The Ex-Fiancé You Can't Afford To Lose

in my pocket, waiting to be crowned King o

ed to the microphone and signed

t announce o

nt associate I'd almost fired three times-wa

and possessive, right in fr

't break; it

that was too tight, while Serena

he crowd, dismissing me like a waite

humiliated me on live television. T

rgot one cr

the Ar

pt the FBI in the dark. A system that required my

. I simply placed the ring on a waiter

mpire was in a freefall. The accounts w

uzzed. It

ed, her voice tremb

presso and smiled at

rena. You fired the only pilot

pte

te

an my first apartment, waiting to be crowned King, when the woman I had built a

in my flute

have been my

its skin, going legitimate. We were launching the IPO that would wash our

the Ar

encrypted logistics, and the network of sena

the Un

o, the Donna, was supposed

at made men start wars. I had killed for her. I had cleaned up the messes her fath

to me only this morning.

elvet box in my

ce amplified across the silent room. "This company i

the crowd. They landed on m

ove. No warmth. Just the cold,

ghter than I had ever seen, "I am proud to introduce my partner in life

m went

followed was sca

at was too tight, straining at the seams, grinning like a s

for gross incompetence. A man who thought strate

a. He didn't shake he

h. Deep and

e silence in my chest was absolute, drowned

ove. I did

dgmental stares of the old Dons who knew exactly who did the w

lief.

pity more than

athless. She looked at the crowd,

e, like she was thanking a waiter. "But the future belongs to the

h. The old man is out. The

was a hollow,

calm. It was the calm of a man who realizes the building is bu

d into m

the street corners, stepped up beside me. His

ling with rage. "Say the word. We drop t

" I

was ste

she j

have it,

t open it. I walked over to the nearest waiter, a

the box o

he tip,

e stage. I turned my b

he expected me to stop. She expected me to argue, to beg, to m

t wal

uted. "You walking out on famil

double doors. I

the Code," I said, loud enou

open. The cool ni

ed me out. We left the gala, the lights,

ad just locked herself in the cockpit of a plane that was alrea