Ten Percent Love

Sebastian always believed that love should only take up ten percent of a person's life.

As my boss and my partner, he executed this theory to absolute perfection.

I was his executive secretary for five years.

I drank myself into hospital beds just to secure his contracts. I stayed up until three in the morning managing his overseas conference calls.

He accepted all my sacrifices as his absolute right. He never once offered a single word of comfort, claiming it was simply my job description.

That was until half a month ago, when I, the employee with a perfect attendance record, requested three sick days in a row.

Sebastian assumed I had caught a minor bug and was using it to play the victim.

"The company is in a critical phase right now. Can you please act like an adult?"

Those were the last words he left me before slamming the front door.

He had no idea that on that very day, I was lying completely alone in a sterile operating room, losing our baby.

Sebastian was a workaholic. He truly was busy.

Busy enough to pause a multimillion dollar board meeting just to instantly reply to a text message from his new intern.

That ten percent he constantly preached about was exclusively reserved for me.

For others, he could effortlessly offer a hundred percent of his patience and favoritism, anywhere and anytime.

Later, a crisp resignation letter appeared on his mahogany desk.

Mr. Wright, you can keep your ten percent. I do not want it anymore.

...

The electronic lock beeped softly, and the door swung open.

I thought Sebastian had finally remembered to come check on me.

But there was someone else trailing closely behind him.

It was the new intern, Lily.

She was draped in Sebastian's tailored suit jacket. He held a black umbrella over her with one hand, while his other hand hovered protectively over her waist.

"Mr. Wright, do you think we are disturbing Serena's rest?"

Lily peeked out from behind his broad shoulders, her voice sickeningly sweet and timid.

"No."

Sebastian closed the umbrella. His gaze completely bypassed her and landed coldly on me.

"She is not that fragile."

I was curled up on the living room sofa. The heavy, pulling agony in my lower abdomen had me drenched in a cold sweat.

"Go get the flash drive for Lily."

Sebastian did not even bother to take off his shoes before barking orders at me.

"She needs it for her presentation tomorrow."

He did not visit me in the dead of night because he was worried I was dying from a three day illness.

He only came because his precious intern made a mistake at work, and his heart ached for her.

So he personally drove her here to retrieve the files from me.

I forced myself to stand up from the couch.

The extreme dizziness from severe blood loss made me stumble violently. I crashed into the glass cup on the coffee table.

It shattered across the hardwood floor.

"Ah."

Lily let out a terrified gasp, instinctively shrinking back.

In a fraction of a second, Sebastian pulled her tightly into his chest, his brows locked in a furious scowl.

The look he shot me was dripping with pure disgust.

"Serena, what the hell is wrong with you? It is just a minor cold. Who are you putting on this pathetic act for?"

I stared numbly at the hands he used to shield Lily.

Five years ago, when I drank myself into a gastric perforation for him and vomited blood all over my clothes, he merely handed me a paper towel.

His tone had been flat. "Good work today, Serena."

Now, Lily was simply startled by the sound of breaking glass, and he treated her like a fragile, priceless treasure.

Suddenly, the deep, raw wound in my womb stopped hurting.

All that was left was an ice cold chill that seeped into my very bones.

I did not say a word. I pulled out the silver flash drive and handed it over.

Lily reached out to take it.

Her hand trembled, and the drive slipped from her fingers, clattering onto the floor.

Sebastian's face darkened instantly. He grabbed my wrist in a vice grip.

"Serena. Do you honestly think that just because you handed in a resignation letter, I will not do anything to you?"

"Throwing a tantrum at a rookie. Where is your professional courtesy?"

"Mr. Wright, please do not blame her. It was my fault."

Lily's eyes welled up with tears as she hurriedly crouched down to pick up the drive.

"Do not touch the broken glass."

Sebastian dropped my wrist like it burned him and bent down to grab the drive before she could.

When he turned back to her, his voice was so gentle it could melt ice.

"Now that we have it, let's go. It is getting late. I will drive you back to your apartment."

From beginning to end, he never noticed that I was in so much pain I did not even have the strength to stand up straight.

He definitely did not notice the dark, crimson blood slowly seeping through the edge of my gray sweatpants.

The door clicked shut.

I collapsed backward, landing directly in the pile of broken glass. Sharp shards pierced my palms, but I felt absolutely nothing.

He gave his hundred percent to someone else.

And left me with his measly ten percent, acting like it was a royal blessing I should beg for.

I stared at the fresh blood welling up in my hands, slowly uncurled my fingers, and let out a broken laugh.

The moment the door closed, the last ounce of strength keeping me upright completely vanished.

The blood pooling beneath me was spreading faster now.

My body convulsed in absolute agony. I curled up on the cold floor, my vision blurring at the edges.

The screen of my phone lit up. It was Sebastian's name.

