CHAPTER THREE
1027 Words
KIANA.
I rushed to the hospital with my stomach churning and my heart beating like a drum in her chest. Then I sat in the waiting room, my fingers tightly gripping the edge of her chair. There was still the chance that the test was wrong. I mean, these things do make mistakes right?
But when the nurse finally confirmed what I already suspected—I was pregnant—I felt the world tilt and crash beneath my feet. I vaguely remembered nodding as the nurse handed me some pamphlets, chirping something about options and resources. It was a blur.
The next week and two days since then were spent in a haze of anxiety and indecision. Every time I thought I was ready to choose, a new wave of doubts crashed over me. Aborting the baby felt wrong, but keeping it? That would mean leaving my job, and telling Mason was out of the question. He'd made it clear, wordlessly but unmistakably, that their one night together had been a mistake.
As if my own turmoil wasn't enough, Mason seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. His behavior over the past week had gone from rude and distant to downright hostile and cruel. Every interaction with him was sharper, harsher, more unforgiving.
"Ms. Howard," Mason's voice barked from the doorway of his office one morning, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Yes, Mr. Sinclair?" I replied, standing quickly, my hands already clutching my notepad.
"Why am I still waiting for the updated figures for the European branch? You were supposed to email them an hour ago." His dark eyes bored into mine, his tone as cold as ice.
"I'm sorry, sir. I…”
"I am not here for any apologies, neither do I care for them," he growled, cutting me off. "I am here for the results. Do you think I need your excuses to run this company?”
I bit my tongue to hold back any retorts. "I'll get it to you immediately."
"See that you do," he said, disappearing back into his office without another word.
By the time the Sinclair Corps annual conference arrived, i was barely holding myself together. It was the biggest event of the year; a gathering of Sinclair Corp.'s top executives from around the globe.
I had planned every detail of the conference, just like I had each year since I’d become Mason's secretary. This time, though, things were different. Pregnancy had thrown my usually efficient self out the window. I forgot things and was emotional and always tired.
Mason and I arrived together, as we always did for most work functions, and the minute we stepped into the grand ballroom, I slipped into professional mode: mingling with guests and making sure that everything was running just right.
But as I was going over my final agenda backstage, my heart sank. I’d forgotten to finalise the formatting for the digital presentation that Mason needed in order to display it on stage.
"Oh no, no, no," I whispered, scrambling to fix it.
As Mason ascended the podium, things with the presentation went awry. For several excruciatingly long seconds, the screens flickered back and forth between blank screens and error messages until I finally uploaded the right file. Although less than a minute passed, the tension in the room was palpable.
His icy eyes darkened a moment before he began his speech like nothing happened. When he finally came off the stage, his jaw was clenched, his expression thunderous. He strode right to me, his fingers clamping down on my elbow like a vice as he dragged me into an empty meeting room.
"What the hell was that?" he hissed, his voice low but furious.
“I'm so sorry, Mr. Sinclair," I stammered, wringing my hands together. "There was a mix-up with the file, but I fixed it as fast as I could.”
“Fixed it?" he repeated, his voice dripping with irritation. "You call that a fix? Do you have any idea how unprofessional that made us look? I've been noticing your… incompetence lately, Kiana. You've been distracted, careless, and sloppy. If this is the best you can do, maybe you're not cut out for this job anymore.”
My stomach churned, a mix of anger and humiliation flooding her. “That’s not fair,” I said, my voice trembling. “I made a mistake. One mistake. I’ve been handling everything for this conference on top of my usual workload—”
“And failing miserably at it,” he interrupted coldly. “Your performance has been poor and unacceptable.”
Something inside me snapped. “You know what, Mason? You’re a f*****g prick,” I said, my voice rising.
His eyebrows shot up in surprise, but I was too angry to care.
"Working for you started out as a blessing, but it's turned into a nightmare," I said, my voice shaking with emotion. "You're cruel, insensitive, and you expect perfection like you're some kind of god. Well, newsflash: I'm human, Mason. And humans make f*****g mistakes sometimes."
He opened his mouth to reply, but I didn't give him the chance. "You know what? I quit," I said, yanking off my name tag and tossing it onto the desk. "I'm done."
Not waiting for his response, I turned on my heel and marched out of the room.
In the lobby, I almost ran into kind Emma from the bathroom incident, who was chatting with another employee.
“Oh, hi Kiana!" Emma paused, her brow furrowing in concern. "Wait, are you okay?"
"Not now," I mumbled, hurrying past her.
Outside, I did laps around the parking lot as my hands shook while waiting for my Uber. My phone buzzed in my hands, and I looked at the screen. Mason's name flashed across it.
I ignored the call, but a moment later, a text came through:
I’ll spare your insolence a minute ago just because. Go oversee the Asian branch ambassadors.
I glared at the message, my anger flaring anew. When my Uber pulled up, I climbed in without a backward glance and the car sped into the night.
- Writer
