His expression was unreadable.
"I can keep you in the company on only one condition."
Hope returned immediately.
If there was a condition, maybe I could accept it.
Maybe I could fix whatever was wrong.
"What condition?"
He looked directly at me.
"If you want to stay, starting tomorrow, you will no longer work for me for a salary."
I stared at him.
For a moment, the sentence didn't make sense.
"I'm sorry?"
"You heard me."
"You want me to work without a salary?"
Richard said nothing.
And unfortunately, his silence gave my frightened mind exactly the answer it expected.
Something inside me broke.
Seven years.
Seven years of staying late.
Seven years of answering calls outside office hours.
Seven years of solving emergencies.
Seven years of loyalty.
I thought about all the times I had defended Richard when other employees called him cold.
I had always believed there was kindness beneath that intimidating exterior.
Now I felt foolish.
My eyes filled with tears.
"I thought you were a different kind of man."
Richard's expression changed.
"Emily—"
"No."
I raised my hand.
"Please don't."
"You're misunderstanding—"
"I gave you seven years."
My voice cracked.
"If you wanted to fire me, you could have fired me. You didn't need to humiliate me first."
"Emily, listen."
But I couldn't.
Fear had spent an entire week building inside me, and now it had turned into anger.
I stood.
Richard called after me.
"Come to the office tomorrow at ten."
I turned away.
"I won't."
Then I walked out of the park.
I cried almost the entire way home.
When my mother asked what happened, I couldn't explain everything.
I simply said, "I lost my job."
She hugged me.
That somehow made me cry harder.
That night, my phone rang three times.
Richard.
I ignored every call.
Part of me wanted to answer and demand an explanation.
Another part never wanted to hear his voice again.
Eventually, I switched my phone to silent.
The next morning, I woke up exhausted.
I had barely slept.
At nine o'clock, someone knocked on my door.
When I opened it, the company's lawyer, Mr. Wilson, was standing outside.
I stared at him.
"What are you doing here?"
"You need to come to the office."
"If Mr. Bennett sent you, tell him I'm no longer interested."
Mr. Wilson smiled slightly.
"That's exactly what he told me you would say."
I frowned.
"What is going on?"
He didn't answer directly.
Instead, he said, "Give me ten minutes. Come with me, and you'll understand."
I almost refused.
But curiosity won.
An hour later, I walked back into the office where I had spent seven years of my life.
Everything looked familiar, yet suddenly I felt like a visitor.
Mr. Wilson led me directly to Richard's office.
When I entered, I stopped.
Richard was there.
So was the head of accounting.
Two senior executives were sitting beside her.