a Avi

flanked by a stern-faced lawyer. She held a thick folder in her hand, my resignation agreement. She p

s eyes full of condescending amusement. He thought this was a bluff. He truly believed I was

e actually leaving. You wouldn't last a week without me. You'll regret this, you know. Begging to come back wi

rawled my signature across the bottom of the page, my name a defiant declaration.

s visibly dilated. His smirk vanished, replaced by an expression of pure shock, then

signed it?" he whispe

ut AG Designs. Without me. Don't come crying back when you realize what you've given up. Because I won

as deliberately rubbing it in, I knew. A calculated move to twist the knife, to make me squirm. And Gabe? He allowed it. He even enabled it. He wanted me to see it, to feel the sting of my

rrillo says if Ms. Avila wants her job back, she needs to publicly apologize f

My heart, which had once been so passionately devoted to him, was now a barren wa

e had called home for so long. The place where so many of our memories, good and b

the bedroom, hidden away in a drawer, were sentimental gifts, small tokens of affection from a different time. And in the storage room, the old hard drives,

nts of a shared life that no longer existed. He had given me a house, a company, a diamond ring, but never truly my own space within his world. I realized, with a jolt,

rtable fire pit we had used for summer evenings. One by one, I fed the memories into the flames. The photos curled, blackened, and turned to ash. The small gifts, made of plastic and

. The pain was still there, but it was distant, a dull ache rather than a

st a space. A very expensive, very empty space. I walked to the door, my small, pre-packed suitcas

rtney. I paused at the threshold, taking one last look at the life I w

y voice was calm, steady. "And good riddance." I c