“I can’t listen to any more of your lies.” His tone was cold, detached, but his eyes betrayed him. They were full of pain.
“Derek, please. I was at the library all day trying to find a way to fix this before we had to see David and Eleanor for dinner. I didn’t even have cell service. I’m trying to help!”
He cut me off again. “There’s no dinner with David and Eleanor. They already know everything, Jasmine. MasonCorp went to them directly, with all the dirty details. And now they know the truth about who we really are, and how we’ve been lying to them this entire time.”
My tears turned into sobs. “Derek, you have to believe me. I didn’t do this. None of this makes sense,” I muttered, my voice cracking under the weight of my frustration.
“You’re right,” he continued, his tone hardening. “It doesn’t. And you know what? I’m done trying to make it make sense.” He grabbed a duffle bag and began shoving clothes into it haphazardly.
“Derek, don’t do this,” I begged, my voice hoarse. “Don’t leave.”
He disappeared into the bathroom and reappeared with his toiletry bag, slinging it over his shoulder. “I can’t be around you right now.” He slapped his thigh, and Tora jumped up, trotting over to him with his leash in tow.
“Derek, please,” I whispered, my chest heaving with the effort of holding back another wave of sobs.
“All of my instincts told me not to trust you.” His voice was quieter, more resigned. “But I didn’t listen. And now I’m paying for it, just like my parents did when they trusted yours.”
“I thought you said we weren’t our parents,” I whispered through my tears.
“Yeah, well, if we don’t learn from the past, we’re doomed to repeat it, and I guess this is me learning that lesson.”
With that, he opened the door and walked out, Tora trailing behind him. The sound of the door clicking shut was like a dagger to my heart. I sat there, motionless, feeling the emptiness of the apartment close in around me. It felt like the end of everything.
The first thing I did after Derek left was try to call Cassie again. I refused to believe that she could have betrayed me, but nothing else made sense. My stomach churned as the phone rang once, then twice, then a third time. I was bracing myself to leave another voicemail—something incoherent and desperate—when Cassie’s voice came through the receiver, startling me so much I nearly dropped the phone.
“Jasmine?” she asked, her tone clipped, her irritation unmistakable.
“Cassie!” I blurted out, relief and tension colliding in my chest. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you all morning!”
“I’ve been a little busy,” she snapped, “trying to figure out what in the world is going on with the Miller’s Cove project.”
“That’s exactly why I’m calling.” I paced the length of theliving room. “How could you submit the report without telling me first? I thought we agreed we were going to wait!”
There was a long, heavy pause on the other end of the line before Cassie spoke again, her voice icy and controlled. “Wait,” she scoffed. “You thinkIdid this?”
“There’s no other explanation, Cassie.” I hissed into my phone. “You’re the only one I told.”
“Are you forgetting,” she said, her tone dripping with venom, “that we have an entire department? Designers, interns, assistants. They’ve all been working their asses off to pull this presentation together. Any one of them could have leaked this report without my approval.”
“Cassie, I—”
“I’m not done,” she snapped, cutting me off before I could get another word in. “I know why you don’t want to move forward with Miller’s Cove. And no, I’m not talking about Derek Carter. Do you think I’m some vapid, materialistic trust fund brat who doesn’t understand what’s at stake here? My grandfather was the first Black heart surgeon in Kansas. My mother was the first Black female partner at her law firm. Do you really think I don’t see what MasonCorp is trying to do?”
“Cassie, I’m so—”
“IsaidI’m not done,” she interrupted again, her voice rising. “You need to understand that this isn’t just about you, Jasmine. You have an entire department—an entireteam—whose livelihoods could depend on the outcome of this project. You don’t get to cut us out of the process just because you’re too busy playing house in Florida.”
“I wasn’t thinking—”
“No, you weren’t,” she shot back. “We’ve been working together for six years, and friends for even longer. You should’ve known better. I didn’t do this, Jasmine. But I have a pretty good idea who did.”
I froze, her words hitting me like a ton of bricks. “Who?” My voice was barely above a whisper.
“I’m not saying anything until I’m sure,” she said, her tone softening slightly. “I might be pissed off, but I’m not stupid. The last thing I need is an HR nightmare or even worse, a lawsuit. If you’d come to me with this sooner, we could’ve been working on a solution together. But now? Now it’s out of both of our hands.”
“You’re right.” My voice trembled with guilt. “I’m so sorry. What can I do?”
“Oh, you’ve done enough.” There was a pause, “I’m mostly upset that you didn’t think you could trust me with any of this sooner. I knew something was off with you these last few weeks, and you lied to my face every time I brought it up.” She let out a sigh. “Look, I have a lot to do here. I need to figure out who I’m going to fire over this, and I’m still deciding how pissed I am at you. I’ll call you when I have more news.”
