Chapter 4

By the time I reached the rooftop,

a crowd had already gathered.

Conrad sat on the rooftop railing, a knife pressed to his own wrist.

His eyes were swollen from crying.

The moment I stepped out, every head turned, all of them looking at me like I was something strange.

"Blake, I never stole your proposal. Why would you post everything online and set people on me like that?"

Winifred's eyes were ice-cold.

"You even put all of Conrad's personal information up there. In the last ten minutes he's taken twenty calls from strangers cursing him out!"

"Blake, if I got something wrong, I can apologize publicly. But there's no reason to drag in someone innocent!"

She opened the post and held it up for me to see.

The IP, the avatar, the username, all identical to mine.

But the last four digits of the account number were different.

I shook my head helplessly.

"That account isn't me. I never posted anything. You can check my phone!"

I pulled out my phone, unlocked it, and held it out.

Winifred's gaze flickered, like something in her wavered.

"Never mind. I was wrong, all right? I misjudged you!"

Conrad sobbed the words out, the blade already fraying thin lines of blood along his wrist.

"Blake, apologize!"

Winifred's voice came cold and hard.

I stared at her in disbelief.

"I didn't do it. Why should I—"

"I don't want to hear it. Wrong is wrong!"

In that instant, it felt like all the air around me had been drained away.

The coworkers around us chimed in one after another.

"Apologize! Conrad's already depressed. Are you trying to get him killed?"

"Don't you know Ms. Cooley and Conrad are already engaged? What you're doing wrecks two families!"

"Apologize!"

Engaged?

I lifted my head, dazed,

and caught the way Winifred's eyes slid away from mine.

And suddenly I thought,

if today it had come out that she and I were the ones engaged,

Winifred would have set everyone straight in a heartbeat.

It wasn't as if that kind of thing had never happened.

Once, on a company hiking trip,

because she wouldn't reach out and pull me up,

I rolled all the way down from the slope to the foot of the hill.

I stepped back and bowed deeply to Conrad.

"I'm sorry. It was my fault. Please forgive me."

Conrad went limp all at once,

collapsing into Winifred's arms.

Their hands overlapped, and I finally saw clearly what was on them.

Two pairs of blue cufflinks.

I'd seen them in a fashion magazine.

The designer's concept was a set meant for an engaged couple.

Seeing that Conrad was fine, everyone let out a breath.

Conrad's close buddy strode up to me

and slapped me across the face.

"Trash!"

His nails raked across my eye.

A sharp sting shot through my left eye, and blood dripped from the corner.

I covered my eye and looked at Winifred.

"Winifred, so this is where you stand, is it?"

She helped Conrad up without sparing me a single glance.

"Go home tonight and write a written apology. Have it on my desk tomorrow."

Conrad leaned against her shoulder

and moved his lips at me, mouthing two silent words.

"Dumb ass."

Everyone who followed her out bumped me with their elbows on the way past, on purpose.

I was knocked down, and a few more feet came down on my hands.

Winifred's text didn't come until an hour later.

"We'll talk when I'm back tonight."

But there was nothing left for the two of us to talk about.

I stood up and walked down off the rooftop, one step at a time.

That night, neither of us went home.

The next day she drove Conrad in to the office

and they walked into her office together.

There was no written apology on the desk.

Winifred frowned, went out into the main work area,

and found my seat empty.

"Did Blake call in?"

Someone from HR happened to be passing.

Hearing her, they answered offhand.

"Blake quit. Something about going back to his hometown to get married, I think?"