I was jealous!" Her voice was a theatrical sob, her eyes darting nervously towards the door.

I blinked, momentarily stunned by her sudden, dramatic reversal. The calculated performance. She was good. Too good.

Just then, a cold, furious voice sliced through the air. "Kinsley! What the hell is going on here?!"

Callen. He stood in the doorway, his face a thundercloud, his eyes narrowed into furious slits. Daniella immediately crumpled further, burying her face in her hands, her sobs escalating.

"Callen!" she wailed, her voice muffled but deliberately loud. "She... she just attacked me! I-I can't believe this! I was just trying to do my job, trying to keep her on track, and she just... she just exploded!"

Callen rushed to her side, his arm instinctively wrapping around her. He pulled her up, cradling her head against his shoulder. His gaze, when it met mine, was filled with a chilling disgust. "Kinsley, I demand you apologize. Immediately." He touched Daniella's cheek, his thumb gently stroking the red mark left by my hand. "Are you alright, Daniella? What happened?"

Daniella clutched his arm, her body trembling dramatically. "I'm so sorry, Mr. House. I just... I tried to explain to Kinsley that her promotion wasn't possible right now, given her performance metrics and some... irregularities with her bonus structure, and she just flew into a rage. She said I was trying to hold her back, that I was jealous of her relationship with you. She accused me of everything! It's not fair! I'm just trying to protect the company's best interests, and yours!" She burrowed deeper into his embrace, her voice thick with feigned distress. "I know I'm just your assistant, but I care about your company, about you. I can't stand to see her undermining your authority, bullying people in the workplace like this. She' s been nothing but trouble, Mr. House. Always complaining, always trying to stir up drama. I had to reject her advancement, I had no choice!"

Callen's face darkened further, his jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscle twitch. He stroked Daniella's hair, a gesture of comfort that made my stomach churn. Then he turned his furious gaze on me.

"Is this true, Kinsley?" he demanded, his voice dangerously low. "Are you really so unprofessional? So entitled? Undermining my assistant, attacking her? Bullying her because you didn't get your way? I told you, Daniella is invaluable to me. She handles everything. And you, Kinsley, are proving to be a liability. You need to understand your place. You are not going to be promoted. Not now, not ever. You don't have the temperament, the drive, or frankly, the social acumen to lead. You're an employee, Kinsley. A secret, undervalued employee. That's all you are. And if you can't behave, then you can leave."

My heart, already shattered, felt like it was being crushed into dust. Temperament. Drive. Social acumen. The words were a bitter echo of his cruel dismissals over the years. I was nothing. A plaything. A secret. And the only thing holding me back was him, his arrogance, his blindness, and her insidious manipulation.

A hysterical laugh bubbled up from my throat, raw and painful. "Liability?" I scoffed, shaking my head. "You know what, Callen? You're right. I am a liability. A liability to your carefully constructed illusion of a life. A liability to your 'invaluable' assistant's machinations."

The words tumbled out, each one laced with years of suppressed anger and pain. "I spent eight years, Callen. Eight years believing in you, working for you, loving you. I gave you my loyalty, my youth, my dreams. And you gave me a protocol, a cold assistant, and crumbs of affection. You think I don't see what's happening? You think I'm so blind that I couldn't see how she was systematically destroying my career, stealing my bonuses, making sure I stayed exactly where I was so I wouldn't threaten her precious position next to you?"

My voice rose, fueled by a searing, righteous anger. "And my brother? My dead brother? She blocked the loan, Callen! She ensured I couldn't even bring my own flesh and blood home unless someone else paid for it! And you stand there, holding her, comforting her, while she gaslights you, gaslights me! How could you be so utterly blind? So utterly heartless?"

Callen visibly recoiled, his face paling, but before he could respond, the anger in his eyes hardened again. "You're delusional, Kinsley. And frankly, I'm tired of your drama. You're fired. Get out of my company. Get out of my life."

A cold, clear calm settled over me. Fired. The word, meant to crush me, instead felt like a liberation. He had finally said it. He had finally pushed me past the brink.

"Fired?" I chuckled, a hollow, bitter sound. "You don't need to fire me, Callen. I already quit." I reached into my bag, pulling out the resignation letter I had prepared for Mr. Davies. "Consider this my official notice." My hand trembled slightly as I held it out, but my gaze was steady, unwavering. "I'm leaving. And I'm never coming back."