Chapter 4

I wanted to say more, but Kayla waved me off with a sweep of her hand.

"Cassandra, nothing you say matters anymore. One more word out of you and you can wait to be fired."

I looked at her, so utterly full of herself, and my anger curdled into a laugh.

I said coldly, "Then I'll wait to be fired by you. And I'll wait to see what this company turns into under your management!"

With that, I went back to my desk.

Half an hour later, the news I got wasn't a termination notice. It was a transfer notice.

Kayla had moved me out of sales and into the admin department.

Not as admin director. Just an admin assistant.

Put plainly, my job now was pouring coffee and fetching water.

The office buzzed with private talk. No one had imagined the top rep would end up like this.

Bernard was the first to jump in and grovel, posting in the group chat:

"Fully behind Ms. Chavez's management philosophy. The capable rise, the dead weight goes."

"Plenty of opportunities for all of us now. No more watching certain people hoard all the resources."

I wanted to quit and walk out on the spot. But even more, I wanted to see the price Kayla would pay for her stubbornness.

So I swallowed it and moved my desk over to admin.

That was when Kayla came over.

She looked down at me from her perch of authority and asked,

"Cassandra, do you understand your place now?"

I ignored her. She went on,

"If you can figure out where you went wrong, write a three-thousand-word apology. Since you're a longtime employee, I might let you back into sales as Bernard's assistant."

I raised my head, looked at her, and smiled.

"Admin's just fine. Give it a few days, and even if you beg me to come back to sales, I won't."

I'd shot her down in front of all those employees, and her face went red to the ears.

She shot me a vicious glare and said,

"A parasite for too long, and you've lost all sense of what you're worth!"

"You really think sales can't function without you? Just wait while I run the paperwork to fire you!"

The words had barely left her mouth when Felix Finch from legal came rushing over.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, his face tight with alarm.

"Ms. Chavez, we've got a problem. We just got an email. Taykon Medical says they're not renewing when the contract expires!"

One sentence from Felix, and the whole office dropped into dead silence.