Page 5 of The Rancher's Vengeful Heart

Usuallybeing the operative word, but after everything that happened...

Maybe she should just quit?

Wasn't it a sign for her to move on when the things she normally found easy...now seemed impossible to accomplish? Even her own body didn't feel right; half of her struggled with lethargy while the other half of her battled against jittery, high-strung nerves.

Surely all of these had to mean something?

Anything?

Tassy fell back against her chair with a sigh, but even though its plush leather cradled her with the kind of comfort that wasalmost nurturing, it still wasn't enough to completely eliminate the tension coiling through her body.

Every embarrassing moment of yesterday's...incident...was still agonizingly imprinted on her mind. Tassy only had to close her eyes, and everything would come back to her in a flash.

The way everyone struggled but failed to hide their pity—-

And how the whole place would suddenly go quiet wherever she showed up—-

But the worst thing of all was how everyone seemed to be just waiting and expecting for her to...just give up and leave.

So what now?

Is that what I should do, God?

Is that what you want me to do?

Her workplace might have been like a second home, but she couldn't pretend not to see the writing on the wall.

Poor, poor Tassy.

That was how everyone thought of her now, and she had a feeling it was how things would always be.

Tassy pulled her legs up and tucked her knees inside her oversized sweater, but it still wasn't enough to keep her warm. Her skin prickled with goosebumps that had nothing to do with the temperature. With the cold bite of fear coming from within, there was obviously nothing she could do to ward it off from the outside.

Tassy opened a blank document on her iPad and forced herself to start typing.

Letter of Resignation

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard as she stared at those three words. Quitting her job was the logical thing to do. One of them had to go, but since Tassy highly doubted such a notion would even occur to Xylan...

It's going to be fine,Tassy tried to convince herself. Change was the only constant thing in the world, and it was something to be embraced.

Right?

The soft whir of the lounge's air conditioning was a sound Tassy usually found relaxing, but all it did this time was twist her heart in agony. The A/Cs in her workplace made a similar hum, and the thought ofnothearing it again suddenly felt foolishly unbearable.

Oh, man.

I'm really going to miss working there.

Is there no other way out of this mess?

Tassy loved everything about her job, and she loved everyone at the office.

Well, mostly everyone, but still.

Tassy hated having to think of how her resignation would look when she had just been promoted. It would reflect badly on Samantha, to say the least, and make her department VP seem incapable of determining the right person for the job.

Tassy wanted to think there was a way for her to make it up to the older woman, but... what if there was none, and that was just pride and wishful thinking on her part?

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