He Thought I’d Compromise Chapter 05

He suddenly laughed, but there was a chill in that laugh. He had never allowed anyone to manipulate him like this.

“Suit yourself. I told you before, if you want out, we can end this.”

He reached over and pressed the intercom, then instructed, “From today onward, Stella’s resignation process no longer needs to go through me.”

“If this is another one of your tests, then you’ve painted yourself into a corner.”

There he was again, looking at me with complete certainty, as if he had found yet another piece of leverage over me.

“Of course, if you regret it, I can pretend I never saw your resignation request.”

I picked up the documents and looked at him calmly without saying a word.

Behind me, Bennett let out a mocking laugh.

“Just how important do you think you are? It was only five years. Do you really think you’re that special?”

I turned back to look at him, and my already frozen heart cracked open by the thinnest line.

There were few words more hurtful than those.

Anyone could say cruel things, and I was not about to let him have the last word. “Of course. It was only a relationship. I’m capable, young, and beautiful. Even if it hadn’t been you these past five years, Mr. Lancaster, there would have been other men.”

“Those idiots? I don’t believe you’d ever look at them.”

I looked at his fingertips, clenched so tightly they had turned pale, and said mockingly, “Since these five years meant so little, I hope you can let go as easily as you started this, Mr. Lancaster.”

He looked at me with cold, imperious arrogance. “Get out.”

Then he added in warning, “Stella Shaw, since you’ve chosen to leave, don’t ever regret it.”

I shoved the glass door open hard, and it slammed shut behind me.

It was as if that door had cut off the rest of my life from Bennett’s.

As if to prove that I was not that special and not that important, Bennett chose to ignore everything, whether it was my resignation or our breakup.

In this relationship, the hardest thing for me to endure had always been his lukewarm indifference.

In the past, whenever he got angry, I could not last more than two days before going to coax him into making up with me.

He probably thought this time would be the same. He probably thought my resignation was just a bigger tantrum than usual, and that in the end, I still would not be able to let go.

The next day, gossip suddenly spread through the office.

“Huge gossip. A woman from the office got into Mr. Lancaster’s car after work yesterday.”

“I heard Mr. Lancaster had a girlfriend. I didn’t expect the boss’s girlfriend to be hiding among us.”

“Maybe she just got a ride. What boss’s girlfriend? You really think someone like Mr. Lancaster would be interested in one of his own employees?”

“Come on. How did you even get into Kingsley with a brain like that? In all these years, have you ever seen any woman manage to get into his car like that?”

“The only problem is no one saw her face clearly.”

Someone joked, “That’s easy. Just see who doesn’t show up to work this morning.”

I lost focus for a second. Hot water overflowed from my cup and scalded my fingertip, turning it red almost instantly.

When I passed Marin’s office, I realized she had not come in that morning.

By the afternoon, many people deliberately stayed late, all to see who would get into Bennett’s car.

They waited for half the day, but no one appeared. His car sped out of the garage and left.

I thought that would be the end of it, but a few days later, someone updated the gossip.

“It was actually Wendy. Someone saw her having dinner with Mr. Lancaster at a restaurant.”

Wendy was someone I had met a few times. She was a new hire in Marketing this year, young and very pretty.

Maybe Bennett was right. I was not that important, and I was not that special.

Five years ago, it could have been me, but it could also have been any other pretty young girl.

The next second, a page popped up on my computer.

[Your resignation process has been completed.]

[It has been an honor to have you with us. Kingsley sincerely wishes you every success in the next chapter of your career.]