Destroyed Us for Your Bastard? Say Hi to Your Cellmate, Ex! - Chapter 85: Chapter 85

To be with Blake Harrison, Riley Lawson had disguised herself as a "tomboy" for twelve years.
Blake cut class? She followed.
Blake hit the bars? She matched him drink for drink.
When Blake said her long hair attracted too much attention, she didn't hesitate to cut off the locks she'd carefully maintained for years.
So when Blake was being pressured by his family to get married and was so fed up he came to her.
"I'd rather marry you than any of them. Will you marry me?"
Without thinking twice, she nodded.
Everyone around them said Riley was being the perfect "buddy."
And she really was the perfect buddy.
During the day, she played Ethan's "best friend."
At night, she satisfied all his needs and desires.
Their intimate whispers never stopped, going through box after box of condoms.
Until Blake's company hired a new secretary, Sophia Mills.
She couldn't do anything right, constantly screwing up Ethan's plans.
But despite his usual hot temper, he never got angry with her.
Every night when Ethan came home, what he talked about most was his "ditzy secretary."
When Ethan went on a business trip, he arranged for her to join Riley's project team.
But on their day of the big presentation, everything went to hell.
999 intimate photos of Riley suddenly flashed across the conference room screen.
She instantly went blank, her hands and feet turning ice cold.
These photos... only Ethan would have them...
The audience erupted in chaos.
Sophia burst into tears, rushing to yank out the USB drive while apologizing frantically.
If it weren't for the fact that every single photo clearly showed Riley's face, people might have assumed the exposed woman was Sophia herself.
Riley's hands shook. Every eye in that room burned into her skin like she was stripped naked under harsh lights.
The clients walked out, their cutting remarks hitting like physical slaps.
She could only bow her head and take it.
"Sorry for that. I'm so sorry." She whispered over and over.
After everything was ended, she waited numbly for Blake to come back and to explain.
But his first words when he returned weren't for her.
"Go easy on Sophia, she's fragile. She's been through enough."
In that moment, Riley realized something that made her soul ache.
Chasing someone with everything you have...
It's exhausting.
"Riley." Blake's voice cut through the silence like ice, "Do you still have anything else to say?"
She couldn't even look at him.
Her chest felt hollow, nothing left but bitter anger and the kind of hurt that went bone-deep.
What was she supposed to say?
What could she say?
Blake came back and immediately pinned all the blame on Riley for the screw-up.
Even to take the heat off Sophia, he kept reminding everyone in the meeting that Riley was the one in those leaked photos.
When she didn't respond, Blake looked away.
"Starting today, Sophia will be taking over as Team A supervisor."
The room went dead quiet. Someone gasped.
One of her team members started to speak up, but a colleague quickly grabbed his arm and shook her head in warning.
Blake turned and walked out, with Sophia trailing behind him.
The conference room felt like a graveyard.
"What the hell, Sarah?" the younger girl hissed. "That bitch's been here five seconds and already torpedoed our biggest project! And also, why should Riley take the fall?"
Her colleague glanced at Riley with something like pity, then lowered her voice.
"Because our boss, you didn't see? He's got it bad for the new girl."
"Come on, let's get out of here. This is gonna be a nightmare."
Soon,the room emptied.
Riley sat alone in the silence for hours.
Until the building went dark and there was nothing but her and the night security guard.
She rubbed her aching stomach and finally drove home.
But when she opened the front door, she found Blake and Sophia at the dining table, laughing over takeout containers.
Sophia was wearing the matching slippers Riley had bought for her and Blake.
And that shirt—the one Riley had picked out for Blake just last week, the one he'd barely worn—was now hanging loose on Sophia's tiny frame.
When Sophia saw her, she immediately pulled her hands back, shrinking like a startled deer.
Blake just grinned and squeezed Sophia's cheek.
"Relax. Riley's not gonna bite. She's my best buddy!"
His acting like this afternoon never happened, like her world hadn't just burned down.
Pain shot through Riley's chest. She could feel how pale she must look, how sick.
She just stood there in the doorway, unable to move.
Sophia suddenly seemed to realize what she was wearing and jumped up.
"I'm so sorry! Ms.Lawson, I forgot I had your slippers on. Here, let me—"
But Blake pulled her back down.
"Finish eating first. You've been stressed all day." He barely glanced at Riley. "There's some disposables in the hall closet. She knows where they are."
Riley did know.
But she just dropped her bag and walked to her room barefoot.
Twenty-four years. That's how long she'd been chasing Blake Harrison.
8,766 days of loving someone who would never love her back.
She'd thought she'd never give up on him. That loving him was just who she was.
But in fact, hearts could break, hearts could get tired.
Riley opened her nightstand drawer and pulled out the divorce papers she'd been hiding at the very bottom.
For the first time in her life, she didn't hesitate.
She signed her name.