Couldn't help waiting...
Just couldn't help hoping that Dmitry would tell her everything would be alright.
Because Dmitry never lied, and so if he told her that, surely it would be so.
And so she waited.
And waited.
But when no words came, she slowly lifted her head, and it was only then Tahey realized...
He was gone.
He had left her.
Again.
She jerked to her feet, confusion and hurt warring inside of her. Where had he gone? Why had he left? Didn't he know - how could he possibly not know...
Tahey heard footsteps, and she swung around, hope flaring inside of her heart. Maybe it was just like before, she thought feverishly, and she was overreacting.
But it wasn't like before.
And she was not overreacting.
Because the man in front of her was not Dmitry.
It was security, and he had been asked by Mr. Adrianov to inform Tahey that her services were no longer required. She was terminated from her job, effective immediately, and she was to clear the premises within an hour.Chapter FourteenHe left me. The words seemed to take a life of its own, traitorously slipping under the cracks until they were able to imprint themselves on my mind. And after that, there was no escaping them.
He left me.
My hands shook. I didn't have much on my desk, just my phone, a couple of pens and notebooks, but God, my hands were shaking so bad that it seemed to take forever to get everything in my bag.
He left me.
The words nearly had me gasping out loud, and I quickly dragged deep gulps of oxygen back into my lungs. I can't cry. I glared down at my empty desk. One. Two. Three. I kept counting.
Just kept counting until I realized it was pointless.
Because it was over.
He left me.
I was already crying.
Tears so big and ugly that they made such embarrassing noise as they splashed against the blank surface of my desk. So much noise that in the corner of my eye, I saw the security guy awkwardly avert his gaze from me, as if finding the sight of me too miserable to bear.
Can't say I blame him.
I was pathetic.
Should've known better than to trust someone who had hurt me over and over again without explaining why.
Should've known better than to love a man like Dmitry Adrianov.
But because I didn't know better—-
He left me.
I clumsily brushed the tears away with the back of my hand and turned to the security guy. "My things..." God. Just thinking about what I had to say already made me feel so damn small. "I have t-things in the apartment..." The security guy didn't seem to have a clue, and so I was forced to spell it out. "Mr. Adrianov..."
I saw him wince the moment he realized who I was talking about, and the poor guy could barely look at me now. Understandable. With those words, I might as well have carved the truth on my face.
Impoverished and impressionable secretary falls for billionaire boss, thinking if he took her to bed, it meant he loved her.
But she knew better now.
I knew better now.
And God, I just wanted to get this over with. Just be done with the whole thing so I could finally remember how it was not to cry again.
Because the tears?
They hadn't stopped falling.
Just kept falling like they had always been falling, only I never saw them, never felt them until my whole world came crashing.
"I'm sorry, miss." The security guy sounded so miserable it was obvious he was wishing himself a million miles away. "I wasn't given any information about that. All I was told was I had to get rid—-" He stopped right away, but of course it was too late. Even so, his gaze darted towards me, as if hoping I had become deaf in the past ten seconds.
But I hadn't.
I had heard him loud and clear.
And I could never unhear it, no matter how hard we both wished I could.
"I'm sorry, miss." Poor man. He hadn't asked for any of this. He had come to work, thinking he was paid to do security, and yet all of a sudden, he had been thrust into the unwanted position of breaking my heart.
I forced myself to smile. "It's fine. I'm sure someone will contact me about it."
The man nodded eagerly. "Yes, I'm sure."
"Then I guess that's it." I took a step forward, and the man practically tripped on his own feet in his haste to get to the door. I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it. He just wanted to be done with this out-of-his-job-description-task.
But God.
Seeing him in such a hurry to make me leave—-
What was it with this day that everyone wanted to get rid of me?
Was it really bad, having someone like me around?
I wished I had the answers. But all I had was pain.
He left me.
The words played endlessly in my mind as I stepped inside the elevator.