For five years, this number had been pinned to the top of my contacts.

It was my only lifeline whenever I ran into trouble.

With blood stained fingers, I pressed the answer button.

Just when I thought he was going to hang up, the line connected.

"What is the password for the drive?"

His voice came through the speaker, strictly business.

I opened my mouth, gasping for air. "Sebastian... please, help me."

"Serena, are you done with this nonsense?"

The temperature of his voice plummeted, thick with revulsion.

"First you throw a fit in front of a new hire, and now you are playing the dying victim to get my attention? When exactly are you going to stop being hysterical?"

I bit my lower lip so hard I could taste copper. Tears fell silently into the puddle of blood on the floor.

"It hurts so much. Sebastian, I am bleeding... I am..."

"Shut up."

He did not even want to hear the end of my sentence.

"Do you really think acting pitiful will make me feel sorry for you?"

In the background, I could faintly hear Lily's soft, hesitant voice.

"Mr. Wright, is Serena mad at me? Tell her I do not need the password. I can just stay up all night and rebuild the data."

"Just ignore her."

Whenever he spoke to her, Sebastian's tone instantly shifted back to that sickeningly sweet gentleness.

"She is just spoiled. Trying to use a password to hold me hostage. We do not need her to give it to us. I can guess it myself."

He brought the phone closer to his mouth, his tone turning to absolute frost.

"Listen to me very carefully, Serena. You better show up at the office first thing tomorrow with that password and apologize to Lily."

"If you dare to no show, do not ever think about stepping foot in Wright Corporation again."

The abrupt dial tone echoed in the silent room, severing my final string of hope.

I clutched the phone, and suddenly, I started to laugh.

I laughed until my whole body shook. I laughed until my chest felt like it was tearing open.

This was the man I had loved with my entire soul for five years.

For him, I had my own flesh and blood surgically removed on a cold operating table.

Five years of bleeding myself dry for him, completely obliterated by a few sweet words from an intern.

My grip loosened, and the phone dropped into the bloody water.

My eyelids felt like lead.

Just a second before my consciousness entirely faded, a sharp buzzing vibrated against my wrist.

It was my Apple Watch.

The screen flashed a glaring red, counting down to automatically dial 911.

How incredibly ironic.

As I lay there dying, the only thing trying to save my life was a piece of cold metal and glass.

I opened my eyes to the blinding, sterile white ceiling of a hospital room.

"You are awake."

A nurse walked over holding a clipboard, her voice laced with deep pity.

"You are way too reckless, honey. You did not rest after your miscarriage, and you pushed yourself right into a severe hemorrhage. If the ambulance had been even a minute slower, you would have died on your living room floor last night."

"Where is your family? Why are you still here all alone?"

"I do not have any family."

My voice was so hoarse it was barely a whisper. I could only offer a weak shake of my head.

The nurse sighed heavily and decided not to press the issue.

My memory violently yanked me back to New Year's Eve two years ago.

Wright Corporation had just secured the biggest deal of the year. Sebastian had too much to drink at the celebration, and I had to physically support him all the way back to the apartment.

Inside the elevator, he had locked his fingers tightly with mine. Fueled by the alcohol, he leaned in and whispered against my ear.

"Serena, once the company goes public, we will buy a penthouse in Tribeca. One with a massive terrace. And then... it will just be you and me."

In that fleeting moment, I actually believed I had finally found a home.

Looking back now, it was nothing more than a drunken, casual reward he tossed my way to keep me loyal.

But I had held onto it for so damn long.

The phone on my pillow suddenly vibrated violently.

Sebastian's name flashed across the screen.

I stared at the name that used to make my heart skip a beat.

Now, all it invoked was a physical wave of nausea in my stomach.

I did not pick up.

The phone stubbornly rang three times before going silent.

Immediately after, a text message popped up.

Sebastian: Answer the phone. Do not make me tell you twice.

He probably thought giving me the cold shoulder all morning was his way of letting me off the hook.

I took a deep, trembling breath and swiped the answer icon.

"Finally decided to pick up?"

"Serena, your temper is really getting out of hand."

He spoke with a slow, arrogant drawl.

"I told you to bring the password and apologize to the office last night, and you actually dared to pull a disappearing act on me."

I remained completely silent. I could feel the blood in my veins turning to ice.

Last night, I bled out on the floor of my apartment and was mere minutes away from becoming a corpse.

And all he thought was that I was playing some childish game of hard to get.

"Cat got your tongue? Still throwing a tantrum over last night?"

Sebastian let out a soft scoff.

"Alright, that is enough. The password for the drive was my birthday. I figured it out."

"The presentation this morning was a massive success. Lily did a fantastic job leading it. She really did her mentor proud."

My heart fiercely contracted.

"Sebastian."

