Six Years in the Shadows: The CEO's Discarded Love

For six years, Dudley Delgado has split every bill, returned every gift, and laid his project results out for anyone to judge, all to prove to his girlfriend, Lucretia Henson, that he is not a gold-digger. When a promotion he earned goes instead to Clint Whitney, an intern, Dudley finds Lucretia's own score for him on the judges' sheet: a 58, the lowest of six, while Clint receives a 98.

Lucretia calls the score fair, saying her low mark was needed to keep his win meaningful, and that Clint earned his place through poise. She drives Clint home, offers him London and her protection, and tells Dudley to take a cab because it is out of the way. At home she offers no towel, no concern, only the reminder that he should have taken an umbrella.

Dudley is left to ask why the one person who watched every late night and every pitch is the one who cost him the contest, and what six years of proving himself were ever worth.