If Your Heart Doesn’t Lean Towards Me I Don’t Want It Chapter 02
When Ellis came home the next morning, I was still sitting in the living room.
“You’ve been up all night?”
He paused, his voice softening a fraction.
“What did you want to talk about yesterday?”
I looked at the man I had loved for three years and felt like I was looking at a stranger.
“Nothing.”
I stood up, and he rose with me.
“I’ll drive you to work. It’s on my way.”
In three years, it was the first time he had ever offered to take me to work.
An old song played in the car, one he’d listened to constantly when we first got together.
After a few minutes, I realized this wasn’t the way to my office.
“My office is the other way, isn’t it?”
Ellis turned the wheel.
“We’re picking up Tessa first.”
“I got her a job at your company. She’ll be your direct supervisor, starting today.”
I froze.
Just yesterday, she’d been crying on the phone about being unemployed. Today, Ellis had parachuted her into a management position.
When I was on probation, I’d worked until midnight every day for three months just to secure my position.
Ellis had known. It had never occurred to him to help me.
When the car stopped, Tessa pulled open the passenger door. The moment she saw me, her face fell.
“Ellis, is this your girlfriend?”
Ellis said nothing.
Tessa looked me up and down, the corner of her mouth curling into a sneer.
“So this is your taste now?”
She slammed the door and climbed into the back seat.
I looked at Ellis.
He still said nothing. He just reached into the center console, pulled out a still-warm breakfast, and handed it into the back.
A chocolate croissant from that famous French bakery eight miles from our apartment.
He’d only bought one. And it was for her.
At the office, Tessa came for me on her very first day.
My coworkers had no idea how I’d managed to offend the new boss, and they could only offer sympathetic glances. I offered no explanation.
During a break, I went to the stairwell for some air.
Tessa followed me in, casually shutting the door behind her.
“Last night, I asked Ellis to get back together with me. He said no.”
I looked at her, silent.
Her voice turned cold.
“For all these years, no matter what I asked for, he always said yes. Even after I was the one who dumped him, he still came running back.”
“Last night was the first time he ever rejected me. Because of you.”
She sounded aggrieved, but I was the one who had spent the last three years living in her shadow.
“Are you finished?”
I turned to leave.
Tessa grabbed me and shoved. Hard.
My feet went out from under me. Behind me was the staircase.
The back of my head slammed against a sharp edge, and my vision exploded in a flash of white.
Through the roaring pain, I could still hear her footsteps clattering down the stairs.
She pulled out her phone and called Ellis, her voice instantly turning tearful.
“Ellis, I think something happened.”
“Coralie tried to push me just now. I dodged, and she fell down the stairs.”
When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed.
Ellis was sitting beside me, holding my hand.
“You’re awake? How do you feel? Does your head still hurt?”
It had been a long time since he’d looked at me with such concern.
I pulled my hand away.
“Ellis, we…”
Before I could finish, my mother rushed in, her eyes red.
“Coralie, you didn’t know you were pregnant?”
“The doctor said it was a serious fall. The baby’s condition is unstable. You have to rest.”