Part 1Loyalty of Nine Years, Replaced in an Instant

I tucked my feelings for Juliana away for ten solid years.

As her executive assistant and right-hand man, I spent nine of those years pouring every ounce of my blood, sweat, and tears into her company. I never dared to slack off for a single second.

When I was finally on the verge of being promoted to Vice President, I genuinely believed all those years of silent devotion had paid off.

Then she brought her college ex-boyfriend into the company and handed him my position on a silver platter.

When I demanded an explanation, she just looked at me with this infuriatingly casual expression and told me his degree was better than mine. He was simply more qualified.

I stood there staring at the woman I had loved for a decade, and every word I wanted to scream died right in my throat.

* * *

The second I walked into the office lobby, people were smiling and tossing congratulations my way.

"Big day today, man! Guess we can't call you Mr. Assistant anymore. It's VP Chris now!"

"Ten years of grinding finally paying off. You better take care of us little guys up in the C-suite, Chris."

"Drinks are on the new VP tonight! We're all going to be working under you now, after all."

I looked at my coworkers' beaming faces and pressed my lips into a modest smile. "Nothing is set in stone yet. Let's not jinx it."

"Come on, it's a done deal. We're just waiting on the official paperwork. You're too humble, man."

I waved them off with a laugh and headed toward the main conference room.

They weren't trying to flatter me for no reason. I had been with Nova for ten years. I started working alongside Juliana back when she was just a sophomore in college running a startup out of her dorm. My official title was Executive Assistant, but I was the one writing the proposals, negotiating the contracts, mapping out our corporate strategy, and even making sure she remembered to eat.

It was an unspoken fact. Without me, there would be no Nova. And there would be no Juliana sitting at the top.

That VP title belonged to me.

I pushed down the bubble of excitement in my chest and walked into the boardroom. The senior management team was already seated.

But the atmosphere inside was completely different from the lively chatter in the bullpen. The room was dead silent. When I walked in, these veterans who had fought in the trenches with me for years looked at me with a mixture of poorly concealed outrage and deep pity.

My fingers twitched. I looked up at the head of the table.

Juliana sat there, her slender fingers steepled gracefully on the polished wood. Sitting right next to her was a ridiculously handsome man in a razor-sharp tailored suit.

They were leaning in close. The body language was intimate.

In that split second, my heart plunged into ice water. But some pathetic, lingering shred of hope made me ask the question anyway.

"Juliana, who is our guest?"

Juliana actively avoided my eyes. She forced a light, breezy tone.

"Everyone, this is our new Vice President, Tristan. Chris, I'll need you to take him down to HR to get his onboarding sorted. As for his office, let's put him in the suite right next to mine."

I stood frozen on the carpet. It felt like someone had just slapped me across the face in front of a live audience. The room started to spin.

Marcus, our Director of Operations, couldn't hold it in anymore. He slammed his hand flat on the table and stood up.

"Juliana, what is the meaning of this? We all agreed the VP slot was going to Chris."

"Exactly," our HR Manager chimed in, her brow furrowed. "We have all seen how much Chris has sacrificed for this company. You can't just swap him out at the eleventh hour. It's not right."

These were my people. We had built this place from the ground up together.

Juliana's face darkened. She swept a cold glare across the room.

When she spoke, her voice was laced with quiet fury. "Am I the CEO of this company, or are you?"

Marcus didn't back down an inch. "You are the CEO. But this company doesn't just belong to you. You're air-dropping a total stranger into the second-highest seat in the building. How do you expect us to justify that?"

Juliana let out a sharp scoff. "Tristan has a Master's in Financial Economics from Columbia University. His educational background eclipses Chris's, and his professional qualifications are superior. I am making a strategic decision for the future of this company."

"You are all letting personal friendships cloud your judgment. A business cannot survive on sentimentality alone."

I stared at Tristan's vaguely familiar face. A bitter, jagged laugh ripped its way out of my throat.

"Save the corporate bullshit, Juliana. You can spin this however you want, but we all know you brought him in because he's your first love."

I had known Juliana since high school. The rest of the board might not know his face, but Tristan's image was burned into my memory.

He was her high school sweetheart. They had this massive, chaotic, fiery romance that ultimately blew up because Juliana wanted to stay stateside to build her startup, and Tristan wanted to run off to Europe to study.

Over the years, guys had drifted in and out of Juliana's life, but none of them ever lasted half as long as Tristan had.

Being brutally called out in front of her executives made Juliana's face flush with anger.

She leaned back into her massive leather chair, looking down her nose at me.

"Tristan is my ex. So what? Does that make anything I just said untrue?"

"He has a better degree than you. He is objectively more qualified than you. You have to learn to accept reality, Chris."