Page 86 of All for Love

MERCEDES

Ispent the rest of the day in a fog, going through the motions of my last day working in this office. No matter how emotional the morning had gotten, I still had a job to do. Loose ends to tie up and people to say goodbye to.

Every now and then, I felt Kaden’s eyes on me. His office had a window that looked out into the office, and whenever I was in its general vicinity, I could feel the judgment and anger pouring off him.

I also felt it every time he left his office. Every time I passed him in the hall and every time our eyes met at all. I didn’t dare look over at him on purpose, though. Feeling humiliated and small was bad enough. I wasn’t going to actively seek it out.

I felt like I was the kid who stole all the cookies out of the cookie jar, and now there weren’t any cookies left for anyone else. And no one was going to bake any more cookies ever again.

Meanwhile, Kody had disappeared. I didn’t know where he’d gone, but no one had seen him since he’d marched out of his office. His car was also gone—I’d checked.

I didn’t know how much more of this I could take. Brooke had eventually left, staring stoically ahead and not sparing me so much as a glance even though she’d walked right by me.

Before all of this, I really had liked her. Now, I didn’t know so much anymore. On the one hand, I wanted to hate her. She was acting like a bitch and a self-righteous bully at that. But on the other hand, she was in a serious relationship with Kaden.

They’d been through a lot to get here and I understood her need to fiercely protect him. Hell, my own need to protect Kody fiercely was why I felt like this about her right now. Maybe one day, she and I could work it out, but for now, we were on opposite sides of this.

They’d made that abundantly clear, and without Kody here, I felt like they were still ganging up on me. She might’ve left, but this was Wagner territory. Without my Wagner, it felt like I didn’t belong here. Like I was an intruder.

Desperate for some relief from the tension, I went to the bathroom, locked myself in a stall, and texted Kody away from any prying eyes.

Me: When are you coming back? Are you coming back? Being alone with Kaden is killing me and I still have a few hours of work left.

I hit send, but when he hadn’t read the message several minutes later, I tried calling. I really couldn’t take it anymore, and when he didn’t answer, tears welled. This was horrible, absolutely awful, and while part of me wanted to be pissed at him for walking out, I was still too proud of him to be angry.

Kody was wrestling with a lot more than just us when it came to his family. Walking out instead of squaring off with his brother would’ve been much harder for him than taking a few punches. Since I knew how he was feeling about his place in his family right now, I also knew that he would’ve considered telling his brother to take their family and shove it where the sun didn’t shine.

I didn’t think Kaden realized how bent out of shape Kody was about it all. If he had, maybe he would’ve thought twice about saying everything he had.

It was done now, but even though I wondered if I should talk to Kaden about it, I dismissed the idea immediately. Again, it wasn’t my place. Perhaps Brooke was comfortable inserting herself between them, but I sure wasn’t.

They literally had the same face. As far as I was concerned, there was no way that anyone should ever threaten that bond. Let alone try to insert themselves into it.

The longer I sat in the bathroom, staring at my phone and the ticks that still hadn’t turned blue, the more I realized I couldn’t stomach being here anymore. Not like this.

After a few more minutes, I tried going back to work, but realistically, the last few things I had to do could be done remotely. Being here was unnecessary torture and I’d had more than my fair share of that today.

I busted my butt to finish the things I couldn’t do remotely—like packing up my personal possessions and returning my access cards and such—and then I left. Unceremoniously and wishing I could’ve had a proper ending to my work at Wagner Industries.

In the time I’d been here, I’d made friends. I’d done some good for the company, and back when I’d started, I’d been hoping that I would leave on a better footing with the Wagners. In the end, Kody and I were solid now, but with them as a family, I was much worse off than before.

Dragging my wheeled suitcase with all my organizational tools to the elevator, I hit the down button and then turned to take one last look around. The odds were that I’d come here again someday, that I’d see this office again, and that I might even spend some more time here, but for now, this was goodbye.

With a heavy heart and wet eyes, I climbed into the elevator when it arrived and then jabbed the button to close the doors before anyone joined me. Thankfully, this suitcase and I had done a few trips around here. No one would automatically know that I wouldn’t be back on Monday regardless of the fact that I had it with me.

On my way down, a few people got in and out of the elevator, but thankfully, none of them were people I’d ever spent much time with.

In a building that housed as many employees as this one, it was unlikely that I’d come across anyone that would care that I was leaving. In the few minutes it took to reach garage level, the odds thankfully remained in my favor.

As sad as I was about not having said goodbye to anyone, I was also thankful and relieved when I made it to my car without incident. A security guard let me out since I no longer had my own access card, but he was stone faced and clearly didn’t know or care who I was.

And just like that, I was gone from Wagner Industries and no one even knew. It sucked. It was also for the best, but I hated disappearing like a thief in the night.

Needing to talk to Kody at least to tell him that I’d left and why, I tried calling him again. “Come on, come on, come on.”

Despite my muttered pleas, he still wasn’t answering. “Hi, you’ve reached Kody Wag—”

I slammed my fist against the steering wheel and hit the button to end the call. Damn it. Where are you?