He Fast-Tracked Her, I Fast-Tracked My Exit

Ryan returns from a business trip with his first love Chloe and immediately begins sidelining his girlfriend Alice, handing Chloe the million-dollar account Alice spent two months securing and fast-tracking her promotion to Project Director. When Alice objects, Ryan calls a team vote that his coworkers rig for Chloe, then dumps Chloe's impossible proposal on Alice's desk with an end-of-day deadline.

But Alice no longer fights. She drafts the proposal without complaint, signs over her shares, and lets Ryan demote her to an entry-level role to "set an example" for Chloe. What Ryan has forgotten is that during their silent standoff he already signed her resignation papers without reading them, and Alice has already ended their relationship. With three days of handover left, she quietly calls Professor Miller, her old mentor at the research institute she left to build Ryan's startup.

When Ryan overhears the word "resignation" from the doorway, he dismisses it as gossip about a friend and turns back to Chloe's messages. Alice says nothing. The countdown to her exit has already begun.