A Decade Undone by Deceit

A Decade Undone by Deceit

Er Duo

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I collapsed from exhaustion after dedicating ten years of my life to my CEO girlfriend, Kendal. I gave up my music, my dreams, everything to build her empire. At the hospital, the doctor delivered the news. Malignant tumor. I needed emergency surgery to save my life. Kendal never visited. Not once. I later found out she was on the phone with another man, sweetly telling him she missed him while I was lying in a hospital bed. Two weeks after they cut the cancer out of me, on her birthday, I went home and cooked her favorite meal. It was supposed to be our last supper, a final goodbye. She stumbled in late that night, drunk, carried piggyback by that same man. They were wearing matching black t-shirts. His said, "I'm with her." Hers said, "I'm with him." She saw me and froze, her laughter dying in her throat. She scrambled off his back, her face a mask of panic and guilt. But I felt nothing. Not anger, not jealousy. The part of me that could feel pain for her had been carved out on the operating table, right along with the tumor. I looked her straight in the eye. "It's over." Then I walked out of the penthouse we once called home, leaving her standing alone in the monument to our failed relationship. This time, I wasn't coming back.

Chapter 1

I collapsed from exhaustion after dedicating ten years of my life to my CEO girlfriend, Kendal. I gave up my music, my dreams, everything to build her empire. At the hospital, the doctor delivered the news.

Malignant tumor. I needed emergency surgery to save my life.

Kendal never visited. Not once. I later found out she was on the phone with another man, sweetly telling him she missed him while I was lying in a hospital bed.

Two weeks after they cut the cancer out of me, on her birthday, I went home and cooked her favorite meal. It was supposed to be our last supper, a final goodbye.

She stumbled in late that night, drunk, carried piggyback by that same man.

They were wearing matching black t-shirts. His said, "I'm with her." Hers said, "I'm with him."

She saw me and froze, her laughter dying in her throat. She scrambled off his back, her face a mask of panic and guilt.

But I felt nothing. Not anger, not jealousy. The part of me that could feel pain for her had been carved out on the operating table, right along with the tumor.

I looked her straight in the eye. "It's over."

Then I walked out of the penthouse we once called home, leaving her standing alone in the monument to our failed relationship. This time, I wasn't coming back.

Chapter 1

I placed the resignation letter on the HR manager' s desk. The paper was crisp and white, a stark contrast to the storm brewing inside me.

"Brock? What' s this?" Sarah asked, her eyes wide with surprise. She picked up the letter as if it might burn her.

She read it, her expression shifting from confusion to disbelief. "You' re leaving? After all this time?"

I just nodded, my throat too tight to speak.

"But... Brock, it' s your ten-year anniversary with Kendal next week. The whole company knows. We were planning a surprise."

Ten years. The words hung in the air, heavy and meaningless. A decade of my life, poured into her, into her company. For nothing.

I stayed silent, my face a blank mask. I couldn' t afford to let any emotion show. If I started, I might not be able to stop.

Sarah sighed, seeing the resolve in my eyes. She stood up. "I have to get this signed by Kendal."

"She' s the CEO," I said, my voice flat. "That' s the procedure."

She left the office, and I stared out the window at the city skyline. This was the view from our new penthouse office, a symbol of the success I had helped build. The success that had cost me everything.

Sarah returned a few minutes later, the letter now bearing Kendal' s looping, arrogant signature. She hadn' t even bothered to look at what she was signing.

"She didn' t even ask what it was," Sarah said, her voice a whisper. "She was on a call."

Of course, she was. Always busy, always important.

"Brock, are you sure about this? InnovateX needs you. Kendal... she needs you. You handle everything. Without you, this place will fall apart."

A dull ache started in my chest. Sarah was right. I was the one who remembered her mother' s birthday, who handled her family' s endless demands, who made sure her coffee was exactly how she liked it. I was her executive assistant, her boyfriend, her shadow. The man who made her world run smoothly so she could shine.

The ache sharpened as I remembered what I found last night. We had just moved into the penthouse apartment, the one she' d promised would be our forever home. I came back from a late meeting to find a man' s watch on the nightstand. It wasn' t mine. It was a Rolex, flashy and expensive, just like the men she always seemed to find.

I picked it up. It was still warm. The betrayal was a physical thing, a punch to the gut that left me breathless. It wasn' t the first time. Not even the tenth. But this time, in our new home, the one that was supposed to represent our future... this time was different.

I didn' t confront her. I didn' t yell. I simply put the watch in my pocket, walked out, and spent the night in a hotel, the silence of the room screaming louder than any argument ever could. Ten years. I had given her my youth, my music, my dreams. I had traded my guitar for a planner, my songs for spreadsheets.

The next morning, I saw her. I told her I was leaving her and the company.

She just laughed, a dismissive, tinkling sound that grated on my nerves. "Brock, don't be dramatic. You' re just tired."

She touched my arm, her touch feeling like ice. "You' d never leave me. You love me too much."

She walked away, confident and self-assured, never once looking back. She didn' t believe me. She thought I was a permanent fixture in her life, a piece of furniture she could always count on.

That was when I knew it was truly over.

I went straight from that conversation to the office and typed up my resignation.

"Brock?" Sarah' s voice pulled me back to the present. "Are you okay?"

"I' m fine," I said, my voice steady. "Please find a replacement as soon as possible. I' ll help with the transition."

I turned and walked out of her office, not looking back.

Later that evening, there was a tech gala. Kendal, of course, was the star of the show. She sent me a text.

Dry cleaning. My blue dress. Need it by 7.

No please. No thank you. Just an order. She didn't even know I had already resigned.

I didn' t reply. I called her new junior assistant and told her to handle it. Then, I drove to the dry cleaner' s myself. It was a habit, a reflex ingrained over five years of being her personal caretaker.

For five years, I had done everything. I booked her appointments, managed her schedule, even dealt with her snobbish mother, Diane, who never missed a chance to remind me I wasn't good enough for her daughter. I did it all because I thought I was making her life easier, helping her build her dream.

Now I knew I was just a convenience. A tool she used and discarded at will.

I dropped the dress off at the office for the junior assistant to take to her. I didn' t want to see her.

But I went to the gala anyway. A part of me needed to see it one last time.

She told me to wait for her outside, that it was a high-profile event. She didn' t want her assistant-boyfriend cramping her style.

I found a quiet corner in the back, watching her. She moved through the crowd like a queen, charming and beautiful, a glass of champagne in her hand. She was talking to a handsome man, laughing, her hand on his arm. It was a familiar scene, one I had grown numb to.

She was in her element, the center of everyone' s attention.

I checked my watch. It was time.

I took one last look at her, the woman I had loved for a decade. The woman who had shattered my heart into a million pieces.

Then I stood up and walked out of the gala, the sound of her laughter fading behind me.

I had waited long enough. It was time to leave for good.

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