Chapter 5
At 5 PM sharp, Blake stood at the cemetery gates in his black suit.
He tried to show he was serious-he even wore the cufflinks I’d given him with his black suit.
As he adjusted his sleeves, he casually glanced at his watch. 5:10 PM.
His hands paused for a second, then he looked around the cemetery grounds.
Still no sign of me.
Confused but patient, he kept waiting.
The whole time he was texting back and forth with Lila, completely forgetting he was supposed to be here to honor my mother.
Forgetting that Lila was the one who destroyed her.
He knew I was always on time.
But even though I was already thirty minutes late, it never crossed his mind that something might’ve happened to me on the way.
f the company didn’t need me so badly, Blake probably wouldn’t even bother pretending to care.
lain started falling, hitting the cemetery first since it was on the outskirts of town.
y 6 PM, thunder and lightning were crashing down.
‘hat’s when Blake finally remembered I existed.
le tried calling me, but the signal was shit and wouldn’t go through.
lake angrily hurled the memorial flowers he’d brought to the ground and fired off texts:
Ember, are you fucking with me right now?!]
I’ve been waiting here for an hour!]
You know my leg can’t get wet!]
he messages went through, but his calls still wouldn’t connect.
hey delivered, but I couldn’t see them anyway-I’d already snapped that SIM card in half.
There was still thirty bucks of credit left on it though, so the system showed the messages as received.
Blake fell apart after just one hour? What about all the years I’d been with him-how many hours did I wait?
Hour after hour, too many to count.
Blake wasn’t a patient guy. At least not with me.
After his little tantrum, he stomped through the rain to the parking lot.
Once he got somewhere with decent signal, Blake immediately tried calling me. All the angry words he’d built up got cut off by the automated
message:
“Sorry, the number you have dialed cannot be reached…”
First time I’d ever ignored his calls.
Still no concern on his end. Instead, he figured this was just me being jealous and trying to get his attention.
If you really love someone and can’t reach them, your first reaction shouldn’t be anger-it should be panic, right?
Blake yanked his tie loose violently.
He slammed his fists against the steering wheel in frustration, then gunned it toward the office.
He had this gut feeling I’d be there, in that office.
When he pushed open the door, Lila’s signature perfume hit him.
She saw Blake soaking wet and rushed over with a blanket from the desk her eyes full of concern.
“Blake, what happened to you? Sit down, let me dry you off.”
Blake dodged the blanket and exploded: “Didn’t I tell you to stay out of her office?!”
“Did you think my warning was a joke?!”
Lila looked absolutely devastated. Blake had already kicked her out once and slapped her in front of everyone. The whole company had seen her humiliated.
‘Why are you yelling at me?”
‘Ember quit! The office is empty now-why can’t I use it?!”
‘Blake Ashford, how many times have you treated me like this??”
‘You never used to be like this!”
The word “quit” hit him like a punch to the gut.
3lake’s vision went dark and he swayed on his feet.
He tried to pull himself together, but Lila’s crying was giving him a splitting headache.
‘Shut up!”
His sharp tone made Lila clamp her mouth shut immediately.
she’d been so pissed off that she’d called him by his first name instead of playing the sweet little sister act.
3ut Blake didn’t seem to care about her feelings at all.
Remembering she still needed the company’s support, Lila softened her tone.
‘Blake, what’s wrong? You can talk to me about anything.”
Blake ignored her and called the HR manager over.
“Did you approve Ember’s resignation?”
“No sir, I didn’t! Mr. Ashford.”
Seeing the HR manager’s terrified expression just made Blake more irritated.
A few coworkers nearby spoke up:
“Director Sterling’s got the skills and the experience. If she wants to leave, why would she need approval?”
“Exactly! This company basically runs on her work. She never even signed a proper employment contract-the resignation thing is just a formality”
The employees’ words made Blake remember the early days of the company.
“Ember, what’s mine is yours. Why do we need some employment contract?”
That’s how I ended up working for years with a title but no real authority. Without official documentation, I couldn’t get much done.
But I only needed to handle R&D anyway, and Blake eventually sorted out that mess.
Turns out it became the perfect tool for my clean exit.
No legal contracts tying me down-I could leave whenever I wanted.
