Chapter 2 - The Departure
"Have a beautiful life, Thaddeus," I said.
My voice was a perfectly calibrated whisper. It did not shake. I turned on my black heels, leaving him standing there with the woman who had just effectively ended our engagement in the middle of Terminal 4.
"Sarah, stop!" Thad called out, finally trying to untangle himself.
But Laurel’s hands remained firmly anchored to his waist. "Just let her go, Thad," she murmured, loud enough for the acoustics of the arrivals hall to carry it to me. "She always makes a scene when she isn't the center of attention."
I didn't turn back. I walked through the sliding glass doors into the crisp October air, stepping into the back of my waiting town car.
I didn't cry on the ride back to Manhattan.
Tears were for women who had lost something valuable. I had just lost a coward. And while Thad was busy playing the returning war hero for his childhood crush, I had a twelve-million-dollar corporate restructuring to finalize.
For five years, I had been the invisible spine of Thorn Development. Thad’s father, Harrison, had nearly run the commercial real estate firm into the ground with reckless overleveraging. His mother, Eleanor, had spent her days planning charity galas with money the company didn't actually have. I had stepped in, stabilized their assets, renegotiated their mezzanine debt, and kept the empire breathing under the promise that Thad and I would take over upon his return.
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At 8:00 p.m. that evening, I walked into the executive boardroom on the forty-second floor of the Thorn building.
They were already there.
