JAMES POV
Victoria was still talking about the merger when James heard the knock on his door.
He wasn't really listening to her. He hadn't been listening for the last twenty minutes. She'd been rambling about restructuring the marketing team, about bringing in her people from London, about how Sophie's way of doing things was too soft for what the company needed. Victoria said a lot of things like that. Things that made sense on paper but felt hollow when he actually thought about them.
He was thinking about how to tell Sophie about the promotion when Victoria knocked on his door again. Not a real knock. Just that thing she did where she touched his arm to get his attention.
"James, are you even listening to me," she asked, and he forced a smile because that's what you do when someone's been part of your life before and they come back expecting to still fit.
"Yeah, of course," he lied.
That's when his door opened without anyone knocking.
Sophie stood there. Just standing in his doorway like she'd every right to be there. Like she didn't know that Victoria was perched on his desk like she owned it. Like she couldn't see exactly what that image meant.
James's heart did something weird in his chest. Something that felt like falling.
Sophie didn't say anything. She just walked to his desk and placed an envelope down on top of the contracts he'd been reviewing. Her fingers were steady as she did it. Her face was completely calm. But James saw something in her eyes that made him want to stop whatever was about to happen.
"My resignation," she said. "Effective immediately."
And then she turned around and left.
Just like that. Five years of working together. Five years of late nights and strategy sessions and her believing in him when nobody else did. Gone. In the time it took to place an envelope on his desk.
"Wait," James called out, standing up so fast his chair rolled backward and hit the window. "Sophie, you can't just hand me a letter and leave."
But she was already walking away. Already disappearing across the office floor. Already leaving him behind.
Victoria was watching him with an expression he couldn't read. Like she knew exactly what had just happened and she was satisfied about it.
James picked up the resignation letter with shaking hands. It was short. Professional. No explanation. No reason. Just her name and the date and the words that said she was done.
He read it three times hoping the words would change into something that made sense. They didn't. She was leaving. She was actually leaving.
He ran out of his office without saying anything to Victoria. He didn't care what she thought. He didn't care about anything except finding Sophie before she disappeared completely.
The office floor was dead silent when he got out there. Actually silent in a way that made his skin crawl. People were staring at their computers but nobody was typing. Nobody was working. Everyone was processing what they'd just seen.
Sophie's desk was empty. Her chair was pushed in. Her monitor was dark. It was like she'd already been gone for hours instead of thirty seconds.
James looked around the floor. People wouldn't meet his eyes. They were looking at their laps, their screens, anywhere but at him. And James understood suddenly that Sophie leaving wasn't a shock to them. This wasn't a surprise. This was something they'd been expecting.
Everyone knew before he did.
That realization hit him harder than her actual resignation.
He pulled out his phone and called her. The phone rang four times and went to voicemail. Her voice on the greeting was professional. "You've reached Sophie Bennett. Leave a message."
He hung up without leaving one. He called again immediately. Voicemail again. Again. Again.
By the fourth call, his hands were actually shaking.
She wasn't going to answer. She wasn't going to pick up the phone and let him fix this. She wasn't going to give him the chance to explain or apologize or do whatever it was he needed to do to make her understand that this was a mistake. That she was making a mistake.
That he was making a mistake.
James stood in the middle of the office floor with his phone in his hand and realized that he had no idea how to fix this. He'd spent his entire life fixing problems. Solving impossible situations. Making deals that seemed impossible. But he had no idea how to convince Sophie Bennett not to leave him.
"Mr. Peterson," Leah called from her office. She was standing in her doorway watching him with an expression that looked a lot like pity. "Can we talk?"
"Not right now," he said, not looking at her. He was watching the office floor, watching people move around with this weird energy. Like something had shifted. Like the ground had moved underneath them and nobody knew what to do anymore.
He walked back to his office and closed the door. Victoria was gone. She'd left at some point while he was losing his mind in the middle of the floor. That was fine. He didn't want to see her anyway. He didn't want to see anyone.
He sat at his desk and tried calling Sophie again. Still voicemail.
He texted her.
"Sophie please call me. We need to talk about this."
No response.
"I'm sorry about the project. I know you're upset. Let's discuss it when you're not emotional."
That message felt wrong the moment he sent it. Too dismissive. Too much like he didn't understand what had actually happened. But she still didn't respond. The text just sat there in his phone like a question she refused to answer.
He tried again.
"Please don't do this. You're overreacting. Give yourself 24 hours before you make any decisions."
Nothing.
By 5:45 PM, James could feel the office shifting around him. People were packing up. People were leaving. But it wasn't the normal Friday evacuation. This was different. People were moving with purpose. People were checking their phones. People were making calls.
He noticed it first when his assistant knocked and told him that Derek from engineering had just asked for reference letters. Then he noticed that Sarah from operations had updated her LinkedIn to say she was open to new opportunities. By 6 PM, at least ten people had done the same thing.
Forty employees had started updating their LinkedIn profiles by the time James stopped counting.
They were all going to follow her. They were all going to leave.
James understood then what was actually happening. This wasn't just about Sophie quitting. This was about everyone realizing that Sophie was the real reason the company worked. That she was the foundation and he was just the guy who got credit for what she built.
He sat in his empty office with the city lights starting to glow below him and felt something cold start spreading through his chest. He'd made a choice today that he couldn't take back. He'd chosen Victoria, or at least he'd chosen the version of himself that felt safe with Victoria, and in doing that he'd lost the person who actually made him want to be better.
His phone buzzed.
A text from Leah.
"My office. Now. And bring your calendar because we need to talk about what the hell you just did."
James stared at the message for a long time.
Then he texted her back.
"Find out why Sophie really left. Find out what she's planning. Find out everything."
He hit send before he could think about it. Before he could realize what he was actually asking Leah to do. Before he could understand that he was about to become the guy who investigates his employees instead of the guy who inspires them.
Leah's response came back almost immediately.
"Meet me downstairs. And James. Whatever this is, I think you've already figured out the answer."