Spring After A Cold Winter

The termination notice arrived, cold and impersonal, ending my three-year stint as the "unofficial queen" of Hayes Tech and Nathan Hayes' s girlfriend. Just like that, I was collateral damage for the return of Chloe Davis, his high school sweetheart and "white knight."

But then, a strange relief washed over me. This corporate execution was a stark contrast to the messy life I lived, a life already tangled in Nathan' s possessive grip.

My desk, the one Nathan himself had moved so he could "see me whenever he looked out his office window," now faced a tightly shut blind.