"John, it really looks like Bertha's furious this time."

"Does that mean the wedding's off for good?"

John raised an eyebrow, his voice full of certainty.

"She only dares raise her voice at me because she's angry right now. Once she calms down, she'll regret it."

"Call off the engagement? That's impossible."

"A woman who loves me that recklessly doesn't just walk away."

Then he turned to Lena with a warning.

"Don't go making stupid jokes like that again. You hear me?"

Seeing that John was getting a little annoyed, Lena could only nod obediently.

I hadn't gone far from the door at all, and I heard every word between them.

The irony of it. Lena was once trapped in a car crash, unable to get out.

I was the one who risked my life to pull her free.

I never imagined she was no better than an animal, someone who could use her rescuer's mother as a target for a prank and sleep with her rescuer's fiancé. How rotten does a person have to be at the core to do something like that.

If I'd never saved her back then, none of this would have happened.

But life has no ifs. Only the things people choose to do.

So the moment I left the bar, I went to pull the security footage.

I never expected it to be gone. John had already destroyed it.

No wonder Lena was so brazen. I walked through the streets. It was deep into the night now.

A bitter, sour ache sat in my chest and wouldn't leave.

And right then, Mrs. Gilbert called.

"I hear you brought up calling off the engagement with John yourself tonight?"

The Gilberts had always looked down on me, even after I worked tirelessly to help John push the Gilbert Corp from a second-rate company into one of the top technology firms in Boston.

But the Gilberts still thought I wasn't good enough. If anything, they believed John could marry someone of higher standing.

My long silence clearly displeased her.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Mrs. Gilbert, mind your manners."

"John and I are calling off the engagement. Isn't that exactly what you wanted?"

"Hmph! Since you're the one who called it off, don't you dare regret it later."

"Don't come clinging to him after this. He deserves a far better woman. Not you."

There was nothing pleasant about the conversation, and in the end we both chose to hang up fast.

By the time I got home, it was the middle of the night.

I never expected John to be inside my apartment.

The moment he saw me, he stood up.

"Where did you go? Why are you back so late?"

"I already reprimanded Lena for you. It was an honest mistake on her part."

"To make up for my wrong, and given everything you've done for the company,"

"I've decided to announce something at the office the moment the sun's up. I'm promoting you to VP."

I kept my eyes on him, neither warm nor angry, while he had no idea I'd already settled the broken engagement with his mother.

"John, get out."

"I need some peace."

My sudden coldness left him stunned for a moment.

I have a thing about cleanliness, and I couldn't accept his cheating, still less that he'd helped Lena in the string of things that got my mother killed.

"I didn't only come to see you. I came to light incense for your mother."

His eyes rimmed red as he walked to my mother's memorial tablet, took the incense from the stand, lit three sticks, and bowed low before her.

"I'm sorry. Our thoughtless mistake got you killed."

"But I truly never meant for it to happen."

His voice broke, and I couldn't harden my face enough to throw him out.

Before he left, John told me firmly.

That night, it was guilt that made him drink too much, and in his drunkenness he'd mistaken Lena for me.

The next day, the company called me back for a meeting.

John texted me over and over, telling me to wear a formal skirt suit.

When I got back to the office, my coworkers took one look at me and started whispering.

"Ms. Henson's back!"

"I heard today's the day she gets promoted to VP. That's why they made sure she came in."

"Ms. Henson's earned it. Nobody has a problem with her taking that seat, she's the real deal..."

"But do you know why Mr. Gilbert suddenly decided to promote her?"

"I do. Because Mr. Gilbert and Supervisor Finch pulled a prank on her mother on the wedding day and killed her. And here's the wild part, Mr. Gilbert slept with the supervisor too. Cheated on Director Henson."

The second those words were out, every head turned to stare at me, and the looks were all either pity or scorn.

They pitied me and mocked me at the same time, laughing that I'd swallow an overnight blood feud for money.

Nobody knew what was going through my head as I walked in carrying a humiliation I'd never felt before.

I reached my office, pulled the door open, and went straight in.

I started gathering up my own things and my desk pieces, and I was only halfway done when someone came in to tell me the meeting was starting and I needed to go.

All the staff and shareholders were already there. I was the only one missing.

John looked at me, then parted his lips and spoke.

"Everyone, I've called you all here today because there's something big I want to announce."

"The VP position has been vacant for a long time. It's time we found someone with real ability, real results, and real backbone to fill it."

The moment he finished, every person in the room turned to look at me at the same time, because in their minds I was the only one qualified to sit in that seat.

John smiled. "I have a good candidate in mind. She is...!"

He looked at me, his eyes firm, telling me to stand.

I thought about it for a second, then decided to rise.

And then, the next second.

"That person is Lena Finch!!!"

"Let's give her a round of applause!"

The instant he said it, the whole room burst out laughing at me.

"So it wasn't Bertha Henson after all. Then why did she stand up like she was so sure of herself?"

"Hahaha, I'm dying laughing."

I'd worked and fought for this company for so long, and in the end I'd only sewn the wedding dress for Lena Finch.

And he'd made a fool of me in front of everyone, until I had nowhere to hide.

Lena stood up, and as she passed me she deliberately ground her heel down onto my shoe.

She spoke in a voice only the two of us could hear.

"You idiot. I pranked your mother, and I pranked you too."

"John lost a card game. He only played along with the prank to go along with me."

Watching her walk away, my heart burned with rage.

I turned around and left without a word.

John was talking to Lena, but he kept glancing at my back with something like unease.

He wanted to come after me, but Lena made a point of blocking his way.

I'd known all along that the whole VP promotion wasn't as simple as it looked.

I set the resignation letter I'd already written down on the desk, then picked up my phone and made a few calls.

I told them I'd left Gilbert Corp, and that from now on nothing about the Gilberts had anything to do with me.

Then I blocked and deleted every one of John's contact channels.

I picked up my things and walked out of Gilbert Corp without looking back.