Chapter 4

Allie Valenzuela POV:

Kasey leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper that carried across the quiet office. "Everyone sees it, you know. The way you walk. You' re practically begging for it. It' s no wonder Ben feels sorry for you."

She straightened up, her voice rising again to a self-righteous declaration. "Honestly, someone should teach you about basic decency. You have no shame."

My mind flashed back to the countless nights I had spent in this very spot, fueled by lukewarm coffee and sheer determination, my hair a mess, my eyes burning. I' d done it for him. For the dream we supposedly shared. The dream of building something that mattered. I had poured my soul into the foundation of Innovatech, brick by painful brick. And now, this was my reward. To be publicly shamed for the fit of my dress.

Just then, Benjamin walked out of his office, his brow furrowed with annoyance. "What is going on out here? People are trying to work."

Kasey immediately burst into tears, a performance worthy of an Oscar. "Benny, she' s doing it again! Look at what she' s wearing! It' s completely inappropriate for the office. She' s trying to seduce you, in front of everyone!"

Benjamin' s gaze flickered to my dress, then back to Kasey' s tear-streaked face. I saw the conflict in his eyes, the brief struggle between reason and infatuation.

Infatuation won.

He let out a heavy sigh, the sound of a man surrendering. "Allie," he said, his voice strained. "Just... for the sake of peace. Can you please go put on a jacket or something? A different outfit, maybe?"

The world tilted on its axis. He was asking me to change my clothes. He was validating Kasey' s insane, malicious fantasy. He was sacrificing my dignity, my professional standing, on the altar of his girlfriend' s petty jealousy.

I stared at him, my face a blank canvas. I felt nothing. The pain was so deep, so absolute, that it had become numbness. A cold, hollow void where my loyalty and respect for him used to be.

"Of course, Benjamin," I said, my voice eerily calm. "Whatever you think is best for the company."

I turned and walked toward the small, private lounge where I kept a spare change of clothes, my back ramrod straight. The acid of betrayal burned in my throat.

I remembered the day we met. I was nineteen, a terrified sophomore stranded on the side of a highway with a blown tire in the middle of a torrential downpour. He was the one who stopped. A young, ambitious entrepreneur in a beat-up sedan, his eyes bright with ideas. He changed my tire, got soaked to the bone, and talked for an hour about his dream of a tech company that would change the world. He didn' t have a name for it yet, but he had the vision.

He drove me back to campus and handed me his card. "If you ever need a job, or just someone to tell you your crazy ideas aren' t so crazy, call me."

Two years later, armed with my Stanford MBA, I didn' t call the consulting firms or investment banks that were clamoring for me. I called him. I found him in that dusty garage, on the verge of giving up. I chose him. I chose this.

I helped him name it Innovatech. I wrote the business plan that secured our first round of funding. I worked for a salary that was a fraction of my market worth because I believed in him. We were partners. We were a team.

There were late nights fueled by cheap pizza where he' d look at me across a mountain of paperwork and say, "Allie, when we make it big, when this is all worth it, I' m going to buy you an island. We' ll run the company from there."

I never took it seriously. It was just the rambling of an overtired dreamer. I was here for the challenge, for the satisfaction of building something from scratch. I wasn't here for him, not in that way.

But I had believed in the 'we' .

Now, standing in the cold silence of the lounge, I looked at my reflection in the dark window. The person staring back was a stranger. A fool.

The Benjamin I remembered, the kind, brilliant man who had stopped for a girl in the rain, would never have asked me to change my clothes to appease a jealous child. That man was gone. Maybe he never really existed at all.

The trust I had placed in him, a trust so absolute it had shocked my own father, was eroding. It was turning to dust, slipping through my fingers like sand.

I slowly buttoned up a loose, shapeless black cardigan over my dress. The fabric felt like a shroud. I was mourning the death of a partnership.

And I was finally, finally starting to re-evaluate what, and who, I was fighting for.

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