HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 99

Chapter 99

Bianca

When I opened it, my hands were shaking a little before I even read past the first line. I read it twice just to be sure I wasn’t imagining things, they wanted me, they were offering me a position, better pay, better hours, and a proper design role instead of just assisting someone all day.

“Arghh, finally, a change of job.” I said out loud, jumping around my room like a child who just got the toy she has been begging for. I didn’t care to look at myself in the mirror, I already felt very good so I grabbed my bag and walked out of the room still smiling.

But that excitement didn’t last as long as I wanted it to. By the next day, the joy had turned into something more complicated. I sat with the offer letter open on my laptop for hours, just staring at it, not really reading the words anymore, just thinking.

Should I tell Adrian before I sign anything? Would it even matter to him? Or would it just be another thing he would try to control, the way he tried to control almost everything else in his life.

I spent days going back and forth in my head. Some mornings I woke up certain I would tell him everything, that I owed him at least that much after everything between us. Other nights I convinced myself it wasn’t his business at all, that my career decisions were mine to make regardless of whatever we were to each other.

And then there was Victoria, the rumors about her had grown louder around the office in that week, whispers about how she had been spotted following Adrian up from a meeting, how the two of them had lunch together somewhere, how some people swore they never really separated in the first place, that the divorce was just something for the public eye.

I didn’t know how much of it was true and how much was just office gossip feeding on itself, but it didn’t matter. Every version of that story wore down whatever hope I had left about him, about us, about whether there was even an “us” worth holding onto.

So I stopped debating, I signed the employment form one evening while I was sitting alone in my room, no music, no distractions, just me and the paper in front of me. I read every line carefully before I finally scribbled my signature at the bottom, and when I was done, I called Amanda immediately.

“I did it,” I said, the moment she picked up.

“Did what?”

“I signed. The new job, it’s official now.”

She screamed so loud I had to move the phone away from my ear. “Finally! Oh my God, Bianca, I’m so proud of you. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to just leave this place?”

“It’s not that simple, Amanda. There’s still the notice period. I can’t just walk out tomorrow.”

“How long do you have left?”

“About fifteen days, my contract has this clause, I have to serve the full notice of ninety days before I can leave without any issues.”

“Fifteen days,” she repeated, like she was doing the math in her head. “Okay, that’s not too bad, you’ve done seventy five days, you can survive the remaining.”

Emma’s eyes widened slowly as the pieces clicked together in her head. I braced myself for her anger, for questions about why I never told her sooner but instead, she reached for my hand and held it tightly.

“Bianca,” she said, her voice soft, almost breaking. “He did all that for me? Without even letting me know who he was?”

I nodded, my throat tightening. “He didn’t want you to feel like you owed anyone anything. He just wanted you to get better.”

She was quiet for a moment, processing everything, and when she finally spoke again, there was no trace of anger in her voice, only gratitude. “I don’t even know how to thank someone like that. I don’t know how to thank you either, for carrying all of this alone.”

Seeing how she reacted well to the whole thing, I told her more after that, I told her about the way things had grown between Adrian and me, how it started as something neither of us expected and slowly became something that felt real, even if neither of us ever said it out loud properly.

“That’s part of why I’m leaving the job,” I admitted. “Both of us are in messy places right now. Me with everything going on in my head, him with whatever is happening with his ex wife and family. It just felt easier to step back before things got worse.”

Emma studied my face for a long moment, “Do you really want to leave the job,” she asked slowly, “or do you want to leave him?”

My mouth opened, ready to answer immediately but nothing came out. I took a deep breath and searched my own mind for an answer but I still couldn’t answer her.