There was a tradition in the village: if you weren't married by thirty, the Elder would arrange for you to come home and meet potential matches.

When I told Ronald Hull about it, he let out a cold laugh.

“What is your village, some kind of medieval cult?”

“Aria Whitmore, I told you I'd marry you, and I will. But pressuring me into it is a completely different thing.”

He pulled out a ring and tossed it to his assistant without a second glance.

The girl took it, her cheeks flushing pink.

“I was going to propose, actually. But since you want to play it like this, let's take some time to cool off.”

The ring I'd waited years for, and he just handed it to someone else.

For a moment, my mind went blank.

Ronald strolled out of my office, the corner of his mouth curved in a smug, victorious smile.

Eileen held the ring out to me.

I didn't take it.

“Keep it. He bought it for you anyway, didn't he?”

“Go ahead, put it on. I'm sure it fits perfectly.”

The color drained from her face.

I showed her out.

Before I closed the door, I said：“Tell your Mr. Hull that he and I are done.”

……

That evening, Ronald came home from work to find me packing.

His step faltered when he saw the two large suitcases in front of me.

“How come you didn't wait for me today?”

There it was again.

He always had this ability to turn the page on his own, as if nothing had happened.

And I was supposed to take the out he offered and step right down with him.

Pretend everything was fine. Play the loving couple again.

But I was done pretending.

“Didn't your little assistant pass along my message?”

His brows knotted instantly, like I'd touched a nerve.

“I'm trying to talk to you like a normal person, and you just have to be passive-aggressive about it?”

“Eileen is practically your sister. You're the one who brought her in. What's with the attitude now?”

He wasn't wrong.

I was the one who'd brought Eileen Fletcher into the company.

She was from the same village as me. The Elder had always told us to look out for each other when we were away from home.

So when she graduated college and couldn't find a job,

I offered her a position at our company myself.

She was sweet and eager to please, and I was happy to mentor her.

Until I noticed the way she looked at Ronald, her gaze growing softer, more lingering, more lovesick with each passing day.

I recognized that look.

Ronald had been a star back in college,

and I'd watched countless girls look at him the exact same way.

But his eyes had never landed on any of them, not even for a second.

So I chalked it up to a young girl's crush and let it go.

Then her mistakes at work started piling up,

and I gave her a few words of correction. Nothing harsh.

She didn't talk back. She just stood there crying while I spoke.

But Ronald wouldn't have it.

He yelled at me in front of the entire company for the first time.

“She's just a kid. You could've gone easy on her.”

“She's basically family. What are you doing, pulling rank on her like some corporate tyrant?”

I was so furious I laughed, but I didn't back down.

“Do you have any idea how many people in this company have had to clean up after her mistakes?”

He waved his hand dismissively.

“Fine then. Eileen can be my personal assistant from now on.”

He glanced around at the coworkers who'd gathered to watch the show.

“And if anyone else has a problem, bring it to me directly. Stop gossiping behind people's backs.”

“If you can do the job, do it. If you can't, get out.”

He walked off with long, sweeping strides, like a general fresh from victory.

Eileen trailed after him, worship written across every line of her retreating figure.

……

I looked up. Ronald was staring down at me, towering, imperious.

Somewhere along the way, everything between us had stopped being about right or wrong and become about him winning.

Every conversation a competition. Every disagreement a battle he had to take.

He wasn't the same man who'd once whispered to me in our tiny rented apartment：“The only person I'll ever lose to is you.”

I glanced at my phone. The ticket confirmation was still on the screen.

I was going home soon.

I couldn't be bothered to argue with him.

“You're right. I was being unreasonable.”

“It won't happen again.”

When he saw my reaction, his expression went blank for a split second.

I figured he'd been bracing for me to do what I always did:

demand to know when we were getting married,

demand to know why he and Eileen Fletcher were still so tangled up,

but the one thing he hadn't expected was me conceding.

After a few seconds of silence, he tossed out a “Suit yourself” and left.

He didn't come home that night.

The next morning I went to work as usual.

I could let go of Ronald, but Panorama Era had every ounce of my blood and sweat poured into it.

Even if I was leaving, I needed to make sure everything at the company was in order first.

Besides, I'd still be collecting steady dividends year after year.

I was in the middle of figuring out who to promote as my replacement on the front lines so I could manage things remotely when Renee Dickerson appeared at the elevator bank, her face drained of color.

She was a company veteran who'd been in the trenches with me through more deals and meetings than I could count.

I had never seen her look this rattled.

“Ms. Whitmore, last night we were sending the pricing proposal to Mr. Hull. Assistant Fletcher said he was asleep and that she'd handle the handoff.”

“But she accidentally sent our bottom-line pricing sheet to the client along with it.”

“Now the client's demanding we cut twenty percent, and our gross margin is only thirty.”

Her voice cracked.

“We've been working this project for six months. If we keep going, we're eating the loss. If we walk away, we lose the client for good.”

I nodded as she spoke and pushed open the door to Ronald's office.

