Chapter 14 "Thinking of You"

The world seemed to shrink around Marian as she was ushered out of the very company she'd considered an extension of her own opulent living room. The hushed whispers and pitying glances of her former colleagues scraped against her like nails on a chalkboard. Blake, the man she'd believed to be firmly under her thumb, hadn't even flickered an eyelid at her outburst. The emptiness of his gaze, devoid of the usual spark of defiance he reserved for her, sent a fresh wave of humiliation crashing over her.

Now, the silence in the once-bustling office felt deafening, a physical manifestation of the void that had opened up in her life. Yet, amidst the quiet triumph of ousting Marian, a different kind of storm brewed within Blake. A gnawing sense of emptiness gnawed at him, a hollowness that the sterile silence of the office only amplified. His mind, usually a fortress of logic and control, was now a battleground of conflicting emotions. Memories of Eva, vivid and poignant, flooded his thought