Chapter 1293:
They had never had a child together. No—they had two, actually. But both were gone before they ever got to see this world.
And Ari should have been theirs. The place Myron held now should have been his.
Jealousy tore through Brandon, driving him nearly mad.
He couldn’t accept any part of this reality. He wanted to rip it all apart and leave nothing standing.
But even as anger clouded his thoughts, he knew the video existed because the photos had already been taken. He couldn’t change what had happened that morning—and he certainly couldn’t change the past.
At Watson Group’s ground floor, Babette stepped inside, drawing every pair of eyes in the lobby as conversations faded into uneasy silence.
She could feel the attention, no matter how hard the others tried to mask it.
Days had passed with her holed up at home, avoiding any contact. Once she managed to pull herself together, she went to Derek—who tore into her with a long, heated lecture. Only then did the full scope of what she’d done to Watson Group truly sink in.
The mess had been cleaned up, but nothing felt right anymore.
For the first time in days, she found herself standing in Watson Group’s lobby again.
She would have given anything to stay away if she’d had a choice. The thought of coming back made her stomach twist, and the idea of facing people’s stares and whispered judgments filled her with dread. Babette wanted no part of that humiliation.
“You should have thought this through before making that choice.” Brandon’s voice still echoed in her mind from his call earlier.
“Watson Group took the worst of the fallout for you, Babette. It’s time you stepped up and dealt with the consequences too.”
His insistence left her no room to refuse. That was how she ended up here, ready or not.
𝕄ØЯE 𝕌PĐΛTΞŞ IИ GΛŁИØVΞŁŞ.ᑕØᗰ
She strode across the marble floor, her heels clicking with each determined step as she headed for the elevator. The moment she slipped inside and the doors slid shut, the hush in the lobby shattered into a swarm of gossip.
Bits of it drifted to her even through the closing doors.
“That’s her, isn’t it? The Babette Watson everyone’s been talking about online?”
“Yeah. She messed up big time and dragged the whole company down with her mistakes.”
“Funny how she vanished when things went south and only bothered to show up after the dust settled.”
The elevator’s slow ascent offered no comfort.
Babette’s first stop was the office she hadn’t dared to face in days.
Every head in the room turned as she entered. The greetings she received were stiff and forced, with everyone scrambling to look busy the moment she passed.
Babette kept silent, retreating to her private office. Before the door could close all the way, a low voice drifted in.
“This is ridiculous. Anyone else would’ve been fired on the spot, and she still has her job only because she’s Brandon’s cousin. If she weren’t a Watson, she’d be long gone.”
A dull ache settled in her chest, anger and sadness twisting together. Deep down, though, she knew their words were true.
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.
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