Eileen was lying on her side on the sofa bed while Ronald spooned sugar water into her mouth, one careful sip at a time.

That sofa bed was the same one Ronald had bought for me back when we first started the company,

back when he'd had to force me to rest.

He'd said：“My office is your personal lounge.”

So even when the company relocated and we bought our own building and renovated from scratch,

I'd had that sofa bed moved here with everything else.

Now another woman was stretched out on it, and he was at her side, tending to her like something precious.

Just the way he'd once tended to me.

Something caught in my chest, but strangely, it didn't hurt anymore.

The moment Eileen saw me, she sat up.

“Aria, please don't misunderstand. I felt so guilty that I fainted, and that's the only reason Ronald was giving me sugar water.”

I still remembered that the first time she met Ronald, she'd called him "brother-in-law." Somewhere along the way, it had become just "Ronald."

I didn't acknowledge her. I walked straight to Ronald's desk and slapped the report down in front of him.

“At the client's current asking price, if we want to keep this project, we lose $170,000.”

I swept my gaze over both of them.

“Which one of you is covering that?”

Eileen's eyes reddened instantly.

“It's all my fault. I just didn't want to wake Ronald up because I felt bad about how exhausted he was.”

“I'll go find Mr. Lee right now. I'll beg him if I have to!”

Ronald stared at the file with a deep frown but made no move to stop her.

Renee and I stood right where we were, and neither of us lifted a finger either.

Eileen froze, stuck. She'd backed herself into a corner and had nowhere to go.

I folded my arms and watched her.

“Eileen, crying and begging don't close deals.”

She tossed aside the cashmere blanket and took two steps before crumpling to the floor.

The performance was so clumsy that engaging with it would've been an insult to my own intelligence.

But Ronald, the man hailed as a business genius, bought every second of it.

He helped Eileen up and settled her gently back onto the sofa.

“Aria, you always have to be so aggressive.”

“Does the whole world have to revolve around you?”

I freed one hand and rapped my knuckles on the desk.

“Cut the crap that has nothing to do with the project. $170,000. What's your plan?”

His eyes were bloodshot.

“If taking the job means losing money, then we drop the client!”

I let out a cold laugh.

“Do you even remember how many drinks we had, how many all-nighters we pulled to land this client in the first place?”

“And beyond this one project, we have other contracts with them! If we walk away, how many more $170,000 losses are we looking at?”

“Ronald, have you completely lost your mind?”

He shot me an impatient glance, muttering “so petty” under his breath,

and then,

pulled out a bank card and flung it in my face.

“It's just $170,000. I'll cover it for her. Happy now?”

My cheek stung, but I was eerily calm.

The boy who once thought a twelve-dollar plate of fried rice was too expensive,

now tossing around $170,000 without blinking.

He'd already forgotten how many people's livelihoods were in our hands.

This was never just about the money.

Or maybe he knew. He just didn't care.

Since he didn't care about $170,000,

what about a hundred times that?

I wanted to see if he'd be just as indifferent then.

I met my best friend Natalie Simmons for afternoon tea.

She hadn't even finished cursing Ronald out when I got a message from Renee.

“Ms. Whitmore, get back to the office now!”

The moment I reached my office door,

I saw Eileen directing people to move my desk.

Contracts, documents, all of it scattered across the floor.

Years of work, built up piece by piece.

Who the hell did she think she was?

“Put everything down. Now!”

I closed the distance in three strides and slapped Eileen across the face.

“Who told you to touch my things?”

Eileen clutched her cheek, but her eyes were defiant.

“Ronald said you lost a major deal and don't deserve this office anymore. He wants you working in one of the cubicles out in the open area.”

He must have heard the commotion.

Ronald showed up.

He took one look at the mess on the floor, and something flickered in his eyes.

“Eileen, I told you to notify her. Who said you could move her stuff?”

Eileen lowered her hand, revealing the red handprint on her cheek, and looked up at Ronald with wide, pitiful eyes.

He caved instantly.

“Aria, this was my call. If you want to take it out on someone, take it out on me.”

“But rules are rules. Eileen sent the bottom-line pricing, sure, but it was someone on your team who handed it to her. You bear direct responsibility.”

He sighed, placing both hands on my shoulders.

“I saw you bought a plane ticket.”

“I can't go back with you, though.”

“Why don't you use this as a chance to take a few days off and visit home, hm?”

I shook his hands off.

“Who asked you to come? I'm going home because……”

He scoffed：“To find a husband?”

“Drop the threats. Eileen already told me. Your village doesn't have any tradition about women having to go back and marry by thirty.”

Eileen chimed in：“Aria, don't blame me for telling him. I just couldn't stand watching you lie to him anymore.”

I looked her over, calm and measured.

A designer suit. Chanel earrings. A Louis Vuitton bag.

None of it matched her salary,

and all of it was a far cry from the girl I'd first met.

Back then, she'd been grateful to the point of tears because I'd paid her tuition.

I bought her first outfit for college.

I went with her to open her first bank account.