Chapter 5 5

Two days later.

The breakroom at Douglas Tech was a sterile environment of brushed steel and aggressive fluorescent lighting. Jocelyn stood in front of the coffee machine, staring blankly at the slow drip of the dark liquid.

She shouldn't be here. She had the money. She had the husband. She had the house.

But she also had a sense of professional duty that bordered on masochism. And Kieran still had the physical keys to the safe where the Henderson merger files were kept. She couldn't just email them. She had to retrieve them and hand them over to close the loop.

Two junior analysts walked in, laughing. They didn't see her tucked in the corner by the machine.

"Did you see Kieran's post this morning?" one asked, grabbing a water bottle. "Aspen looks like a queen. That dress cost more than my tuition."

"What about Jocelyn?" the other guy snickered. "Isn't she still his EA? That's got to be awkward."

"She's practically furniture," the first one said dismissively. "He was never going to marry her. She's just... there. Waiting."

Jocelyn gripped her mug. The ceramic bit into her palm. Furniture.

She turned to leave, needing to get out before she screamed. But the machine sputters. It hissed violently, spitting a jet of scalding steam and hot water sideways.

"Ah!" Jocelyn gasped, dropping the mug.

The hot liquid splashed over her hand. The pain was instant and searing.

The mug shattered on the floor.

The two analysts jumped, spinning around. Their faces went pale when they saw her.

"Ms. Wolfe! We didn't..."

Jocelyn ignored them. She rushed to the sink, shoving her hand under the cold tap. The skin was already turning an angry, blistering red.

Mandy, the receptionist and the only person in this building Jocelyn tolerated, rushed in. "Jocelyn! Oh my god, I heard the crash."

Mandy saw the hand and hissed in sympathy. She grabbed paper towels, wetting them. "You need to go to urgent care. That looks like a second-degree burn."

"I'm fine," Jocelyn said through gritted teeth. The water helped, but the throbbing was deep. "I need to give you something."

She pulled a crisp white envelope from her blazer pocket with her good hand.

"Give this to HR. Today."

Mandy took it. She recognized the weight of the paper. "You're quitting? Before the Gala? Kieran will flip."

"Especially before the Gala," Jocelyn said.

"Where is Jocelyn?" Kieran's voice boomed from the hallway.

Jocelyn froze. The sound of his voice triggered a physical recoil in her gut. She wasn't ready. Not yet.

She ducked into the emergency stairwell just as Kieran strode past the breakroom door.

Through the crack in the door, she saw him. He looked immaculate. Tanned, rested, wearing a suit that cost five thousand dollars. He didn't look like a man who had just destroyed someone's life.

"I... I haven't seen her, sir," she heard an intern stammer.

"Tell her to bring the merger files to the Gala tonight," Kieran barked, not breaking stride. "Personally. I don't want a courier losing them."

Jocelyn leaned back against the cold concrete wall of the stairwell. She closed her eyes.

He wanted her to deliver the files to the party where he was debuting his new fiancée. It was a power move. A final humiliation.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

It was a text from 'Gaston'.

Gaston: Dinner tonight? I know a place that isn't on the radar.

Jocelyn looked at the screen. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to hide in a dark booth with the mysterious man who signed contracts without reading them.

But she had to finish this.

Jocelyn: Busy. Work emergency.

She didn't want him to know she was still running errands for her ex. It was pathetic.

She looked at her hand. A large blister was forming across her knuckles. It throbbed in time with her heartbeat.

She pushed off the wall. She would go to the Gala. She would give him the files. And then she would never see him again.