I Left Him after He Chose The Sister-in-law

Leonidas stormed out, his anger thick enough to cut with a knife. The hallway light flickered as he bent to yank on his shoes, and suddenly—with a sharp click—the living room chandelier blazed to life. Carla Cox stood in the kitchen doorway, her brow furrowed hard.

“Leaving Clementine here this hour? Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“I’ll pick her up in the morning,” Leonidas replied, his hand casual around the doorknob. “Go get some rest.”

Carla stepped closer, dropping her voice. “There’s more than one way to love someone, Leonidas. No woman can keep bearing this—watching her husband run after another woman every chance he gets.”

“I know what I’m doing,” he brushed her off, already turning the handle and stepping over the threshold.

A frayed wool shawl was draped over Carla’s shoulders, and Aunt Cox patted her arm gently. “Mr. Lopez knows what he’s doing, honey.”

Carla shook her head slow, her voice rough and hoarse. “When Leonidas and his brother were little, their father and I drifted so far apart. I kept telling myself staying together for the kids was the right call… I never realized a broken, glued-back-together family only hurts them worse.”

Parents that fight nonstop never teach their kids how to love right, how to talk right in a relationship.

Clementine never heard that conversation in the living room. She’d been skittish about Carla cornering her to talk, so she bailed before dawn. Today was her first official day at Zenith Dynamics, and Raphael Garza had personally driven her to the lab.

“Clementine. Here’s to your new journey going great.”

She caught off guard, freezing mid-step. Raphael, with his easy charisma and that faint roguish edge, usually kept things strictly polite. He was always formal—called her Ms. Stephens, or Mrs. Lopez. But today, he used her first name, like they’d been close friends for years.

She was surprised, but didn’t overthink it. She was his employee now, after all—of course the formality would fade a little. What no one knew was this: when he’d seen her bolt out of that private room yesterday, red-eyed and falling apart, something had shifted in Raphael. He’d been surrounded by women his whole life, but this was the first time he’d felt this inexplicable pull toward someone. An overwhelming urge to comfort her. He’d wanted to pull her into a hug, wipe her tears away, kiss those trembling lips until they stopped shaking.

The next morning, Clementine and four other Zenith employees were called out to Falcon Airlines. The two companies had locked in their collaboration, though how Leonidas negotiated the terms still baffled everyone. Originally, Falcon Airlines was supposed to be absorbing Zenith Dynamics—but somewhere along the line, the tables had completely turned.

At Falcon’s research facility, Leonidas was already there with all their top brass. The over-the-top setup shocked both teams. All the arrangements were already finalized, team leads were already handling integration, but both of the big bosses still showed up in person. To any onlooker, it looked like a visit from the president or something equally high-stakes.

Right after Clementine stepped out of the car, her foot caught on a loose paving stone and she stumbled.

“Watch it.” A well-groomed hand caught her before she could fall—it was Raphael. He was every inch the gentleman, his grip light just on her wrist.

Clementine’s face heated up with embarrassment, and she righted herself fast. But when she looked up, she crashed straight into Leonidas’s sharp, unblinking gaze. They hadn’t spoken or seen each other in days, and Clementine had actually enjoyed the rare peace. She hadn’t planned on joining the Wing project at all… until Raphael talked her into it. It’s the most cutting-edge development we have right now, he’d said. You’re really gonna throw away an opportunity like this over some guy?

That was all it took to convince her. So now she met Leonidas’s accusing stare with a spark of irritation.

“Thank you, Mr. Garza,” she said, her voice equal parts grateful and clipped.

Raphael kept his cool outwardly, letting go of her wrist right away. “No problem. Anyone would step in.”

Clementine nodded in agreement. “Exactly. Setting priorities is everything. I get that concept.”

Raphael misread her words, thought she was drawing a clear line between them, and a faint ache of loss tugged at his chest. Meanwhile, Leonidas caught her indirect jab straight to the ribs. Just days earlier, he’d told her, “You should understand this simple concept of setting priorities.”

She’d said she understood. And she wasn’t just saying it—she was proving it. Retribution came fast, and it stung.

Falcon also sent five team members, and after quick introductions, everyone dived straight into work. It was a preliminary kickoff for the Wing project, time to swap data and align on next steps. Around the long conference table, everyone was passing documents back and forth, talking through specs… and Clementine was shut out. Getting pushed to the margins as a new hire is just workplace 101, and Clementine wasn’t exempt.

Everyone wrote her off as nothing more than a pretty face outsider, and the tension rolled off them in waves. She hadn’t even had time to memorize her colleagues’ names, and now she was catching hostility from the partner side too. Out in the hallway, Raphael remarked dryly, “Mr. Lopez is pretty hard on his own wife, isn’t he?”

The project lead passing out materials was from Falcon, and he’d already started side-eyeing Clementine, suspicious that Leonidas was pulling strings.

Leonidas’s gaze was already cold enough to freeze the lead in his tracks, but when he heard Raphael’s comment, he turned his head. “Mr. Lopez knows he can’t hold a candle to Mr. Garza and his silver tongue.”

Raphael grinned, and quipped back, “How is Mrs. Lopez doing, by the way?”

Leonidas was tired of this petty back and forth, his eyes locked on the conference room door. It was fine. Let her feel what workplace struggle is really like. Let her deal with the hostility and the pushing around—It’d teach her how hard life gets when she doesn’t have him to fall back on. As long as she stayed focused on her career, he’d back her. He’d even lift her up to a position everyone would envy.

Inside the conference room, the whole team hit a wall. Discussions ground to a halt, no one could figure out where they’d gone wrong. That’s when Clementine, who’d been quiet this whole time, spoke up casual as anything: “Adjust the AOA angle down by 0.1 degrees.”

All the engineers went still, stunned. Falcon’s project lead scanned the blueprints fast, then slapped his thigh hard—she was dead right. No one else caught that tiny mistake.

Leonidas’s eyes narrowed, dark and deep as an abyss. Raphael glanced over at him, then turned and walked away, a faint smirk playing on his lips. Some people mistake glass for gold, and Leonidas was one of them. Raphael couldn’t even pretend he wasn’t pleased about that.

Clementine’s sharp professional skill shut up all the stuck-up experts, and she practically floated out of the office at the end of the day, glowing from her win. But when she stepped outside, her smile dropped the second she spotted Leonidas’s tall, broad frame under the old oak trees. Her bright, upbeat energy vanished instantly.

She slowed her walk to a steady, cool pace, staring straight ahead like she didn’t see him. Leonidas strode over fast, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “What do you have against me?”

“I’m not interested in leftovers,” Clementine wrenched free, tilting her chin up to look him in the eye. “Leonidas, if you’re that worried about losing face, you can go tell everyone you dumped me. I don’t care.”

Leonidas’s lips pressed into a tight, hard line. His chest rose and fell visibly, his anger coiling tight.