Chapter 3
Nathan’s questioning tone died in his throat at my cool response. I ended the call just as the Uber pulled up to my building.
After getting out, I noticed a flood of notifications from Nathan’s company Slack channel. When I opened it, there were 99+ unread messages. Pinned at the top was a photo Sophia And posted of Nathan setting up her smart home system.
[Who else has such an amazing boss?] she wrote. [I’d sign a lifetime contract with Blackwood Tech in a heartbeat! #BestBossEver]
Below her post, other employees had chimed in with their comments.
[Never seen the boss like this before. Didn’t Janet from Facilities say he’s a total neat freak? Not looking so OCD now!]
[OMG, he looks so hot in casual clothes! Officially crushing on Mr. Blackwood! Back off
ladies! ?]
[Posted by the future Mrs. Blackwood herself. Give up those CEO dreams, girls stick to your KPIs!]
Before Sophia joined, I used to help Nathan with all these tasks without expecting anything in return. But after she took over my unofficial role, I’d forgotten to leave the channel. After reading through the thread, I cleared my notification history and left the workspace.
Now that I’d made my decision to move on, seeing this preview of their life together didn’t sting as much as I’d expected.
I remembered my early days at Blackwood Tech after graduation. Nathan used to share snippets of my work in the company channels all the time, sneaking photos of me making his morning cold brew or updating the dev team’s sprint board.
Everyone in the office could see how much he liked me.
His attention made even the mundane workday special, and his affection brought life to the usually dry company chat.
Chapter 3
But everything changed when Sophia entered the picture she took over at my wonde duties, and Nathan banned any mention of me in the channels. He seemed seams way, both openly and subtly.
One of my former teammates, who had been close to me, once made a harness commest
that Sophia wasn’t as efficient as I had been.
Nathan immediately rescinded her annual bonus. Later, I quietly transferred her $30,000. hoping to prevent her from rage quitting
When I returned to the place I’d called home for eight years but never truly behaget W, I started packing my things. My gaze fell on a thick photo album filled with menores from the past decade..
Sitting on the edge of my bed, I opened it and flipped through each page.
Every photo represented a gift Nathan had given me.
Eight years ago, he told me he’d give me 9,999 surprises before we walked down the are together. He wanted to win my heart with sincerity, so I’d willingly become hi wide. The album, custom–made to hold exactly 9,999 photos, now had just one blank page left. Bur in the end, it was all meaningless.
Taking the album down to a quiet corner of the building’s courtyard. It a manch and ser ablaze. I watched as each photo caught fire, turning slowly to ash, cremating the last eight years of my life with it.
Nathan arrived to find me standing over the flames, his face ashen.
He rushed forward, pushing me aside to try and salvage what he could. But the fire was too intense for him to reach in.
Within seconds, his hands were red from the heat. Furious, he stomped on the bus album, trying to snuff out the flames as they devoured each photo.
“What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind? All our memories – gone because of you!” he shouted.
