Chapter 9

Without him, I still had the skills to flourish in the industry, but without me, it was all downhill for him.

Over the last few years, he'd been getting lazier and lazier. He had long ago started taking me for granted. He seemed to think that running a fashion company was easy. In reality, I was doing most of the actual running behind the scenes without him even noticing.

It only took a day without me there for him to wake up to how much work and pressure there really was.

It wasn't long before Jimmy was in touch, begging me to return:

"Reina, come back. We need you. Without you, the company's doomed."

By that time I had already started working at my friend's company and all I could do was laugh. "Maybe you should think about leaving too."

...

After another week, Hugh called me, crying audibly.

"Reina, please come back."

He still couldn't help but pity himself. "It's my birthday."

Every year on his birthday, I would get him a present. I'd given him a phone, a computer, even a car—one w