Page 148 of My Only

A flicker of wariness crossed his face as he finally took a seat in his chair. “What about her?”

“She’s been pulling some shit that’s slowed down the project.” I shook my head, jaw tight. “Some of the issues were real, but she was holding them back just to make them urgent later. Other issues? Completely unnecessary. And when I say unnecessary, I mean I had no business staying late on recent nights to fix them.”

Bryant sat up straight, his focus sharpening. “Explain.”

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.

“She sabotaged work just so she could spend time with me.”

His brows shot up.

“Remember the last-minute revisions on the model home layout?” I continued. “The open concept space she flagged as a concern?”

“I do.”

“She knew about the issue two weeks before she brought it up, then sat on it like it was nothing. I wouldn’t have even known if I didn’t go digging through the email archives this morning. If she’d flagged it earlier, we wouldn’t have had to push back finalizing the investor pitch by two days.”

His jaw tightened. “So she just… sat on it? To keep you here late?”

“Exactly.” I nodded. “And I bought into it at the time because it seemed legit. Just like I bought into her next urgent issue with the community center’s flooring.”

I jabbed my fingertips into the desk.

“She claimed we needed to review swatches because the original supplier messed up the order. Sounded important. But she already had a second vendor lined up with an exact match. She could’ve handled it over email. Instead, she insisted I stay late to approve a whole new batch in person.”

Bryant’s expression was stone-cold now.

He clenched his jaw. “How much time did that cost us, Hassani?”

“Not much,” I replied. “Not in the grand scheme of things. We’re still on schedule for launch.”

“No delays?”

“None.” I swallowed hard. “I’ve gone over everything before our meeting and can confirm that. The project is still on track to hit all the targets… it’s my home that’s taken a hit.”

I shook my head. “Look, I don’t want to bring my personal life into this?—”

“Hassani.” Bryant interjected, voice firm. “Your personal life is part of this project’s success. If work is affecting it, your personal life will affect work too. Everything’s cyclical.”

I exhaled slowly. “Okay, then…” I licked my lips, collecting my thoughts. “Every issue Harper has brought up? Every night I stayed late to handle them? It was always at the worst times.” My jaw clenched. “Times when I needed to be there for my wife.”

I ran my tongue over my teeth, shaking my head.

“This last issue—this design flaw that didn’t even exist—I spent days Bryant, trying to redo a layout for one of the residential units. Harper claimed the design didn’t ‘flow well with the natural lighting.’”

I released a sharp breath.

“But Bryant, there was nothing wrong with it. She knew I had already double-checked everything. I was racking my brain, doubting myself, because I knew the design was solid. I’m intentional like that.”

Bryant gave a slow nod. “You’re very intentional, Hassani. It’s why I insisted on hiring you.”

“Yeah, well.” I scoffed. “I still spent hours—too much company time and resources—going over blueprints that didn’t need fixing.”

Bryant dragged a hand down his mouth. “Jesus.”

“I don’t want this getting messy,” I continued, forcing myself to stay calm. “But I can’t work with her anymore. She’s made this project unnecessarily stressful and difficult. And now? She’s made things even more uncomfortable… after propositioning me to cheat on my wife.”

Bryant’s head snapped up.

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