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Chapter 9
Chapter 9
The promotion and transfer were approved.
After saying goodbye to my reluctant coworkers, I moved to headquarters.
Mrs. Thompson invited me out to dinner, and I didn’t refuse.
When I walked into the restaurant, I found Lucas sitting across the table.
He looked nervous.
“I got rid of Sophia. She won’t bother you anymore.”
“Can we start over?”
He pulled out my chair, set the table, and kept his head down as he spoke.
“I’ll work harder. If you like it here, I’ll try to transfer too.”
“Or I can quit and find a new job here.”
I stood at the door, not moving closer.
He eagerly walked over, pulling a gold necklace from his pocket.
He held it out like a treasure.
“Look, I fixed the necklace.”
It looked exactly like the one I’d thrown away.
But the broken part had been welded, and it would never be the same.
He noticed me staring and awkwardly added, “It was too damaged.”
“There’s no way to fix it perfectly.”
“If you
don’t like it, we can buy a new one.”
“Emily, why won’t you talk to me?”
I sighed.
“Some things can’t be fixed once they’re broken.”
“I’ve already told you.”
“The problem was never Sophia.”
auma Come Delivered
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“It was always you.”
Lucas’s eyes flickered.
“It’s my fault. I’ll-”
I cut him off.
“You can’t change who you are.”
“You love the thrill of two women fighting over you.”
“You call it ‘charm.“”
“But the truth is, you don’t really care about either of them.”
“You just like the attention.”
“I was wrong about you from the start.”
Lucas stood there, the necklace still in his hands.
I turned and walked out the door.
He called after me, “I know I messed up…”
I didn’t know if he truly understood what he’d done, but it didn’t matter anymore.
I threw myself into my new, busy job, occasionally getting updates from my old coworkers.
Lucas and Sophia had a nasty breakup.
They weren’t just done–they were practically at each other’s throats.
Sophia’s stolen data turned out to be fake.
The rival company found out and fired her.
Once word got out, no one would hire her.
Lucas kept getting called into meetings over his behavior.
The promotion and raise he was supposed to get were scrapped.
He even faced fines for leaking company secrets.
One day, I ran into Lucas on the street.
He looked worn out.
“Emily, I really messed up. Give me another chance.”
12:44
His Just a Friend‘ Got Me Packing, And Her Karma Came Delivered
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I walked past him without looking back.
“What’s done is done. You can’t go back.”
His voice cracked.
“What if”
I shook my head.
“There’s no ‘what if.“”
Lucas rented my old apartment.
The landlord hadn’t cleared out my things yet.
He opened the door.
The warmth of the past still lingered, like a faint breeze you could almost feel.
He lay on the bed I used to sleep in, calling out in his sleep, “Emily, I need water.”
But no one answered.
He’d wake up instantly, clutching his head in pain.
The little trinkets I’d left behind were still there.
Lucas knew the story behind each one.
Because each one was tied to him.
The stuffed doll in the corner?
He’d sewn it for me as a kid.
The jar of weird–shaped rocks?
We’d picked them up at the beach.
Now they were just relics, left behind with him, stuck in the past.
Lucas’s chest tightened.
What had he done?
