Chapter 11

AURORA. When my phone beeped two hours later, I had not been expecting to receive an email from a Mr. Ross claiming to be my husband’s lawyer. Moreso, I had not expected the email to contain divorce papers. I stared at the document, scanning through it absentmindedly, my mind reeling. What had prompted this? Chest heaving, I could barely contain myself. It had been a little over a year and six months since I saw him. A year and six months since he gave me his debit card and walked away. I did not even know what he looked like. The man was a complete mystery to me. An enigma I could never solve if I tried, not that I wanted to. Thane Quan had married me and forgotten about my existence. A husband only by name. An arrangement I was completely fine with considering I was not in love with him. But now he wanted a divorce? Where was the sense in that? Did I not deserve a call, at least? If he wanted a divorce, why couldn’t he call me and say it to my face directly? Why go through a freaking lawyer? I was livid. My thoughts were interrupted by Nathaniel leaving his office and walking towards my desk. All thoughts of my husband dulling, I raised my head to search his face, my expectations high. Nathaniel had assured he would get to the root of the rumors no matter what it took and I had decided to believe him. Though now as he stood in front of me with that same stoic expression he always wore, I wondered if he’d had any luck. “Turns out it was the senior director of the marketing team who spread the rumors. She was supposedly on a date with her husband when she saw what she thought she saw.” If I were that kind of girl, I would find this woman and beat her to within an inch of her for trying to ruin my life, but I wasn’t. Violence had never been my forte anyway. I would just have to settle for her getting a warning. “She’s fired.” I gasped. Nathaniel's face was expressionless, the reserved man I had come to know. If he was feeling any kind of emotion about the rumors, I couldn’t see it. “She and everyone who had a hand in letting the story fly. You won’t have to worry about rumors again in the future.” He was actually serious. I even heard Doris’ sharp intake of breath from my left. “You shouldn’t have done that, sir. A warning would have been fine.” My voice came as I felt on the inside: shaky. “It’s not just about you, Aurora,” he said, unfazed. “This is a working environment and I expect my employees to be at their hundred. If something or someone tried to hinder that, then it is my responsibility to act against it. Besides, she must have had too much time on her hands if she started a rumor. I don’t pay my employees to dawdle.” Behind my eyes pinched and I could feel the tears coming on. Something told me he’d probably rehearsed that speech before coming out here and he had actually fired her for me. A shred of hope began to bloom somewhere in my chest. Nathaniel had fired a senior employee for my sake. What did it mean? He leaned down. “Besides, I couldn’t risk the horrible news getting back to your husband. I know what infidelity can do to a relationship. Alleged or not.” There it was. The reason he’d actually done it. Because of my husband. Not because it had hurt me. I almost laughed. Said husband who had just sent me divorce papers. The irony was not lost on me. Clearing my throat to suppress the kaleidoscope of emotions that were running through me, I plastered a smile—or what looked like it—on my face. “Thank you, sir. It means a lot to me.” Nathaniel nodded, the gleam in his eye the only indication that he was pleased with my response. “Anyone who wants to spread rumors can do it in their own free time and it better not tarnish my reputation or that of my employees. If you have any other concerns, please don’t hesitate to let me know.” Then he swung on his heel and headed back into his office, the silence almost deafening me. Oh, I still wanted to cry but not from happiness this time. My life was going in an entirely different direction than I’d imagined. I wasn’t sure if I’d jumped from the frying pan and into the fire by marrying Thane Quan. “You realize that he fired Justine because of you, right?” Doris spoke up for the first time in two hours. I turned my head to meet her eyes, not sure if the twinkle that swirled in there was of disdain or if she was impressed. “You heard the man. Spreading rumors is against company policy.” “Uh huh,” Doris chuckled, her glasses pushing down with the vibration. “And I have a treehouse made of gold that glitters in the moonlight.” Her sarcasm annoyed me but I did not respond. Shit. She’d seen it too. Had she also noticed that for a moment there, the realization hit me that I had begun to grow fond of him? I was royally screwed. It was the lowest of the low, developing feelings for my boss. A married man. Words failed to describe the shame that filled me. What was I doing? I should quit and find another job. But it had taken me months to find one this good and it would take me years to find a boss like Nathaniel willing to pay me double of my salary. Even though I was well on the way to being a single woman again, he was still married and I had to respect that. Which meant I could not think of him as anything else than my married boss. Now that I thought about it, it occurred to me that my own husband could’ve heard the rumors and believed them. I knew he was a rich man and he probably ran in the same circles as Nathaniel, though I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t odd to think the false story had reached him. But even if it had, I was still his wife. If he needed confirmation that I had cheated or not cheated on him, he could have called me. Was he that gullible, eating up whatever news he heard? What was he, a child? There and then, I made up my mind. I would contact my lawyer as well. Get this show on the road. If a divorce was what he wanted, then a divorce was what he would get. Laughable, really, that things had to end this way, but I would not trade my dignity for any man... much less Thane Quan.