The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 16
“You didn’t mean to hurt her, so you had her plan your route, book your tickets, and then vote on whether she was qualified to enter my circle?”
No one answered.
He took off his underboss ring and placed it in front of the adviser.
“Put tonight’s record before the boss.”
“Tell him I can’t even protect the person closest to me. I’m withdrawing from consideration as his successor.”
The adviser didn’t take the ring immediately.
Hadrian opened his hand, palm up.
In the end, the adviser took the ring. By the time Hadrian walked out of the restaurant, his hand was empty.
Then he opened the group chat and changed its name to three words.
*Apologize to Mireille.*
A second later, Chloe left the chat.
The first person to come to Austin and apologize was Emily.
She sat in the café downstairs from my office, carrying a box of the cupcakes I used to like.
“Mireille, when I voted that day, I didn’t think you would really leave.”
“So that’s why you dared to vote no?”
Her eyes reddened.
“Hadrian said you’d soften. That once the trip was over, he’d come find you, and you’d forgive him.”
“You thought that, too?”
“I grew up with you. I thought you’d never really leave us behind.”
I pushed the cupcakes back toward her.
“You didn’t believe I wouldn’t leave. You believed I couldn’t bear to.”
She lowered her head and said nothing more.
The second person was Sarah.
She didn’t come. She just called.
“Mireille, I really didn’t know about them wanting to postpone the registration. Hadrian got dragged along by Chloe and the others. You can’t just blame him.”
“That abstention was yours.”
“At least I didn’t vote against you.”
“When Mom and Dad’s estate could only cover one of us to stay in college, you didn’t vote, either. In the end, I took half a year off and worked to scrape together your tuition.”
The line went silent.
“Sarah, every time, you don’t choose me. Then afterward, you tell me you didn’t hurt me.”
I hung up and set her number to Do Not Disturb.