The Vanguard PR Anniversary Gala was exactly four days away, and our glass-walled Manhattan office was a hive of meticulously controlled hysteria.

Caterers were sending over final tasting menus, lighting technicians were demanding floor plans, and the junior staff were buzzing around like caffeina

It took Julian exactly three minutes to follow me.

I had just seated myself behind my mahogany desk, smoothing my skirt and opening my laptop, when my office door violently burst open. Julian stormed in, slamming the heavy glass door shut behind him and immediately twisting the lock. He yanked the

The silence in my office after Julian dragged himself out the door was exquisite. It wasn't the heavy, suffocating silence of a tragedy, but the pristine, ringing quiet of a battlefield after the last enemy banner had been trampled into the mud. I remained at my desk for a long time, my fingers stee