Chapter 3 ~Dante~

Mira's POV

There was pin drop silence for a moment.

Liam was the first to break it as he let out a loud laugh, throwing his head back like I'd said something very amusing.

“Resign?” He said in between laughs. “Mira, come on.”

Romy had a small amused expression on his face too.

“Remember college? When she'd trail behind Dante to scare off any girl who looked at him twice.” Liam recounted to Romy, then he wiped fake tears from his eyes and turned to me. “You can't possibly be serious about quitting. Do you know how many women will openly fawn over him with you gone?”

His tone was mocking but I paid no attention to him, my eyes trained on Dante, whose narrowed eyes were looking back at me. The old me would have dropped my eyes and apologized by now but that girl had died that night on the hospital floor.

“If this is your way of getting my attention,”he finally voiced. His tone sharp in the way it always was when he believed I was wasting his time. “It won't work. Stop the theatrics and get back to work.”

Theatrics?

I almost laughed. He'd known me for years and never seen this side of me, yet he called it theatrics. I took a deep breath, reining in my emotions and ignored the ache in my chest.

"I'm not performing, Dante." I held his gaze. “I'm serious.”

After everything that I experienced in my past life, I'd decided that I was done spending my whole life running after a person. This time, I was going to live for myself and for the things I truly cared about.

Liam sat up straighter, the laugh gone from his face. "Cut the bullshit, Mira. You've been at this man's side for so long, building your life around him. Are you sure you can survive walking away now?"

Liam wasn't wrong, I had dedicated years of my life, given up so much opportunities, to be close to this man. But I couldn't tolerate his presence for another day hence I was leaving even if it meant starting everything all over from scratch.

"I'll manage." I said simply.

Romy muttered something I couldn't make out to himself.

Dante's jaw tightened. I could tell he was irritated, not because he cared about losing me but because I was disrupting the order of things. I was stepping out of my usual role and that didn't sit well with him.

“Don’t play these games, Mira. You know Dante doesn’t do second chances. Once you walk out that door, it’s over.” Liam said.

He meant it as a threat and I was just about to tell him I was counting on that when the office door swung open.

Camila stepped in and my throat tightened. She must have followed right behind me as she hadn't even bothered to change out of the attire she had on this morning.

Dante’s face changed the instant he saw her. His frown eased up and his eyes warmed in a way they had never once done for me. It hurt more than I expected, even knowing the truth now.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," she said, already striding into the office.

"Not at all." Liam answered before anyone else could, already straightening up in his seat like her presence was of great importance.

Camila's eyes drifted to me briefly and there was nothing hostile in them. Just that practiced look of concern she always wore when we had an audience.

"Mira, I followed you here because I felt terrible about this morning." She pressed her fingers together in front of her, the picture of sincerity. "I’m sorry if my coming back from abroad upset you, sis. I really hope you can forgive me. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

I stared at her. Of course, she'd come here to perform this act in front of Dante just so I'd be seen as the bad guy.

I sighed. “You didn't need to come to my workplace for that. Don't you have better things to do?”

Everyone looked taken aback by what I said but I ignored their reaction and walked over to the printer in the corner. My hands shook a little as I fed in a blank page and hit the buttons.

The machine hummed to life and soon started processing my ticket out of this hell. The company already had a prepared resignation letter for everyone, all I had to do was input my name and signature.

Camila, who didn't understand what was happening, interrupted the silence. She turned to Dante. “Your birthday is coming up soon. Have you thought about when you’ll finally marry my sister?”

The atmosphere in the room shifted abruptly.

Liam and Romy exchanged a glance.

The Hayes family tradition was well known. Before any heir turned thirty, they were expected to formally present the woman who would stand beside them as the future hostess of the family. It happened at the birthday celebration, in front of everyone that mattered.

Dante's thirtieth was approaching and in my past life, it was at that very celebration that he had formally declared me his fiancée. Our wedding followed not long after.

But look how that turned out.

Liam glanced at Dante, then back at me. "Wasn’t your grandmother planning to announce Mira as…” He trailed off noting how awkward everything had gotten.

Dante stayed quiet and just watched me instead, as though he was waiting for that information to elicit some sort of reaction out of me. He expected me to crack any second, to remember what was at stake and fall back in line. To ask about the party, maybe even beg to be invited as his companion.

But I wasn't going to because I wasn’t that girl anymore. The one who waited and hoped and begged for scraps of his attention.

Back then, Dante had never wanted to marry me. It was all because of duty and family pressure. Now I was going to help free him from the shackles that tied him to me.

“Sis, will you be attending the party?” Camila asked, her eyes still on me.

“No. I won’t be attending the party,” I said. My voice came out clearer than I felt inside.

And the room went dead quiet.