"Did you call me just to brag about how you used my original drafts to turn your new favorite toy into a star?"

"Serena."

His voice hardened, tinged with heavy displeasure.

"Lily is just a rookie. What is the big deal about you showing her the ropes? You have been dragging out this stupid cold for four days now. Are you ever going to drop it?"

A hollow laugh escaped my lips. Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes, vanishing into the stark white pillowcase.

I almost lost my damn life.

Yet he still firmly believed I was just acting like a jealous girlfriend.

"What are you laughing at?"

Sebastian was starting to sound incredibly annoyed.

"Nothing."

"Is there anything else, Mr. Wright?"

Dead silence stretched across the line for two entire seconds.

"There is a celebration banquet tonight at the top floor of The Grand Regent."

He was clearly forcing himself to be patient.

"Seven o'clock sharp. Clean yourself up and get there. I am willing to wipe the slate clean for the ridiculous way you have been acting these past few days."

"I can even pretend I never saw that resignation letter."

He was always so undeniably confident.

Confident that all he had to do was crook his finger and throw me a tiny crumb of mercy.

And I would come crawling back to him, wagging my tail like a loyal dog.

"What if I refuse to go?"

"Serena, my patience has its limits."

His voice became cold and unyielding as steel.

"If you dare to no show tonight, then consider yourself permanently blacklisted from Wright Corporation."

"Okay."

I stared out the window at the heavy, gray clouds rolling over the city, giving him a single word in reply.

The call ended.

I slowly put the phone down and ruthlessly pulled the IV needle out of my hand.

I arrived at the banquet the next evening, exactly as scheduled.

The only reason I could even stand upright was pure, unadulterated willpower.

The grand double doors were slightly ajar, letting the sound of laughter and clinking glasses spill out into the corridor.

"Mr. Wright, Serena has been by your side for five solid years. She is your right hand in business and takes perfect care of you at home."

"It has been half a decade. When are you finally going to make it official and invite us to the wedding?"

My hand froze halfway to the brass door handle.

Then, I heard Sebastian's overly familiar voice.

It was completely calm, carrying a hint of bored indifference.

"Marriage? I have said it before. Love only makes up ten percent of my life."

"Besides, she has forgotten her place lately."

He paused, a trace of annoyance bleeding into his tone.

"Throwing tantrums for days over a little cold. She is getting spoiled. Let her cool off for a few days, she will snap out of it."

Four years ago, I was hospitalized for emergency stomach surgery.

He stood by my bed, refusing to even take a seat.

He just frowned at my medical chart and said, "Serena, getting sick right now is stalling the project timeline. But remember, the work is never more important than you."

For the four years that followed that statement, even when my fever spiked to a hundred and four, I never once showed him a single ounce of weakness.

My heart felt like it was being twisted by a serrated knife.

I squeezed my eyes shut, gathered my remaining strength, and pushed the grand doors wide open.

The boisterous ballroom fell into an instant, dead silence.

Sebastian's eyes cut through the crowd and locked onto me, his brows pulling into a deep frown.

There was not a single shred of concern in his eyes. Only absolute disdain.

His face darkened as he strode toward me, clearly ready to dress me down in front of everyone.

But right at that moment, Lily, who was balancing two steaming glasses of mulled wine, suddenly tripped.

She lunged forward, falling straight toward me.

"Ah."

I was physically drained. I did not have a single ounce of energy to dodge her.

But I didn't need to.

Because Sebastian's bodily reflexes were lightyears faster than his logic.

He lunged forward and yanked Lily aggressively into the safety of his chest.

Without a second thought, he shot out his other hand and shoved me viciously in the shoulder.

"Get out of the way."

He roared the words at me.

Hit by that brutal force, my frail body flew backward. I slammed onto the marble floor with a sickening thud.

Searing agony ripped through my entire body. I could only bite my lip until it bled to stop myself from screaming.

Sebastian stood over me, looking down like I was trash on the sidewalk.

"Serena, are you out of your mind? Do you not look where you are going? If you had burned Lily, could you afford to take the blame?"

I curled up on the freezing marble.

I looked up at his large hands, tightly clutching Lily's waist in an overly protective grip.

Once the initial wave of agony passed, the pain just evaporated.

Under Sebastian's glaring eyes.

I forced my shattered body off the floor, inch by agonizing inch.

I did not shed a single tear. I did not look at him with red rimmed eyes and beg for an explanation like I used to.

I slowly reached into the pocket of my trench coat and pulled out a crisp, white envelope.

I placed it gently onto the cocktail table next to me.

"You are absolutely right, Mr. Wright. Love is only ten percent."

I pulled my pale, bloodless lips into a totally empty smile.

"You can keep your ten percent. I do not want it anymore."

"I wish you and Lily a lifetime of happiness."