The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 480

Sloane thought about it for a long time after she went home.

She placed the share transfer agreement the lawyer had given her on the coffee table and stared at it all night. The oak tree outside had lost all its leaves, and the moonlight illuminated the pages, making Jackson's signature glaringly clear.

She thought about the last time she saw him in the hospital room, about the crooked, handwritten note on the will, and about that perpetually empty seat at all her childhood events.

She realized she didn't hate the shares—she just didn't want them.

She didn't need a lot of money. Ever since she woke up, she had silently mapped out her own path: to get her master's degree in psychology and become a psychologist.

She had always been interested in psychology. This was the path she chose for herself, not one arranged for her by someone else.

So... she decided to give the shares back.

That way, she would never have to be entangled with that mother and daughter again.

The next morning, Sloane took a taxi to Taylor Manufacturing Corp. The receptionist led her to the vice president's office. Just as she raised her hand to knock, the door pulled open from the inside.

Garrison stood in the doorway, holding a technical specification sheet for encapsulation. They both froze.

He was wearing a dark gray coat over a light blue shirt. For once, his collar wasn't buttoned to the top, making him look far more relaxed than his usual hospital self. But the moment his eyes met hers, a flicker of undetectable panic flashed in his gaze.

"Sloane? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to talk to Howard about something." She glanced inside the office. Howard was sitting behind his desk, surrounded by stacks of documents, with two steaming cups of tea on the table. "If you're busy, I can wait outside."

Howard stood up and nodded at her, his smile warm and open.

She suddenly grabbed Sloane's wrist with a grip so tight it caught Sloane off guard.

"There's something I want you to see."

Before Sloane could ask what she meant, Tessa dragged her out of the breakroom, pulling her through the aisles of cubicles straight into the center of the open office floor.

Sloane instinctively tried to pull free, but the employees had already started looking up from their desks. Dozens of eyes locked onto her. She wasn't as strong as Tessa, and could only let herself be dragged into the wide-open space, exposed like an actor on a stage.

"What are you doing?!" Sloane snapped.

Tessa didn't answer, merely curving her lips. Sloane looked up and saw Willa standing at the front.

Willa was wearing a perfectly tailored white blazer, her hair flawlessly styled. She stood in front of the projector screen in the center of the office, poised and steady, looking like an executive about to host a press conference.