Lorena cleared her throat and feigned ignorance.
"I'm not sure I follow, Mr. Solace."
Zachary couldn't stop the frown from showing on his face. He preferred it if she called him Zachary, but he did call her Ms. White first...
"Don't play the fool, Ms. White, it doesn't suit you."
"She is an ignorant little girl."
"Older than you."
"Not on the inside, as we have so clearly seen. Mr. Solace, she has nothing to her name. Those were all empty promises. She's the lowly daughter of an Earl. How could she help us expand to Brynes?"
"That is not your call to make. You sent her out before we could reach any conclusions."
"I beg to differ. Two minutes with the woman and you could immediately see that she was talking smoke. All of it was lies."
"That is not your decision. I am the boss, you are the subordinate. I trust you remember this next time."
The last sentence was spoken coldly. Lorena felt genuinely hurt. He was protecting her. The bitch. The obvious liar and manipulator. Was he smitten with her? Was she unable to change the main events in the novel? Did she not have as big of an effect on the storyline than she originally thought?
She swallowed all of her grievances and nodded.
Zachary nodded and then dismissed her. She left, and she knew she wasn't going to come back.
She blew it. Lorena let her personal emotions get in the way of her better judgment. She acted like the boss and made a fool of herself. Though it did not lead to dire consequences, she was going to stand by her word. This was the last time she would be in the Solace mansion. The thought made her temporarily unable to breathe. She was never too close to any of the Solace members, but she did care about them. Especially Raymond. To her, he was the father she never had. He taught her, mentored her, raised her, and was the first father figure of both of her lives.
Lorena had packed her bags. She only took one of her butler outfits and left the rest of them. She took all of her casual clothing and personal items and packed them away. By the time she was done, the sun had started to set and the room looked the same as it did the first day she had come.
This had been her home. Now, she was going to leave it. She stopped her thoughts there. She couldn't get sentimental. Not here. Not now. She would have plenty of time to grieve after. It was her fault for having these emotions in the first place. No subordinate should feel this way towards their master, or boss.
With one last look at the mansion, Lorena headed for her dorms.
She didn't have much in the dorms. Just her teaching materials and toiletries. She packed up the latter and left the former. She also wrote her resignation letter along with her ideas on how to change the math curriculum in the future. With all of her preparations complete, Lorena finally left the capital and headed for Stoneway, a smaller city and one of the few places Zachary still hadn't branched to yet.
She used her skills to defend merchants going in the same direction she was and earned a little money on the side because of it. She also tagged along on wagons and spent most of her days sleeping in inns along the way. Eat. Travel. Sleep. Repeat. It was long and strenuous, but nothing she hadn't handled before. After a week, Lorena finally made it to Stoneway.