“Merina!”
Jayne could barely contain her excitement, but Marina quickly hushed her.
“Keep your voice down.”
“This is it–Niamh is finally going to get fired by Mr. Thomas. She totally deserves it!”
Marina didn’t comment.
Last night, she’d secretly sent Jayne the photos she’d snapped of Jeffrey and Niamh–clearly showing the two of them in a heated argument.
On the surface, she’d pretended to ask Jayne, “Doesn’t Jeffrey have a wife? What’s going on between him and Niamh?”
Predictably, the very next day, Jeffrey’s wife stormed into the office, causing a scene with Niamh.
By now, Niamh’s reputation at the company was in shambles. If this finally got her fired by Jonathan and out of The Thomas Group for good, all the better.
But…
Marina noticed that Jonathan hadn’t taken Niamh toward the conference room.
Instead, they headed for the elevators.
*Inside the elevator, Niamh assumed Jonathan was about to let her go.
But instead, he led her down to the B2 parking level.
“Where are we going?” Niamh asked, stopping beside a sleek black Maybach, making no move to get in.
Jonathan’s gaze lingered on her face–steady, unreadable. There was no sympathy in his eyes, and Niamh knew better than to expect any.
She turned away, self–conscious about how disheveled she must look. The last thing she wanted was Jonathan’s eyes on her now.
Jonathan opened the passenger door for her.
Was this the first time he’d ever done that for her? Niamh honestly couldn’t
remember.
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“Are you feeling sorry for me?” she asked quietly.
He shot her an amused look. “Do you think I have that much spare time?”
He circled to the driver’s side, leaving Niamh no choice but to slip into the car.
They drove in silence for a while before Jonathan finally broke it.
“Does it hurt?”
Niamh turned to glance at him. He kept his eyes on the road, focused on driving–he’d never initiated a conversation with her while driving before.
Her face definitely hurt; whoever had hit her hadn’t held back. But more than pain, she felt humiliated.
She wasn’t the other woman, but somehow she always ended up carrying the
blame.
Her gaze lingered on Jonathan, resentment simmering beneath the surface.
If only Jonathan would acknowledge her as his wife, no one in the company would dare gossip about her again.
But that would never happen.
A dull ache settled in her chest.
How pathetic was she, still hoping Jonathan would give her a place in his life after everything?
“Mr. Thomas,” she said, her voice icy, “does this count as a workplace injury?”
Jonathan couldn’t help but let out a short laugh at her forced nonchalance.
“It does.”
He pulled the Maybach into a spot at Metropolitan General Hospital.
They got out of the car together.
Niamh had suspected Jonathan might be taking her to a hospital, but she hadn’t expected him to bring her here.
Jonathan started walking toward the entrance, then realized Niamh wasn’t following.
He turned back, catching her cold, clipped words: “I’m not going in.”
“What’s with the dramatics?”
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Niamh knew Jonathan had little patience for her. The fact that he’d brought her to the hospital at all was nothing short of miraculous.
“Think what you want. I’m not going in. I’ll get my face checked somewhere else,” she said, wrapping her coat tighter around her.
Jonathan didn’t argue long. “Suit yourself. Just keep the receipt and give it to Wyatt in HR–he’ll file it as a workplace injury.”
She watched him get back into the car. The Maybach slid past her and disappeared from view.
Clouds rolled in, and the wind picked up, cooling the flush that still burned on her face..
Niamh pulled her coat tighter around herself.
The last time she’d come here, the weather had been just like this–gray and cold, with the same lonely wind.
She’d been alone then, too, shivering in her coat.
She didn’t want to dwell on whether Jonathan actually cared about her. Maybe he would have done the same for any other employee who got hurt–he did have a reputation for being a decent boss.
But there was one thing she was sure of:
Jonathan had completely forgotten that it was at this very hospital where she’d first learned she was pregnant–and where she’d lost the baby.
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