ell'

rridor-head high, folder in hand, completely unaware that the man behind the glass wall was

r name. The woman who had disappeared into the night just as I had-two sha

looked like a woman trying to rebuild, and seeing her in my c

st another face in the employee directory. Pretend I hadn't memorized th

for a fleeting second, our eyes locked through the glass.And the look she gav

Like I was one more mistake she regretted. O

I was grieving, unraveling quietly under the weight of too many losses-an ended marriage, a failed merger, a father I still

w, here we were. In a setting that demanded structur

oked directly at her unless I had to. And when I did meet her eyes, it was

disgust me.And every time she looked at me like that,

e. It should have. But it didn't. Because for a few hours, she had seen the man behind the title-the

in every stare.I couldn't fire her. That would only make things worse-and Sharon wou

I kept things clinical and cold.But no matter how much

how it felt.And the worst part?I knew