HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 100

Chapter 100

Adrian

The flight back felt longer than it actually was, I kept checking my watch every few minutes like that would somehow make the plane move faster, and the moment we touched down, I was already pulling out my phone, scrolling to her name, wondering if I should call or just wait until I saw her in person.

I had missed her more than I wanted to admit to myself. Two weeks away, locked in meetings and negotiations that mattered a lot less to me than they should have, and the whole time, one thought kept circling back, Bianca never replied to my message.

That simple question, “how was your day,” had gone unanswered for two weeks straight, and no matter how many times I told myself she was probably just busy, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had shifted between us before I even left the country.

I planned what I was going to say to her the entire ride from the airport. I wasn’t going to be angry, I told myself, I was just going to ask her calmly why she went quiet on me like that. Maybe she had a good reason or maybe I was overreacting but somewhere underneath all that reasoning, there was a small, stubborn part of me that just wanted to see her face again, to hear her voice call me sir in that tone that was supposed to sound respectful but always came out a little playful.

The car pulled up in front of the building and I stepped out, straightening my jacket, already scanning the lobby out of habit even though I knew she wouldn’t be down there. Felix met me at the door with his usual stack of files and a rundown of everything that had happened while I was gone, but I wasn’t really listening. My mind was upstairs, at her desk, already picturing the way she would look up at me when I walked in.

I went straight to the meeting room first. It couldn’t be avoided, the board had scheduled something important for the morning I landed, and skipping it entirely would have raised more questions than I had the patience to answer. I sat through the first few minutes trying to focus, nodding at the right moments, but my mind kept drifting.

Then my phone buzzed on the table in front of me. I glanced down without really expecting much, probably some notification from the finance team or a reminder about something Felix had already told me twice. But when I saw what it actually was, everything in my chest went still for a second.

An HR notification, “Resignation submitted. Employee: Bianca.”

I read it once, then read it again, slower this time, as if reading it slower would somehow change the words on the screen. My face tightened and the room around me suddenly felt too small, too loud, too full of voices discussing numbers that meant nothing to me right now.

I stood up, cutting off whoever was speaking mid sentence. “Carry on without me,” I said, already moving toward the door, not waiting for a response, not caring how it looked to leave a board meeting like that. I had never done something like this before, and the surprised silence behind me told me exactly how out of character it was, but none of that mattered.

I made it to her desk in under four minutes. I know because I checked the time on my way there, some strange need to measure exactly how fast I had moved once I saw that notification.

She was there, calmly going through the drawers of her desk, pulling out small things, a notebook, a mug, a few pens, stacking them neatly into a bag she must have brought specifically for this. She didn’t look surprised to see me. If anything, she looked like she had been expecting this exact moment, like she had rehearsed it in her head already.

“Bianca,” I said, keeping my voice level, though it took more effort than I wanted to admit.

She looked up at me calmly. “Sir.”

“You submitted your resignation,” I said.

“Yes,” she said simply, going back to sorting through the drawer like this was the most ordinary conversation in the world.

I heard when she finally left, the office was very quiet after that and after a while, I got up and walked out of my inner office. I don’t know exactly what I was looking for, maybe just some confirmation that this was real, that she was actually gone. Her desk was completely bare now, cleared of every trace that she had ever sat there. No files stacked in the corner, no small potted plant she used to keep near her monitor, nothing.

I stood there for a moment, just looking at the empty space, feeling strangely foolish for how much it affected me to see a desk with nothing on it.

Then I noticed something tucked slightly under the desk, half hidden from view, I crouched down and pulled it out. Her work diary, the one she always carried around, scribbling notes in during meetings, checking constantly throughout the day. She must have forgotten it in the rush of clearing everything else out.

I held it in my hands for a long moment, running my thumb over the worn edges of the cover before deciding to take it back to my desk.

Felix came in just as I was heading back, and he slowed down when he saw what I was holding. “Is that hers?” he asked, glancing between the diary and my face like he was trying to read something there. “Do you want me to throw it out?”

“No,” I said, maybe a little too quickly, my grip tightening slightly around it. “I’ll keep it.”

Felix didn’t say anything else, just nodded and dropped the forms he was carrying onto the desk, though I caught the weird look he gave me before he walked out.

I placed the diary carefully on my desk and I stood there staring at it for longer than I probably should have, my mind replaying the entire conversation from earlier, her calm voice, her steady hands. It’s crazy how intimate we were the last time we met, and now she’s talking to me like a stranger.

“Adrian you will definitely get over it..”I told myself. “Over her.” I added taking a deep breath.