Her Pain, His Ultimate Regret

My team lead looked at my termination letter, unable to meet my eyes. He said it came from the top, nothing he could do. I was the scapegoat for a supposed error, fired from the company because Chloe Davis, Nathan Hayes' s high school sweetheart and co-founder, was back.

Suddenly, I saw Nathan get out of his car, holding the door for Chloe with a tenderness he hadn't shown me in ages. Our eyes met, a flicker of something in his expression before it was gone, and he walked right past me without a word, leaving a sharp pain in my chest. I hailed a cab and went to his penthouse, the place I called home, for now. I cooked his favorite meal, sent him a picture, and waited, but he never replied.

Days passed. Nathan didn't contact me. I'd been to the hospital three times, my doctor pressing for treatment options, but I kept them hidden. He finally came home, his tension easing when I told him I just had a cold. He pulled my hand to his face, a familiar, intimate gesture, reminding me how easily I mistook habit for affection.

After a night of desperate passion, he whispered, "Ava, you're not mad I fired you, are you?" I wasn't. Three years ago, he paid off my mother's gambling debts, turning me into his "kept woman." I was dutiful, obedient, supportive, asking for nothing. He called me his "beautiful bird in a golden cage," the one who could never leave him.

Then, Chloe's best friend, Brenda Smith, confronted me, throwing my desperate texts to Nathan in my face. "You're a pathetic homewrecker," she sneered, slapping me hard across the cheek. I ended up in the hospital with a concussion. Nathan came back, but his main concern was Chloe's reputation. "Ava, Chloe is different from you to me," he said, touching my bruised cheek. "Just be good, okay?"

The pain was suffocating. I didn't understand how he could be so cruelly indifferent. I closed my eyes, and a single tear escaped. He didn't wipe it away. Our three years together meant nothing. It was all a ghost compared to his "white knight."

"Let's break up, Nathan." His jaw tightened. "Ava, break up? Haven't you forgotten our agreement? Unless one of us dies, I am the one who decides when we part ways." I finally understood. To be free, I had to die for him to let me go.

My team lead looked at the termination letter on his desk, then at me, and couldn't meet my eyes.

"Ava, this came from the top. There was nothing I could do."

The official reason was a supposed error in a recent case, a mistake that required the entire legal department to take the fall.

And I was the scapegoat.

Everyone in the company knew about me and Nathan Hayes. I was his unofficial girlfriend, the woman who lived in his penthouse and organized his life.

No one here would dare fire me.

If anyone had the nerve, it was Nathan himself.

Chloe Davis was back. His high school sweetheart, his company' s co-founder, the woman he always called his savior. Her return meant my departure. I understood. He was giving his one true love a sense of security.

But after I was gone, I heard Nathan' s perfect world started to fall apart.

My lead kept apologizing, his voice low. "They said it was your mistake, so you had to be the one to go."

I looked at him, a man I' d worked with for three years, and gave him a small, reassuring nod. It wasn't his fault. He was just the messenger.

I knew who sent the message.

My dismissal was abrupt, a sudden shock to everyone on my team. They watched in silence as I started to clear my desk, their faces a mixture of pity and fear. They felt bad for me, but they were also terrified for their own jobs. If Nathan could discard me so easily, what chance did they have?

I didn't feel anger, not yet. Just a hollow space opening in my chest and, strangely, a sense of relief.

It was finally over.

I packed my personal belongings into a small cardboard box. A mug, a few books, a framed photo of a beach at sunset. Simple things.

My desk was by the window. A year ago, Nathan had it moved here himself.

"This way, I can see you whenever I look out my office window," he had said, his voice warm as he kissed my forehead.

I glanced up at his office now. The blinds were shut tight.

I picked up my box and walked out of the office without a second thought. I didn't look back at my 'colleagues' or the place I had dedicated three years of my life to. It wasn't my life anymore.

As I stepped out of the building and onto the curb, a sleek black luxury car pulled up. Nathan' s car.

The driver' s door opened, but it was Nathan who got out. He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. He held it for Chloe Davis, his hand hovering protectively over her head as she stepped out, a gesture so tender it made my stomach clench.

Chloe, the beautiful socialite, Nathan' s first love. His white knight.

She smiled up at him, a dazzling, confident smile, and linked her arm through his. Nathan gazed down at her, his eyes filled with a doting look I hadn't seen in a very long time.