"I know you've contributed to this company. I know you once traded yourself to kidnappers to save me. But the company is finding its footing now, and you've been falling behind the new pace. So..."
She knew all of that. And she was still doing this to me.
I cut her off. "So you're teaming up with an outsider to burn the bridge after crossing it? To toss aside the person who got you here?"
If not for me working around the clock, day and night, Henson Group would have gone bankrupt three years ago.
And whether the Delgado partnership went through at all? That hinged entirely on my say-so.
"Don't make it sound so ugly. This is all for the good of the company." Marlene's brow creased. "If we're committing to reform, we have to go all in. No exceptions."
"You and your people—you've taken up too many positions in this company."
Her explanation.
To my ears, it was hollow. Paper-thin. I couldn't help pressing one more time. "Is this really all for the company? Or is it because he was the moon you could never reach?"
Silence crashed over the room like a wave.
Even Marlene's eyes went wide.
No one had expected me to tear that secret open in front of everyone.
The truth was, it had been an open secret in the company for a long time—Miles Sullivan was Marlene's idealized love from college. Her untouchable first love.
To win him over, she'd written a hundred love letters. Confessed dozens of times.
Rejected. Every single one.
The day Miles flew overseas, Marlene stood in the rain and wept. She spiraled for months before she finally pulled herself together.
Everyone knew. No one dared bring it up.
"Jacob Gilbert!"
"You're truly despicable—trying to guilt-trip your way out of being fired!"
Miles Sullivan shattered the silence by pinning yet another accusation on me.
Right on cue, Marlene snapped out of her daze and turned on me, shouting:
"Jacob!"
"Stop making up excuses!"
"If you don't want to be here, then get out! As of today, you're fired!"
Look at her—lashing out from sheer humiliation.
I was silent for a few seconds.
"Fine."
"What?"
Marlene blinked, caught off guard.
"I hope you—all of you—don't live to regret this."
My gaze swept across every face in the room before settling on Marlene's. I unclipped my employee badge, tossed it on the floor, and walked out.
Eighty employees followed in lockstep.