A Successful Career After Divorce

Chris’s face wasn’t fully captured in the photo, only a side profile that was slightly blurry. If Shannon wasn’t familiar with him, she probably wouldn’t have recognized him at all. But the person he was holding in his arms was unmistakably Ranita! Shannon’s eyes lit up with excitement. She had been trying to find some leverage on Ranita and now it had fallen right into her lap!Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“Did they really go into the hotel?” Shannon quickly replied.

“Yes! I saw them get into the elevator! Do you know who she is? This woman is something else, she actually managed to snag Chris!” The bitterness in her tone was palpable.

“I’ve never seen her before in our circle, definitely not some rich girl from a prominent family!” Shannon retorted. “Thanks for letting me know though, I’ll make sure to talk some sense into Chris before he gets taken advantage of.”

“That’s right. She looks like a bitch! To be held like that in public… she has no shame…”

Shannon didn’t have time for this argument though; she immediately grabbed her phone and went to find Brendon.

“Brendon…” She placed the coffee gently on his desk and brushed back her hair behind one ear. “It’s getting late and you shouldn’t strain your eyes reading those files all night.”

Brendon felt frustrated but kept quiet as he tried to relieve stress through work without looking up from his documents, “What do you need?”

“Well… I just wanted to ask if there was anything going on with Ranita? Why did she suddenly leave halfway through?” Shannon hesitated before asking.

“I don’t know.” Brendon’s anger flared up again at the mention of Ranita – that damn woman…

“I see,” Shannon lowered her head, but inside, a storm was raging. She was so angry she could have stomped on Ranita; she couldn’t believe he was helping her conceal this!

“I thought she was upset! Because coming to help disrupted her date.”

Shannon’s voice was soft and gentle, sounding nothing like someone trying to sow discord. Instead, it carried a sense of self-blame. Brendon furrowed his brow and closed the file.

“It’s not your fault, Shannon. You don’t need to say it like that. And Ranita isn’t upset, nor does she have a date.”

“But…” Shannon pursed her lips, knowing that her opportunity had arrived. She handed the phone over to Brendon, the message having been edited down to just one sentence and a picture.

“Look at this! I thought Ranita was only familiar with Steve, but I didn’t expect her to be close with Chris too!” Shannon emphasized the last word, driving the point home before easily burying the thorn in Brendon’s heart.

Brendon stared at the picture for two seconds. “Is that so? Ranita has nothing to do with me anymore. I don’t care about her business.” He paused before handing back the phone to Shannon. “Don’t mention her in front of me again.”

Shannon couldn’t contain her joyous smile but forced herself to hold it back as she softly sighed, “Ranita helped you a lot at work before… we’ll still have to work together in the future… Brendon, don’t get angry for no reason…”

“Shannon, I’m still busy here. If you have nothing else going on, then go find Holly.” Brendon interrupted her words; his heart was tangled up like a ball of yarn and he couldn’t make sense of it all.

Seeing that she had achieved what she wanted, Shannon quickly said goodbye and left. Once alone again, Brendon put down his pen and rubbed his temples before taking out his phone and calling Chris.

The call went through without any strange sounds or surprises; for some reason though he felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest.