I buried my head in the sand, too afraid to dig for the truth.
But I wasn't willing to let it go, either. So I started following him in secret.
When I discovered that his "client meetings" were actually visits to Claudia's apartment, I stopped confronting him. I just waited for him to come clean.
That was why I didn't push when he skipped the rehearsal.
That was why I said nothing when he texted me about getting legally married to Claudia at City Hall.
"Excuse me."
I had no interest in wasting words on Claudia. I just wanted to leave.
But the second Harrison stepped out with the first aid kit, she grabbed my hand and threw herself backward into the broken glass.
"Tilda, I know you don't like me, but why would you push me?"
"Ah! My stomach... my baby, it hurts..."
She held up her hand. Her palm was sliced open.
Harrison lunged forward, his face tight with panic and anguish.
"Claudia, don't be scared. I'm taking you to the hospital right now."
He scooped her up and bolted for the door.
Before he left, he turned and fixed me with a cold stare.
"Tilda, I never thought you could be this vicious. Attacking a pregnant woman? How heartless can you be?"
"If anything happens to her baby, there's no future for us. None."
I watched his back disappear through the doorway.
"There hasn't been a future for us in a long time," I whispered.
By the time I finished sweeping up the broken glass, the cut on my foot had already stopped bleeding on its own.
But the wound in my chest was still raw and open.
The suffocating weight in my chest gave me the resolve I needed. I reached out to several shareholders at the company.
When they heard I was selling my thirty percent stake, every one of them expressed interest.
I told them to make their offers. Highest bidder wins.
Half an hour later, I signed a share transfer agreement with the CTO.
He was talented and ambitious, but Harrison had always kept him at arm's length.
With my shares, he'd become the company's largest stakeholder.
I hoped Harrison would enjoy the wedding gift I'd prepared for him.
My phone buzzed again. The wedding planner.
The coordinator sounded irritated:
"Ms. Simmons, what exactly is going on with you two? First the wedding's canceled, then it's back on, but we already threw everything out like you asked. What am I supposed to do at this hour?"
I felt bad about the trouble, but this wasn't my fault.