Chapter 17
Chapter 17
I said, “It’s fine, I have some here?
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“How much do you have? I’m just worried that the house in Srouver will be too expensive. If we go for a smaller one, it might not be enough space, but if we buy a bigger one, we might blow the budget. Dexter made a fair point.
“I’ll figure something out 1 mumbled quickly, shoveling food into my mouth.
1 ate too fast and almost choked. Juno rushed over, patting my back, and even handed me his milk.
“Mom, don’t eat so fast. Ms. Paige says we should chew slowly, Juno said in his sweet, childlike voice.
1 ruffled his hair, my heart melting, “Okay, Mommy will eat more slowly.”
Dexter smiled, “Look at Juno. Even at his age, he’s already looking out for you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Juno quickly picked up the half–eaten fried egg from his plate and held it up to Dexter. “Daddy, cat.”
What should’ve been a perfectly normal parent–child moment suddenly felt off. Dexter’s face shifted in an instant, and for a split second, I saw a flash of disdain in his eyes.
I thought I was imagining things, but when I tried to look closer, Dexter had already put on a smile and kissed Juno on the check.
“Silly little one, I made this egg just for you. I can’t eat it. You need to eat more nutritious food so you can grow big and strong,” he said.
I felt my heart settle again. I thought, ‘I must have been seeing things… Of course no parent would ever turn away food from such a small child… Not even a half–eaten fried egg.
At work, I was completely swamped.
I guessed it was true–everything came with a price. After all the time I took off for Martha’s illness and dealing with things with Dexter, I had a mountain of work waiting for me. Tasks kept piling up, and I had nowhere to hide.
Fortunately, the work wasn’t that difficult. Once I organized my thoughts, I was able to dive in and get it done.
By the end of the morning, I hadn’t stopped for a second. I managed to clear my to–do list, leaving the afternoon to fine- tune everything.
At lunch, Holly came by to eat with me. I’d noticed that ever since I aired my family’s dirty laundry, she seemed to have attached herself to me. Whenever she had a break, she’d show up at my office.
The problem was, I couldn’t tell her to leave. Burning bridges never looked good, and I didn’t want to treat someone who’d helped me like that.
On top of that, Holly’s frequent visits hadn’t gone unnoticed by the big boss.
A few times, he’d walked in on us and seemed really touched, thinking that Holly and I had patched things up. He praised me for being so flexible and said I’d be a pillar of the company one day.
Then, of course, he handed me a new project to work on. The partner? Holly’s second team. Great. Now I couldn’t even think of a good reason to turn it down.
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Sat, 15 Feb
Chapter 17
I had planned to keep lunch simple and cat in the staff cafeteria. Holly sat across from me with a takeout box in from of her,
“So, how did things go after you got home yesterday?” she asked.
“Nothing happened, I didn’t let him notice anything,” I replied.
“Your husband’s tough. Be careful.” Holly warned, hesitating before adding, “I don’t want to see you go down the same road I did. You’re actually a really good person.”
I didn’t expect to hear that from her. I looked up in surprise.
Holly glanced at me and said, “What’s with the look? I may not like your style, but I can’t deny your ability. After all, you’ve made it to this position in a Fortune 500 company–and as a woman, that’s no small feat. You’re clearly not an ordinary person.”
She let out a derisive snort. “Sylvia, look at everything you have now. If your husband really did you wrong, can you honestly say you’d feel okay with it?”
I silently kept eating, and after a while, I blinked back tears. “Of course not.”
“Exactly,” she said, her tone softening. She pulled out a pack of women’s cigarettes, then paused, remembering she couldn’t smoke here. With a sigh, she put them away. “As for men… if he’s genuinely good to you, be good to him in return.
“Don’t do anything that leaves you stuck in the past, unable to let go. Trust me, in the end, it’s always the women who get hurt the most.”
I nodded. “I owe you one, Holly. I won’t forget.”
Her face broke into a wide smile, her confidence shining through. “As long as you remember, that’s all that matters.”
In the afternoon, Dexter sent me a message asking where I wanted to go for dinner.
I could tell he was trying extra hard to be sweet, probably because of the tension from yesterday.
Originally, he’d asked me to take the day off, but I’d turned him down. Now, he was pulling out all the stops with this romantic dinner plan. If this were before, I’d have been thrilled. But things were different now…
I didn’t respond immediately. Instead, I waited until I’d wrapped up my work and made good progress on the proposal, then calmly texted him. [Ms. Moreno fainted. Please come pick her up and take her home.]
Once I sent the message, I quickly packed up all my work, filed everything away, and submitted a request to the boss to work from home tomorrow. Then, I casually laid my head on the desk, pretending to faint.
Thanks to the heads–up I’d given earlier, Dexter was able to come in without a hitch. When he saw me slumped over at the desk, looking like I couldn’t move, he immediately rushed over, clearly concerned.
He scooped me up in his arms and carried me to the car, with me still clutching my folder.
Dexter scolded, “You’re unbelievable. You were hurt yesterday, and I told you to rest, but you wouldn’t listen.”
I pulled out my phone and snapped a selfie with him. In the photo, I was holding tightly to his arm, looking affectionate.
A few moments later, the subordinate I’d arranged sent me the photos she’d taken. They were exactly what I’d planned- shots of Dexter carrying me, discreetly snapped from the side.
The pictures turned out great. Dexter’s long legs looked dramatic, and the princess carry made it feel like a scene from a
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08:53 Sat, 15 Feb B
Chapter 17
romance drama.
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I posted the two photos on my X with the caption. [Love is when, even after marriage, he’ll still come running to you when you need him.]
I rarely posted on X–maybe once or twice a year–and I never used it to show off my relationship. But today, I did. Because I wanted to test something, something that had been bothering me for a while.
I closed my eyes, my mind racing as I replayed everything in my head, from the photos to all the moments that had led up to this.
One thought kept coming back. ‘If I were the other woman, and the man I love is with someone else, wouldn’t I want to know everything about his every move?
“The answer is a definite yes. And don’t forget, this other woman might even have a child with him. She’d probably been in his life longer than I have. How can she just accept that?‘
I had over a thousand contacts in my phone, and I couldn’t say I knew every single one. Some I had long forgotten.
The only reason I posted that X was to see if that woman was still on my friends list. It was a simple, almost childish move, but I didn’t expect it to be so effective.
Less than an hour after posting, my phone started buzzing nonstop.
Messages poured in. [Sylvia, you slut, do you really think he loves you? Don’t get too smug!] [Princess carry, huh? Why didn’t he drop you and let you die?]
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