I See the Face He Truly Loves Chapter 09
Michelle told me that her former colleague, Xavier Chesterfield, had personally witnessed Dominic firing Tiana. Dominic had summoned Tiana to his office. The door had been left open, so everyone in the office got front-row seats to the drama unfolding inside.
“You are relieved of your duties as of today, Ms. Ashford,” Dominic said. “Please complete the resignation procedures before the end of the day.”
Tiana was stunned. Her eyes immediately reddened as she asked Dominic why he was firing her.
“You know why,” was Dominic’s response.
Tiana began crying. Her voice got louder and louder until everyone in the office could hear her. She demanded answers from him, asking if the beach, the maple tree, and the restaurant meant anything to him. She also said that he had promised to take her to meet his parents.
Dominic interrupted her, saying, “Never show your face in front of me again.”
Michelle looked at me after she was done telling the story.
“He really fired her. Xavier said that everyone in the office was completely flabbergasted.”
“So?”
“You don’t feel anything?”
“Dominic firing Tiana has nothing to do with me. She’s his employee, not mine.”
Dominic showed up the next day, striding into my office and placing a document on my desk.
It was a resignation notice. Tiana had penned her signature on the dotted line with the company’s seal stamped next to it.
Dominic stood before me, looking at me with wide eyes. He looked like a child who was waiting to be praised for a job well done.
“I fired her, Cassandra,” he said. “She’ll never show her face in front of us ever again.”
I placed my pen down and looked up at him. “So?”
The speech that Dominic had prepared got stuck in his throat. “I thought that you would be happy,” he mumbled.
“The problem has never been her, Dominic.”
“I know that the problem lies with me. I know that I messed up. I’ll change. I’ll change according to your preferences. I’ll let you look through my phone. I’ll give you the passwords to all my social media accounts.”
“Do you know when I stopped being able to see myself?” I asked. “It wasn’t when you lied to me for the first time. It happened when you remembered that Tiana only wanted 50 percent sugar in her coffee and forgot that I don’t drink coffee at all.
“It happened when you shared our promise under the maple tree with her and returned home to tell me that things would be the same next year. It happened when you took her to our restaurant and allowed her to sit in my
seat.”
