Resign with Grace, Return with Fire

Lester looked at me with undisguised smugness, yet he still forced himself to put on a magnanimous act. He said, "It's okay, really. I'll be fine as long as Fred doesn't make things difficult for me at work. We're colleagues, after all. Let's just work together in peace."

Sandra looked at Lester with clear approval. "Lester, you're just too kind. People take advantage of the kindhearted. If you keep being like this, you'll suffer for it."

Then, she turned her cold gaze on me. "Fred, Lester is only letting this go because he's kind, but you still have to apologize. You poured that dish over his head before. His face still hurts even now. Getting physical is where I draw the line."

I glanced at Lester's unblemished face and found it laughable. Sandra really was capable of lying with a straight face.

She had once protected me the same way.

Now, she was still spreading her arms like a mother hen to offer protection. Only this time, the one she was shielding was Lester.

Seeing that I still hadn't moved, Sandra swept a cold glance over me and asked sternly, "What are you standing there for? Come over and apologize. Do you even want your job back?"

Watching the two of them go back and forth rendered me utterly speechless.

"Who said I was going to apologize? And I have no intention of going back to Wendell Group. Could you please get out of my way?"

"Fred, enough already!" Sandra snapped. "I'm already showing mercy by letting you come back, and you're still not satisfied?"

She looked at me with disappointment written all over her face.

Meanwhile, Lester wore an expression as though he had seen through me and said smugly, "Oh, I get it. Fred must feel upset because I took over his projects and position.

"But Ms. Wendell, Fred walked away from the job. Someone had to do the work. I didn't expect him to be this petty. If that's the case, maybe I should give the position back to him. After all, he's more suitable than I—"

Before Lester could finish speaking, Sandra cut him off decisively. "Lester, there's no need to belittle yourself. You deserve this position."

As she spoke, the disgust in her eyes when she looked at me deepened, as if I would be pushing my luck if I didn't take the hint and back down.

But I was genuinely speechless.

With Lester's level of ability, where did this confidence come from? Was Sandra really not afraid that he would mess things up?

Then again, I had already resigned and broken up with Sandra. None of this had anything to do with me anymore.

When that day finally came, I only hoped that she would still be able to smile.

I shook my head, said nothing, and turned to leave.

"Fred, I'm talking to you! Are you pretending to be deaf? Stop right there…"

Just as Sandra was about to lash out, her phone suddenly rang. She hurriedly answered it.

She didn't put the call on speaker, but I clearly heard the flustered voice of her assistant, Liam Pittman, on the other end. "Ms. Wendell, this is bad, really bad. The proposal we submitted yesterday had a major flaw. It caused massive losses for the client, and now, they're preparing to sue us!"

Sandra's expression turned ice-cold. "What? Who's in charge of that project?"

There was a brief pause on the line before Liam answered shakily, "It's… Lester."