At the Year-End Party He Thanked Me for Doing His Paperwork, So I Took the Microphone novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: You Lied to Me

The chairwoman's office was on the 24th floor, at the corner, with a view of the palace moat.

It was smaller than Chiaki had expected, with a plain desk and one old photograph of a young couple outside the first Tsukishiro hotel.

Setsuko didn't sit down.

She stood at the window with her back to them for a long time.

"Fifty-one years," she said at last. "I was married to a man I met twice. I ran this company through two crashes and a fire. And in all that time, nobody ever lied to me at my own New Year table."

Neither of them said anything.

"I trusted you," she said. "And now I have to go downstairs and answer for it."

She turned around.

Chiaki had seen her delighted and she had seen her imperious. She hadn't seen her hurt.

It was worse than angry.

"The board will hear by tonight," Setsuko said. "That the engagement my grandson announced in my lobby was a public relations stunt. That I stood in front of thirty cameras and vouched for it."

"Grandmother," Kaname said.

"I'm not finished."

"I know. I'm going to interrupt anyway."

She stared at him.

He stepped forward and stood in front of her desk, very straight.

"It was my idea," he said. "All of it."

"Kaname..."

"So I'll resign as vice-president. Today. I'll write the letter now. The board can say I deceived them and you, and they'll be right. She keeps her position. She's earned it on her own."

Setsuko didn't move.

Chiaki looked at him.

He meant it.

He was offering up the title he had been raised for, so that nobody could say she had slept her way into hers.

And Chiaki knew exactly what it would look like from outside.

It would be another man standing up in front of a room to take the credit, or the blame.

Either way, it would be his story.

"No," she said.

They both turned.

"No," she said again. "You don't get to pay for my contract. I wrote it."

She walked up beside him and faced his grandmother.

"Chairwoman. I lied to you at your table, and I'm sorry. I'm not going to do it again."

Setsuko's eyes moved over her face.

"The terms were mine. Every line. I'll answer to the board for them myself, in person, whenever you like."

"And then?"

"And then judge my work," Chiaki said. "If my work's bad, fire me. I'd fire me. But don't fire me because of who I love."

The office went completely quiet.

Chiaki heard what she had said a second after she said it.

Beside her, Kaname had stopped breathing.

Setsuko tilted her head.

"You said love," she said.

Chiaki could have taken it back.

She had taken back plenty of words across a table.

← Chapter 14 · All chapters · Chapter 16 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend