The man she abandoned is the boss now
Chapter 2 - When She Chose Money
Ryan pulled Vanessa into a private lounge.
“What the hell happened out there?”
She paced.
“You never told me Ethan Blake was your CEO.”
Ryan stared at her.
“You never asked.”
“I thought your boss was some older investor.”
“No.”
Ryan lowered his voice.
“Ethan founded Blake Technologies.”
Vanessa stopped.
She knew the name.
Everyone did.
Blake Technologies had become one of the fastest-growing logistics software companies in the country.
Three years earlier, it acquired several smaller businesses.
Last year, it bought a controlling interest in Mercer's regional operations company.
Ryan had joined after the acquisition.
He loved telling people he was a senior executive.
What he rarely mentioned was that Ethan could fire him.
Vanessa felt suddenly cold.
“How rich is he?”
Ryan stared at her.
“Seriously?”
“I'm asking.”
“I don't know. Hundreds of millions.”
She sat down.
Hundreds of millions.
Five years earlier, Ethan had asked her to wait six more months.
He said a major client was testing his software.
Vanessa remembered laughing.
“Six months? You said that last year.”
What Ethan had not known was that Vanessa had already made her decision.
She had met Derek Walsh.
Derek drove a Porsche.
He had a penthouse.
He took her to restaurants where Ethan could not afford the appetizers.
Vanessa left Ethan on Friday.
She moved into Derek's apartment on Monday.
There had been no hidden reason.
No misunderstanding.
No family pressure.
She simply believed Ethan would remain poor.
Derek lasted eight months.
Then his father's business collapsed.
Vanessa left him too.
After that came another wealthy boyfriend.
Then another.
Eventually she met Ryan.
Ryan had stability.
A high salary.
A company car.
Stock options.
And, Vanessa believed, a path toward becoming wealthy.
She had spent years climbing toward the kind of life she once told Ethan he could never give her.
Now she discovered Ethan had climbed far above all of them.
Ryan sat opposite her.
“You dated him?”
“For two years.”
“And you dumped him because he was broke?”
Vanessa's eyes narrowed.
“Don't say it like that.”
“How should I say it?”
“He had nothing.”
Ryan gave a humorless laugh.
“He had a company.”
“A company that was losing money.”
“And now that company owns mine.”
Vanessa looked away.
Ryan suddenly remembered something.
“The champagne.”
She looked back.
“You threw it at him?”
“It was a joke.”
“He's my boss.”
“He won't fire you because of me.”
Ryan stared at her.
“You don't know Ethan at all anymore.”
Vanessa almost smiled.
“I knew him better than anyone.”
Ryan shook his head.
“No.”
He stood.
“You knew him when he was losing.”
That sentence bothered her.
Because he was right.
Vanessa knew the Ethan who borrowed money for rent.
The Ethan who ate instant noodles at midnight.
The Ethan who wore the same jacket for three winters.
She had never met the man he became after she left.
And she had no idea that Ethan remembered exactly what she told him on their final night.
When you finally have money, maybe someone will care.
