Love Ended First

My CEO boyfriend had threatened to break up with me 99 times. So when he found out I willingly handed a multimillion-dollar contract to his junior protégée, freshly returned from studying abroad, he assumed I had finally caved.

He was so pleased that he proposed we get engaged. But the moment she caught wind of it, she lost it.

She skipped the contract signing, stopped showing up to work, and threatened to resign. My boyfriend, who had always doted on her, completely panicked.

He promoted her on the spot, then used a business trip as an excuse to cancel our engagement plans and flew to another city to throw her a lavish engagement ceremony instead.

When he came back, he brushed it off like it was nothing.

"It was just a ceremony. It's not like we're actually married. Why are you being so dramatic about it?

"Anya's a top-tier talent with an overseas education. I did this for the company, for our future. You're going to be my wife, so I'd think you of all people would understand."

I gripped my phone, staring at the photo she had just posted online. Two matching engagement rings sat front and center, his and hers.

I did not argue. I just nodded.

He lit up, convinced I had finally come around. He promised to throw me an even bigger ceremony once he was back from his trip.

What he did not know was that I had already submitted my resignation. The moment he agreed to hold an engagement ceremony with another woman, I was done.

I listened to my boyfriend, Kyle Wyatt, make yet another promise. As usual, I did not argue.

My thumb scrolled idly through social media while his dismissive voice droned through the phone.

"Sally, you have no idea how hard it is to recruit real talent these days. Someone like Anya, with her overseas credentials, is one in a thousand. The company needs people like her to keep growing. You're the one who's always telling me I should use every tool at my disposal to retain top talent, right?

"All I did was hold an engagement ceremony with Anya. We didn't file any paperwork, we didn't throw a wedding banquet. It was just a retention strategy. You're reading way too much into it.

"Besides, I'm not just her boss. I'm her senior from school. Professionally and personally, I can't just turn her down when she asks for help.

"She just got back to the country. She's still getting her footing, and it's my responsibility to look out for her. You've always been the reasonable one, Sally. I'm sure you understand where I'm coming from."

I could not help but laugh bitterly at that.

What company on earth retained talent through a fake engagement?

It was nothing more than an excuse. He favored Anya Channing, and this was the cover story he had chosen. Did he really think I could not see through it?

All I had ever said was that he should loosen up on retention policies and find better ways to keep good people around. He had taken that completely out of context and twisted it into justification for getting engaged to Anya, as if it were some kind of corporate strategy.

His devotion to her was really something.

On any given day, he went out of his way to show her preferential treatment. He overlooked every mistake she made and handed her one special privilege after another.

When she deliberately skipped the signing ceremony for a multimillion-dollar contract, she did not receive so much as a warning. Instead, she got a promotion and a raise.

Meanwhile, I had run back and forth to the factory hundreds of times. I had wined and dined clients until I developed an alcohol allergy, all to land that same multimillion-dollar deal. And all Kyle had to say about it was, "That's your job."

He wiped my contribution clean and tried to hand the credit to Anya. When I refused, he started threatening to break up with me.

In three days, he had used that threat 99 times.

The moment I finally gave in, he did something unprecedented and offered to get engaged to me.

Then, on the very day of our engagement, he bailed. He used a business trip as his excuse, sent me a text that read "Business trip, talk later," and thought that would be enough to shut me down.

Yet the next thing I saw was a photo of him and Anya at their extravagant engagement ceremony.