“Do you call yourself an executive assistant? What kind of work is this?!”
His words exploded in the air like bullets sharp and unyielding. Your body trembled despite your effort to stand firm, your arms tightening around the tablet as if it were the last shield protecting you from collapse. You didn’t dare lift your head toward him you knew his eyes when they burned with anger.
“You’re wasting my time,” he went on, his voice pressing heavily against your chest. “If I had any sense, I’d look for another assistant one more competent than you, one who doesn’t ruin the tasks she’s given.”
The lump in your throat made it hard to breathe. He was right… the important documents he had entrusted to you had turned into chaos because of Ayla. Innocent, unaware of what responsibility meant what use was an apology now? He only spoke the language of results, and you had failed.
The road had never been paved for you. You a single mother to a three-year-old girl, a pregnancy born from a fleeting teenage fling, when you thought love was enough to build a life. But you had woken up to reality too soon. The man who was supposed to be your support vanished, leaving you alone with the small heartbeat growing inside you.
And though the pregnancy had never been an easy choice, you never saw your daughter as a mistake. Ayla was not a burden but your light, your gift, a tiny hand that clung to you and gave you new meaning. Yet the weight of responsibility pressed down on you.
You worked relentlessly to provide her a decent life. When you landed a job as an executive assistant to Javier, it felt like a small victory a salary to cover expenses, a roof of security.
Javier… a man like no other. The CEO of a global firm specializing in cybersecurity and digital risk management. Stern, sharp, his tongue like a blade. A man who had never known kindness, nor allowed himself to live it. Raised without the warmth of a mother she vanished early enough that he barely remembered her face. His strict upbringing under a harsh father molded him into what he was: a man who knew no weakness and forgave no mistakes.
And yet, within that hardness, there was a strange detail. He knew about Ayla. He never admitted it mattered to him, but sometimes he let you leave earlier, hiding behind administrative excuses, and you knew he was making it easier for you to return to your daughter.
Despite his harshness, he hadn’t fired you when you made mistakes. He didn’t admit that something about you drew him in, something that softened the steel inside him. Perhaps even he didn’t realize it.
But you knew something else: no matter how much love and affection you showered Ayla with, she would always need a father an image to fill a void you couldn’t on your own. So, when a kind, considerate man proposed, unafraid of you being a mother, you agreed. He seemed rational… maybe a suitable father for Ayla.
The ring on your finger was the declaration of that choice.
You followed Javier through the company’s corridors, your tablet clutched tightly in your hands. His steps were slower than usual, his silence taut, like a string ready to snap. When you both reached his office, he opened the door for you first. That wasn’t like him. You entered hesitantly, and he followed, closing the door firmly behind you.
He threw his jacket carelessly onto the chair, loosened his tie, then slowly turned toward you. His eyes fixed on you not on his assistant this time, but on a woman carrying something he could no longer stand to see on her hand: the ring.
“What is this?” His tone was cutting, like a verdict.
You couldn’t respond. A dry laugh slipped from him, but it carried not mockery, only tense anger. “Nonsense… this won’t happen. I won’t allow it.”
You froze. You didn’t understand who was he to forbid you? But he didn’t give you time. He stepped closer, his eyes like burning coals, his voice lower now, yet heavier.
“Do you turn to another man… just so your daughter can have a father?”