Tit For Tat Chapter 24
I went on.
“I was never merchandise the Bennett family returned, and I was never a bargain the Cole family picked up.”
“I belong to myself.”
“What you really sent away with that one click was your right to stand beside me.”
He lowered his head.
After a long time, he asked, “There’s really no way back?”
“No.”
“The second you saw 327 recipients and still hit ‘continue,’ there wasn’t.”
This time, he didn’t try to stop me.
I walked past him.
For a long time, there were no footsteps behind me.
After that day, Adrian never came to Hart Real Estate again.
He cooperated fully with the internal review and stepped away from every project connected to me.
Several of the people who had laughed in the private room that night sent apologies. I didn’t reply. Two consulting partners who had forwarded the page to the media had their contracts terminated by Cole Capital, and another employee was disciplined for deleting records.
Some said Adrian had become ruthless.
Others said he had finally learned how long the shadow of an email could be.
But whether he regretted it or not no longer had anything to do with me.
Harbor Dock’s loan review resumed on the nineteenth day.
The financing cost was slightly higher than originally planned.
My team and I renegotiated contracts, secured new guarantees, and re-explained our governance structure to every public-sector partner.
It wasn’t the kind of victory you read about in romance novels.
It was hard reality—late nights, spreadsheets, and signatures.
But when the new funds were finally wired into our account, I knew with absolute clarity:
I was standing here not because someone had pulled me from the rain.
I was standing here because I hadn’t fallen.