SORRY EX-HUSBAND, I AM NEVER COMING BACK

CHAPTER 5 - GETTING STARTED

NATALIA

I stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the city below while I waited. My father had already left, satisfied that the handover was settled. The staff too had dispersed, and the only thing left to deal with was the b***h I had called.

I heard the door open behind me and I turned around slowly.

Ciara walked in like she owned the place. Her red hair was pinned back, and her chin was tilted at an arrogant angle. She didn’t bother closing the door gently. She let it swing and it clicked shut behind her with a sharp sound.

She dropped a sealed envelope on the desk without a word and crossed her arms.

“My resignation,” she announced. “Effective immediately. I don’t need to work somewhere I’m not wanted.”

She looked me dead in the eyes and smirked.

“Besides, I have better things to do.”

I stared at the envelope for a moment. Then I looked up at her and smiled.

“Sit down, Ciara.”

She blinked, caught off guard by my calm.

“Excuse me?”

“I said sit down,” I repeated, pulling out my chair and settling into it. “Let’s discuss this like two civil adults.”

She let out a short laugh. “There’s nothing to discuss. I’ve made my decision and you can’t stop me from—”

“Sit down.”

Something in my voice made her pause. She studied me for a second, probably trying to figure out whether I was bluffing. Then, reluctantly, she pulled out the chair across from me and sat.

I opened the drawer beside me and pulled out a thick folder. I had stayed up half the night reviewing the company’s financial records, and what I found had made my stomach turn.

I slid the folder across the desk toward her.

“Take a look at that.”

She didn’t move at first. Then, slowly, she reached out and flipped it open. Her eyes scanned the first page and I watched her face change.

“These are the company’s financial records for the last eighteen months,” I said. “And these—” I leaned forward and tapped a highlighted section, “—are unauthorized transfers...all traceable back to an account registered in your name.”

Ciara’s eyes remained fixed on me.

“I don’t know what you’re implying,” she said flatly.

“I’m not implying anything,” I replied. “I’m telling you directly. You’ve been embezzling funds from this company, Ciara and I have every single transaction documented right there in that file.”

She closed the folder and pushed it back toward me as if it was nothing more than junk mail.

“You can’t prove anything.”

“I already have,” I said. “And if you stand up from that chair and walk out of this office right now, my next call will be to the police.”

That made her pause. I could see the calculation happening behind her eyes. She was weighing her options, measuring how serious I was.

Then her eyes dropped to the resignation envelope still sitting on the desk between us.

I picked it up and tore it in half.

“You’re not going anywhere,” I said. “Not until I’m done with you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t keep me here.”

“I’m not keeping you here,” I said. “I’m giving you a choice. Stay and face the consequences of what you’ve done, or walk out that door and face them in handcuffs.”

She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, switching tactics.

“You know what your problem is, Natalia?” she said. “You take everything so personally.”

I stared at her, wondering where she was heading with this.

“Robert and I didn’t gang up on you,” she continued. “You were the one who came in between us. Robert and I had something real long before you showed up with your daddy’s money and your sad little volunteer job.”

I felt the sting of her words but I kept my expression neutral.

“And this threat?” she continued, waving a hand dismissively. “I’m not scared of you. Robert will pay whatever you throw at me. He’ll bail me out without blinking.”

I let the silence last for a moment. Then I reached into the folder, pulled out a single printed sheet of paper and slid it across the desk.

“Then let him pay this,” I said.

She picked it up, her eyes scanning the content and after a while, she set the paper down.

Much to my annoyance, she smiled.

“Fine,” she said, folding the invoice and tucking it into her bag. “Robert will handle it.”

She stood up, smoothed her skirt, and walked out of my office without looking back.

I stared at the door she had walked through and I realized that all I felt now was pain.

Because somewhere beneath all of my resolve, the image of Robert paying fifty million dollars for another woman stung in a way I couldn’t ignore.

He had never done anything close to that for me. Everything I gave him, every investment, every sacrifice, had been mine alone.

And now he was going to throw millions to save the very woman he had been cheating on me with.

I pressed my fingers to my temple and sighed. I had work to do, so I wasn’t going to sit there feeling sorry for myself.

Just then the door opened again.

I looked up, and my breath caught in my throat when I saw Robert walk in.

My heart twisted painfully in my chest as the realization hit me. Of course, he had come to pay the money to bail Ciara out. He really loved her that much.

Not wanting to drag it out further, I reached for a notepad on my desk and scribbled down the company’s account details. I tore the sheet off and slid it across the table without a word.

He looked down at it and up at me.

And then, slowly, he pushed the paper back towards me.

Before I could say anything, he went down on his knees.

“Natalia,” he mumbled. “I made a mistake.”

I stared at him, unable to speak.

“I was wrong about everything,” he continued. “I want you back and I’ll do anything if you can give me one more chance.”

The room was dead silent except for the sound of my own heartbeat.

I looked down at the man who had handed me divorce papers on my birthday, the same man who had chosen another woman and watched her humiliate me without flinching.

And now he was on his knees in my office.