Chapter 2

I believed that reason, but I couldn't accept the way her eyes grew softer and softer whenever she looked at Logan.

From then on, I started pulling away from her.

I threw all my energy into work. Unless it was strictly business, I never reached out to her first.

On a weekend, she texted to ask if I wanted to go horseback riding at the stables. I replied: "Can't. Working on next quarter's plan."

One night she asked me to grab a late-night bite with her, the way she always did. I replied: "Ms. Sutton, it's too late. I need to get some rest."

I thought my coldness would make her stop and think, would remind her of the seven years we'd shared.

I was wrong.

Keeping everything strictly professional didn't bring her back. Instead, it handed Logan an opening.

Logan noticed the subtle shift between Ivy and me.

Counting on her favoritism, he started making my life difficult, and he didn't bother to hide it.

I was the COO, responsible for several of the company's core projects.

As the CEO's assistant, Logan regularly sat on my approval documents without signing them, or deliberately twisted my reports in front of Ivy.

"Ivy, Mr. Sinclair's proposal is twenty percent over budget. That seems really unreasonable to me. Do you think he's getting kickbacks?"

"Ivy, I went to inspect the warehouse today. Mr. Sinclair's people had a terrible attitude. They don't respect management at all."

The worst incident was last month's distributor renewal conference.

I'd pulled three all-nighters putting together a complete discount package, ready to sign with several major distributors at the conference.

When we got to the venue, Logan took it upon himself to swap out my presentation for a slide deck he'd made, a load of nonsense.

Not only were the profit margins miscalculated, he'd even misspelled the names of two of the companies.

The major distributors blew up on the spot. Convinced our company had no real interest in working with them, they walked out.

Furious beyond reason, I charged backstage, grabbed Logan by the collar, and slammed him against the wall.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind? That was the company's most important contract this year!"

Logan didn't panic in the least. He just stared back at me, taunting.

"Cole, you're nothing but a hired hand. Who are you to get in my face? My dad owns thirty percent of this company. So what if I blow a few contracts? I can afford to cover it. Can you?"

I raised my fist, about to bring it down.

"Stop!"

Ivy came hurrying backstage in her high heels.

She shoved me away, put Logan behind her, and turned to glare at me.

"Cole, have you lost your mind? Who do you think you're going to hit?"

I pointed at Logan, my hand shaking. "Ivy, ask him what he did! He switched out my presentation and drove off three of our core distributors! The company's revenue next month is going to drop by at least ten million dollars!"

"That still doesn't mean you get to hit people!"

Ivy wouldn't listen to a word of my explanation. She stood firmly in front of Logan.

"If the distributors left, we'll negotiate with them again. If you hurt Logan, can you take responsibility for that? Cole, what is going on with you lately? You're so hostile, going after Logan at every turn. Are you jealous of him?"

"Jealous of him?" I was so angry I laughed, and in that instant my heart went completely cold.

Seven years of going through life and death together, and all it got me was "Are you jealous of him?"

I looked at Ivy's face, so familiar and yet so strange, and a deep exhaustion suddenly washed over me.

After that day, I stayed silent in my office for a long time.

Hank and Big Felix, who'd been with us since the very beginning, couldn't stand watching it anymore.

After work, they dragged me to a barbecue joint near the office.

"Sinclair, are you an idiot?" Hank took a huge gulp of beer and jabbed a finger at me, exasperated that I wouldn't help myself.

"You've been with Ms. Sutton for seven years. Who in the whole company doesn't know how you feel about her? You're just too quiet. You never say anything!"

Big Felix backed him up. "Exactly! Who the hell does that Logan think he is? Other than being born into the right family, how does he measure up to you? Lily in finance told me that even though Ms. Sutton protects him, nothing's actually happened between them. They're not really together."

"Sinclair, take some advice from a friend." Hank clapped me on the shoulder, his tone turning serious.

"The pre-IPO celebration gala is coming up. Get ready, and at the gala, just lay it all out and tell her how you feel. Ride the IPO high and get it done. If you keep it bottled up and that little punk beats you to her, you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

Looking at the sincerity in my two friends' eyes, my alcohol-numbed brain finally started to warm up.

They were right. Seven years.

Had I really been too reserved?

Maybe Ivy was only protecting Logan because of pressure from the investors.

Maybe she still had feelings for me and was just waiting for me to make the first move.

I took a deep breath and downed my drink in one go.

"Okay, I'll do it your way. At the gala, I'm telling her."

Over the next week, I was like a different man, my fighting spirit back in full force.

I went to the distributors one by one to apologize, and through sheer persistence I got every lost contract signed again.

I even stopped responding to Logan's provocations and put my whole heart into planning my confession.

I emptied my savings from all these years and even maxed out my credit card to buy a custom diamond ring worth $300,000.

Three hundred thousand. Exactly the amount she'd lent me back then to save my mother's life.

I also wrote her a love letter, a full three thousand words long.

In it, I recorded every little moment of our seven years together: every late night over instant ramen, every cheer after a win.

Full of joy, I believed the night of the gala would be the happiest moment of my life.

I would stand beside her as she rang the opening bell on the IPO, and then I would slip the ring onto her finger with my own hands.

But not even in my wildest dreams did I see it coming.

What I got was not the bell of happiness, but the executioner's blade.