Ficorpio
Chapter 1
When my resignation letter landed on the conference table, the entire boardroom fell silent.
“Mr. Sterling, your coffee always has to cool to exactly sixty-two degrees Celsius. Your calendar is planned down to the minute, and I know every one of your clients’ preferences by heart.”
I met Adrian Sterling’s stunned gaze and placed my employee ID badge gently on top of the letter.
“None of that is my responsibility anymore.”
Through the half-open door of his office last night, I had seen Bella Hayes perched on his lap, laughing softly. His arm had been wrapped around the waist of the intern who had joined the company only a month ago, and his voice held a tenderness I had never once heard from him.
“She’s just my secretary. You’re the woman I’m going to marry.”
I lowered my eyes and smoothed a crease from my skirt. As I turned away, my heel came down on the brooch he had given me last year, still lying on the floor.
Those three years had been nothing but a dream.
Good luck, Mr. Sterling.
Adrian was reviewing an M&A case file when I placed my resignation letter in front of him.
The office was oppressively quiet. The only sounds were the low hum of the central air-conditioning and the whisper of paper beneath his fingertips.
“Claire Bennett, is this some kind of joke?”
He did not even look up. His pen moved swiftly over the document, circling clauses and leaving notes in the margins. His voice carried its usual assumption of control.
I drew a slow breath, forcing down the ache in my throat. When I spoke, my tone was as steady as if I were delivering a routine report.
“Mr. Sterling, I’m completely serious.”
Only then did he look at me.
Those striking eyes, the ones that had inspired countless crushes among the women at Sterling Technologies, were filled with disbelief. He stared at me as if he had never seen me before.
“Give me a reason.”
I almost laughed.
A reason?
At eleven the night before, I had returned to the office after working late because I had forgotten my phone. Was what I had seen not reason enough?
He had Bella pinned against his desk, his shirt open at the collar and her skirt pushed up to her waist. Their clothes had been in disarray as they clung to each other.
Three hours earlier, I had still been checking every line of the contract he needed for the next morning, correcting even the smallest punctuation errors.
“I believe I’ve gained enough experience here, and I’m ready to pursue new opportunities.”
I gave him the most professional answer possible, and not one word of it was the truth.
Adrian shot to his feet and came around the broad desk toward me.
A scent still clung to him. Bella’s cloyingly sweet perfume mixed with the smell of his own sweat. It was sharp, intimate, and nauseating.
“Claire, you’ve been with me for three years. What we have…”
“Mr. Sterling.” I cut him off, my voice cool. “Please address me as Ms. Bennett.”
Chapter 2
His expression darkened at once, his brows drawing together. “Is this your way of punishing me?”
Punishing him?
A cold laugh echoed in my head.
If finding out that your partner was cheating counted as picking a fight, then yes, that was exactly what I was doing.
“No.” I looked directly into his eyes. “I simply think it’s time we maintained appropriate professional boundaries. After all, I’m only your secretary, and you’re the CEO.”
I put deliberate emphasis on only your secretary.
They were his words from last night. I was merely returning them to him exactly as he had spoken them.
His frown deepened. “Claire, what exactly are you trying to say?”
“Everything I want to say is in my resignation letter.” I indicated the sheet of paper on his desk. “My contract requires one month’s notice. Today is June fifteenth, so my final day will be July fifteenth.”
“No.” A note of unmistakable panic entered his voice. “We have meetings with three major clients next week, and the Board of Directors meets at the end of the month. You can’t leave now.”
I studied the handsome face that had become so unfamiliar to me, and all I felt was cold.
For three years, I had committed every one of his habits to memory.
His coffee had to be served at sixty-two degrees. One degree hotter and he complained it was scalding; one degree cooler and he said it was cold. He signed with his left hand, so I always placed documents on the left side of his desk. His mild compulsive streak meant that every piece of stationery had to be arranged by color. He hated perfume in his office, so for three years I had never used a scented lotion or cosmetic.
I knew the PIN to his credit card. I knew his mother’s birthday. And I knew that what he feared most was losing control.
Now I was going to be the one who made him lose it.
“You can ask Bella to help you.” My tone was light, but the blow landed exactly where I intended. “I hear she’s very… capable.”
The color drained from Adrian’s face.
He knew. He had to know that I had seen everything.
At that moment, the office door opened quietly.
Bella walked in carrying a cup of coffee. She wore a tight pencil skirt and carefully applied makeup, looking bright and youthful in a way that felt jarringly out of place in the austere executive office.
“Mr. Sterling, your coffee.” Her voice was so syrupy it made my skin crawl.
I glanced at the cup. “It should be about fifty-eight degrees. Mr. Sterling won’t drink it.”
Bella froze, her smile stiffening. “But I made it at the usual time…”
“I’m the one who usually makes his coffee,” I interrupted. “I wait beside the machine for exactly two minutes and thirty-seven seconds so that it reaches sixty-two degrees.”
Chapter 3
Adrian’s expression grew even darker. His fingers trembled almost imperceptibly.
Bella clearly had not expected a cup of coffee to involve such precise requirements. She stood there clutching it, at a complete loss, as color flooded her face.
I stopped looking at her and continued. “Also, Mr. Sterling has an international conference call at three this afternoon. He’ll need the Korea Branch Q2 Financial Report. It’s on the D drive of my computer, in a folder called ‘KR_Financial_Q2.’ The password is his mother’s birthday entered in reverse.”
After delivering the instructions in one breath, I turned back to Bella.
“Did you get all that?”
Her face went deathly pale. Her lips parted, but not a single word came out.
She obviously had not remembered any of it.
“Claire!” Adrian finally snapped, his voice low and furious. “That’s enough.”
I smiled, cleanly and without warmth. “I’m simply handling the transition so the company can continue operating normally.”
“We need to talk.” His teeth were clenched, and anger strained every word.
“Of course.” I checked my watch. “But this is still business hours, and I need to prepare the briefing for this afternoon’s meeting. We can discuss personal matters after work.”
Adrian stared at me for a long moment, too many emotions shifting behind his eyes to name. Then he looked at Bella by the door.
“Leave us.”
Bella cast a nervous glance between us before retreating with the unacceptable cup of coffee, humiliated and awkward.
Silence settled over the office again.
“Claire…” Adrian tried to move closer, his voice softening.
I stepped back, preserving the distance between us. “Mr. Sterling, please maintain professional boundaries.”
His hand stopped in midair. Frustration was written across his face.
It was the first time I had ever seen him look that way.
For three years, Adrian had carried himself with unshakable confidence, as though the entire world existed under his control. Now, at last, he knew what it felt like to lose it.
“I have a lot of work to finish this afternoon.” I picked up the files from his desk. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll get back to it.”
With that, I turned toward the door.
“Claire Bennett!”
He called my name from behind me, a faint roughness in his voice that he could not quite conceal.
I stopped but did not turn around. “Was there something else, Mr. Sterling?”
The office was so quiet that I could hear both of us breathing.
After a long pause, his low voice reached me.
“Never mind. Go.”
The moment I opened the door and stepped out, afternoon sunlight streamed through the corridor windows and spilled over me. Its warmth brought a painful tightness to my chest.
Everyone in the Executive Administration Department stopped working and looked up with open curiosity.