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“Okay,” was his response, then he turned to leave.
“I'll be going out too,” Shawn said. “I'm sure you need time to process all of this.”
“Thank you Shawn,” I whispered.
To think an ally would come from the unlikeliest of places. As Bruce stepped out of the office, he took along him a piece of my heart. I couldn't even sleep that day. If I had only known, I would have remained the alpha. There was no use showing vulnerability to any man.
Chapter twenty-two
The Price of Greed
Bruce
I did exactly as Tabitha had instructed me. The same members of the board were surprised that I had voted them out. They kept trying to remind me of the plan the organization had made, but I couldn't care less. After they were sacked, I returned power to Tabitha.
She didn't announce what had happened to any of the staff. But as most of them had watched me pack my things, they knew something had gone down. It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life – and I had had a lot of humiliating moments. It was time I realized that the one you love out of greed is worth nothing.
“I expected better from you,” Alex said as he stood by my office door with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
“I expected better for myself, but I guess reality is disappointing for both of us,” I said. “I'm really sorry about everything I have put you and Tabitha through. But apologies have nowhere to go to right now.”
“I know you might have had your reasons at first, but I believed you when you said that you had fallen in love with her for real,” he said. “I'm not trying to make you feel any better about yourself. What you did was and still is awful. I'm just glad you didn't act on it earlier.”
“I'm also glad that I didn't,” I said.
After I was done clearing my desk, I made my way to her office. I knocked on the door, and she allowed me to enter. In my hand was the resignation letter she made me write.
“Place it over there.” She pointed at one corner of her table without lifting her eyes to look at me. “You can leave once you're done.”
I opened my mouth, and no words would come out. I placed the letter as she had commanded and turned to leave. I didn't even feel her eyes on my back.
This sucks.
As I boarded the flight back to Maryland, I felt that my heart was still in Richmond. Before I got on the plane, I remembered when she had accompanied me to the airport, and I had kissed her goodbye. I remembered how she wanted to follow me… wanting more kisses than the ones I had given her but refused to admit it.
I missed her so badly.
****
When I arrived in Maryland, I couldn't go home. I headed straight for the hospital. Even while there, her memories continued to haunt me. She had spent her time volunteering with me, after all. The swing where she sat and cried brought back the image, and this time it hurt a lot to remember.
“Is everything alright? You look like you just had the world stripped away from your hands,” Mark noted, as he approached me with a smile.
As he got closer and noticed the look on my face, the smile on his face disappeared. “What the hell happened to you?”
“I messed up,” I answered, forcing laugh. “Anyway, how have things been? Any new developments I should be aware of? How about we go to my office and discuss them?”
“I think you should go home,” he suggested.
“What, I'm not welcome in my own hospital, either?” I frowned at him.
“No. That's not the reason at all,” he assured me. “You just don't look like you need to be at work today. Unless you want to sit down and tell me what happened.”
“There was no need hiding it anymore,” I started. “She was onto me. I was made the chairperson of her board.”
“Your story isn't making any sense,” he said as he held my hand and led me to my office. “Sit and start from the beginning.”
As I got seated, I started narrating everything that had happened. How I had met her at the party, how I had gotten the job, how I tried to gather points from my colleagues, how I fell in love with her, and how everything went downhill from there.
