Chapter 3

Ever since Carolyn and I went head to head in front of everyone, she had marked me as her number one enemy.

Any approval that passed through her hands, big or small, she stalled behind the same excuse: the process needed time.

Every single one dragged out to the last possible minute.

Because of her petty games, the whole department got called back to the office on the weekend, burning the midnight oil to rush a new proposal.

No one said it out loud, but I knew perfectly well it was all because of me.

Neal fished around about what had happened that day, asking me more than once, and I refused to breathe a word of complaint.

Because I didn't want to use my status as Neal's wife to fix my problems.

How would that be any different from going back to my own family's company to sit there as a mascot?

But I did press him on one thing: whether he had ever fetched shoes for another woman.

Neal owned up to it right away. There had been one time.

Except the way he told it, he was gritting his teeth. "I warned that assistant the whole way that the big client was a five-foot-tall old man with the thinnest skin you ever saw."

"And she still didn't use her head. She showed up that day in three-inch heels!"

"What could I do? I made the poor man cry by accident, so I just had to eat it and go buy her a pair of flats to change into."

Watching that indignant little look on Neal's face, all my doubts evaporated on the spot.

So the very next morning I went to my supervisor and asked for the toughest account the company had, dead set on becoming someone Carolyn wouldn't dare touch.

In just three days, I not only landed the order, I also nailed down a renewal contract for the next ten years.

At the celebration party, Neal asked me in front of everyone what reward I wanted.

I smiled and asked for a week of paid leave.

Everyone assumed there was no chance.

But Neal not only agreed without a moment's hesitation, he also waved a hand and threw in a three-day package at a hot-springs resort.

Then he looked straight at me and said softly, "You've worked hard lately. Go and rest."

Off to the side, Carolyn dug her nails into her palm out of pure spite and couldn't manage so much as a peep.

After all, she was a fake through and through.

So the more miserable she was, the better I felt.

But somehow, out of nowhere, Carolyn's attitude toward me changed.

On the first day of my leave, Neal had barely kissed my forehead and left for work when a message came in from Carolyn.

"Mercy, I think there may be a bit of a misunderstanding between us."

"I actually put in a request with Mr. Stephens for time off, so I could come soak in the hot springs with you two and clear the air face to face. What do you say?"

Instinct told me a woman like that would never cave so easily.

So I ignored it and treated it like spam.

But her nerve was something else. She planted herself right at the entrance of the hot-springs resort.

It wasn't until I got closer and saw who was standing beside her that I understood what she was up to.

Max Barnes stood at her side, waving at me from a distance with a grin he couldn't hold back.

I have no idea how she dug up the fact that Max and I were old acquaintances.

Whatever the case, she shoved me toward him like I was some object, playing matchmaker. "Our Mercy just got divorced. A certain gentleman had better make the most of his chance."

I put on an awkward face and deliberately edged a little away.

While I was at it, I hurried a glance around, checking that Neal, that giant jealous fiend, hadn't tagged along.

Because if he found out, he'd throw another fit the second we got home.

Max and I had been classmates from elementary school all the way through college, a solid decade and more.

And it wasn't until graduation that he finally came out and told me how he felt.

But by then my whole heart was tied up in dating Neal, who went to the school next door, and I turned Max down flat.

That business account a while back happened to be with Max's side.

By some strange twist, the deal actually came together.

Afraid Neal would mind, I hadn't said a word about our history.

After all, the workplace is about results, not right or wrong.

Besides, nothing had happened, and I'd already gently reminded Max that I was a married woman.

Who knew Carolyn had a nose like a hound and could sniff out that stale old business between Max and me.

Halfway through the dinner, I was just looking for an excuse to slip away.

Then Carolyn suddenly put on a doting-auntie smile, her gaze bouncing back and forth between Max and me, and sighed for effect. "Childhood sweethearts reunited after all these years like the two of you, you must be sitting on plenty of stories, no?"

The moment she said it, Max's floodgates opened, and he pulled me into one memory after another.

Worse, the coworkers around us had all been tipped off by Carolyn, and now they were vanishing one after another on made-up excuses.

The evening breeze, a candlelit dinner, one lone man and one lone woman...

I prayed to myself that Neal would not, of all moments, pick this one to call and check up on me over video.

But of course, the thing you fear is exactly the thing that comes.

Carolyn's delighted voice suddenly went off not far away.

"Mr. Stephens, what are you doing here?"

I followed the sound and saw Neal standing on the boardwalk, his eyes as still as a pond.

His gaze locked onto my side, his voice giving away neither pleasure nor anger. "Who's the man next to Mercedes?"

Carolyn seemed to seize on the chance, quickly answering in the sweetest voice. "Mr. Stephens, let's not go interrupting Mercy's blind date."

"I went to an awful lot of trouble to give the two of them this time alone."