resig

vy and final. I placed the crisp white

as a kind woman, one of the few people in this company who still looked at me with somethi

time for a change." My voice was a monotone, carefully stripped

ke a few days. Think it over. You're one of our mo

head, pushing the envelope back. "My mind

n't let myself look back. The walk to the elevator felt like a mile. Each step was a deliberate act of

steel reflecting a pale, hollowed-out version of me. I didn'

hnson's

ssistant wasn't there. I walked straight to the heavy oak

king out over the city. The view from up here was incredible, a spra

life. He was tall and impeccably dressed, his silhouette sharp and unforgiving against the city lights

"I was wondering when you'd come up," he said, his v

my voice shaking slightl

rcing blue, scanned me from head to toe, and a small, cruel smi

I could feel the heat radiating from his body. "Did you for

," I whispered, the word

ake half of our company with her. And then your father..." He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a m

And my father, Richard, walking away with barely a scratch, his blood alcohol level just high enough. He'd always been a reckless driver, a former racer who never lost the taste for

been telling myself for three years. I had to belie

me to look at him. "He stained her legacy. He took everything. And you, her sweet, loyal li

everything you asked. I've worked here, I've let you control ever

ker of something else in his eyes, a ghost of the man who had once loved my sister. I clung

"Care about you?" He laughed again, louder this time, the sound bouncing off the cold glass walls. "You're he

distinct wound. My hope shattered into a

he said, his voice thick with a grief that felt possessive and violent. He looked at me, his eyes filled with a chilling hatred. "And you.

ere. Tomorrow night is the annual tech gala. You will be my date. Yo

gainst your father. The witness who saw him arguing with Emily right before the crash. The proof that he was mor

, suffocating me. My loyalty to my father, my need to protect him,

naged to say, the w

me again, dismissing me as if

pen, I felt his eyes on my back, a physical weight. I kept my head high, my expression blank. I didn'