HATE ME LIKE YOU LOVED ME..

CHAPTER 1

ALFIE RETURN

.........

Amelia pushed the door open and walked in, muttering under her breath, rehearsing what she would say to the president.

Then she saw his face.

The words died in her mouth.

She stopped.

"Alfie?" Her eyes moved over him, taking in the office, the desk, the name plate. "You are the president?"

She caught herself, straightened her back, and let her face remain calm, like she didn't just see the last person she thought she would meet there.

"What is this now?" she muttered under her breath, unsure how her Ex is in the office of the president.

She turned to leave but his voice stopped her before her hand touched the handle.

He was grinning, like he just saw careless cat. He stared at her shock as if it was the funniest thing he had seen all week.

"Didn't you come to see me? Or did you think it's one of your numerous old boyfriends?"

"You!" Amelia bit her lower lips murmuring, "How is it him?"

"Alfie," she called but no reasonable words came out. She wanted to know he was doing all these years but she couldn't. Given how much she have hurt and ran from him.

He came around the desk slowly, like she was a prey before her predator.

"Amelia, you are still bold..." He tilted his head, sarcasm dripping from his word.

" You just walked into your president's office without knocking. Or is there any appointment you have with me?"

She had rehearsed her accusations between the manager's office and this door,

Everything about her missing file, the pay she hadn't seen in two months. Standing in front of him, all of it came out tangled.

He might be behind it.

"You want to know why I'm here?" Her voice cracked, but she pushed through it.

"A file went missing from my desk. A file I never touched, never opened. And because of that, they've frozen my pay for two months."

She paused. "Two months, Alfie. My name is not even on the payment list anymore, like I don't exist in this company."

He said nothing. His silence pushed her anger higher.

Is he getting back at her?

"I asked them to check the CCTV, just a check that's all it would take to prove I didn't do this." she paused.

"They wouldn't even give me that. They just decided I was guilty and moved over it," Her hands were shaking.

She pressed them together to stop it, but it didn't help.

"So yes, I walked in without knocking. Because nobody in this building has bothered to hear me since this started."

Her face frowned, "Did you order it?"

Something shifted in his face. Gone as fast as it came.

He chuckled not replying to her.

"Amelia, you seem to have been living well all these years."

She turned again to leave. This time he didn't stop her with words. He let her walk towards the door, but, before her hand found the door did his voice paused her track.

She didn't turn around. She pushed the door open and walked out. Her chest falling and raising.

She walked past the assistants who stared, past the hallway that suddenly felt too long, until she was outside trembling.

But between everything, she was still glad he was okay and successful.

Alfie stood alone in his office long after the door shut behind her.

He had waited for this.

Planned for it, even, he told himself he was over her.

Now that it had happened, they met again nothing about it felt the way he expected.

He swept his arm across the desk, sending the files scattered across it to the floor, and sank into his chair. His jaw worked, but no sound came out at first. When it did, it was dripping with sadness.

"She has been living in peace. But me? Me..." He pressed his palm hard against his chest.

"What did I ever did to her?"

"What was I in her eyes? I must have gotten it all wrong because right now, she didn't act like it was all lies."

He stared at blankly at the door, replaying the last five minutes over in his head, her voice cracking, her hands shaking, the fire in her eyes that hadn't dimmed one bit.

He pressed his palm against the table.

"I will make her life miserable."