Chapter 6
Reed had even dismissed his driver to drive her himself.
Watching the car disappear, I opened my phone and called the headhunter who contacted me as regularly as my period.
Then I bought beer and fried chicken, went home, and ate until grease ran down my chin.
The clock on the wall seemed to move especially slowly, so when my phone woke me, it was only midnight.
But all I heard on the other end was heavy breathing. No response to my hello. Heavy, ragged breathing, like someone about to devour their prey…
I lowered my hand and stared at the ceiling, waiting for the screen to go dark. Looks like someone accidentally pocket–dialed me, just like I did to Reed. Coincidentally, a year ago, I’d been using a phone with a screen so cracked it looked like the Great Rift Valley. Reed couldn’t stand it anymore.
With a disgusted look, he’d pulled an unopened phone from his cabinet and tossed
it to me.
“Everyone outside knows you’re my person. I can’t have you embarrassing me.”
So I’d clutched that phone–identical to the one in his hand–turning his words
over and over in my mind: “You’re my person.”
I’d worked like a madwoman after that, turning down countless offers with double
the salary, just to stay near him as much as possible, even if just for one more
second.
Until about a month ago, when I casually complained about not feeling well.
Reed’s fingers paused as he flipped through a project proposal.
“Hire someone as your backup. In case you get sick, we need someone who can step in immediately.”
I was stunned for a moment, but said, “Yes, Mr. Harlow.”
My body felt like I’d been doused with ice water in the dead of winter. That’s when I finally understood–in Reed’s eyes, I was completely replaceable. Perhaps because of this realization, my previously boundless energy suddenly
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dissipated, and I fell ill shortly after, requiring surgery.
The first peaceful sleep I’d had in years came in a hospital bed.
When I woke up, Noah was by my side, his eyes red from staying up all night. “When you said you couldn’t pick me up and I should go home by myself, I thought you were abandoning me. Then I realized you must be hiding something. I shouldn’t have avoided seeing you. From now on, you have to tell me when you’re sick.”
My brother, who’d spent four years in juvenile detention and had refused to see me every time I visited, was now by my side, his eyes filled with anxiety. That’s why I had to leave Reed.
I needed to climb higher, to build a stronger, taller fortress for our lives.
