Billionaire, I Am Not Your Wife! novel Chapter 107

Chapter 97: Fired

Cameron’s POV

And I could not say that. I could not say any part of that to him, that was against the rules, even personal rules, I could not fire him because I was having issues getting used to the fact that he owed me nothing but loyalty. I could not tell him that I was letting him go because watching him be available to someone else was something I couldn’t manage in addition to everything else I was managing, at the moment because that was not a sentence that could be said from where I was standing to where he was standing without destroying something I’d spent eighteen months building between us.

“You were in my office after hours with someone who had no legitimate reasort to be here,” I said. “In a situation that reflected poorly on your professional judgment. In a role that requires I trust your judgment completely.”

It wasn’t untrue, this indeed happened as well. It just wasn’t the whole truth. But it was the truth that I was determined on giving irrespective of everything else.

Lucian looked at me for a moment. One moment, two, three. Long enough that I was aware of it, aware of him deciding something.

“All right,” he said. His voice was exactly as level as it had been for the whole conversation, cool, not losing his composure and taking it in stride, rather than calling me out on my obvious bullshit. “I’ll collect my things.”

“HR will contact you about the formal process. Your access will be suspended tonight.”

“I understand.” He moved toward the door with the composure that was either genuine composure or fabricated one, but it was so good I could not tell the difference..

He reached the door. Stopped, his hand on the frame, his back to me.

“For what it’s worth,” he said, to the doorframe, “the Singapore summary covers everything for the first three days. You’ll need someone to handle the Meridian call on Wednesday. Chen at the agency will have vetted candidates if you need a temporary.”

He was leaving and he was making sure the transition was covered. I stood at my desk and said nothing. He left.

I stood in my office at ten PM on a Tuesday with completed Singapore files on my desk and the particular smell of Lyra Cheng’s perfume still faintly in the air and the sound of Lucian’s footsteps fading down the corridor, and I stood there for a long time.

Outside the windows, Seattle was doing what Seattle did-rain and lights and the patient ongoing dark of a city that had been here long before any of us and would be here long after.

*You need to find someone and settle down.*

Sedona had said it like it was simple. Like it was a thing you decided to do and then did. Like the person you wanted was someone you could simply choose, from a reasonable field of available options, and say: this one, and have it be that one.

I closed the file.

Sat in the chair that was still set to his height.

Outside, Seattle rained on, patient and total, indifferent to the specific problems of people sitting in offices at ten PM making decisions they couldn’t take back.

I should call HR in the morning. Start the process. Contact the agency for a temporary, as he’d suggested, because even in the moment of being let go he’d made sure the transition was covered. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes and exhaled deeply trying to process this.

Sedona had said: *is there someone?*

And I’d said: *no*.

Which was still technically true. I’d just made sure of it.