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He was right.

The day after my father rebuffed the Ashfords, someone bought a trending post with Lily's old forum entry about how she felt sorry for what she'd done to Garrett.

The sentiment shifted online:

Poor Garrett, honestly. He ran that company for a year and got thrown out the moment she was done with him.

She found someone richer and invented reasons to ditch him. That's what this was.

She was cheating with the Davenport heir the whole time, obviously.

She left the man to manage her family's company solo while she travelled the world, and then expected him to be celibate? She's delusional.

The Holloway share price wobbled.

I kept working.

Lily completed her resignation and appeared in my office doorway wearing a plunging black gown that had no business being on anyone at 10am on a weekday.

She looked around — this office that had once had a desk reserved for her — and smiled with the confidence of a person who has just won something.

"Miss Holloway. All those people you dismissed, all of Garrett's work — did you give a single thought to where that would leave you?"

I didn't look up. "You cared enough about Holloway to do something worthwhile here. That's a shame."

Lily laughed. "You're all the same — you people with money. You think a job offer is enough to make someone bow and be grateful. I endured everything you did to me. But I'm worth more than this, and I knew it."

I put down my pen.

"Let me ask you something. I stood in front of everyone that night and gave you both my blessing. So why didn't he put that ring on your finger?"

Lily's eyes narrowed.

"Because he has better things lined up for me. You lost, and you can't admit it. You're just sore because the great Jenna Holloway, former teenage genius, got outplayed by a girl who was pretending to be stupid."

The room went quiet.

I looked at her — young, genuinely not unintelligent, shaped entirely by Garrett's need to feel superior to the woman nearest to him. I recognised the shape of it. I'd almost been there myself, years ago, when I'd convinced myself that our arrangement was balanced because I got freedom and he got power. Then he spent the night with an Instagram model, and I started planning for today.

I had never, not once, actually been targeting Lily.

Garrett was always the target.

Lily had simply been standing next to him when the shot went off.

I waved a hand, suddenly tired of all of it.

"You can go."

She left with her chin up, walking like someone who'd just won a war.