Chapter 3

After leaving Zion's office, I went straight to HR to pull my employment contract.

Alma looked at me, torn.

"Effie, if you request your contract now, Mr. Whitney will definitely ask about it. Please don't put me in a tough spot."

"I'm not putting you in a tough spot. By the rules, the employment contract is made in triplicate, but the company never gave the employee their copy. I have the right to obtain it."

Her face crumpled, and her eyes went red.

"Effie, you came to get the contract just to see whether there's a clause banning office romances. I can tell you there isn't, but I really can't give it to you."

I nodded, took out my phone, and opened the voice recorder.

"Then I don't need to see it. Just say what you said again."

Alma's expression froze, comically ridiculous.

She bit her lip, got up helplessly, opened the filing cabinet, and pulled out my employment contract.

I made a copy on the spot and walked out of the HR office holding it.

As I came out, Zion's office door was half open, and he caught sight of me leaving with the contract.

His face changed. He grabbed the desk phone and dialed.

A moment later, the sound of Alma sobbing came from the HR office.

Back at my desk, probing looks came at me from all sides.

The whispering followed.

"So she didn't get it back. Look how dark her face is, like somebody owes her eight million."

"Not eight million, two hundred grand. That's enough to buy a car. How could her face not be dark?"

"You've got to have either money or love, right? A person can't always have smooth sailing—and here it comes."

"She just went to HR to demand the contract, and Alma got chewed out by Mr. Whitney. She couldn't protect her own bonus and dragged an innocent person into it. That's just too much."

Alma's crying still carried out of the office.

I didn't go comfort her; that was her job.

If we're talking innocent, no one is more innocent than me.

I had a relationship, and it cost me a $200K bonus, and got me branded with "dragging innocent people into it."

Half an hour later, HR posted a personnel notice in the company-wide group chat.

Due to Effie Henson's serious violation of company policy, Effie Henson is hereby removed from her position as A-Team Project Manager and reassigned as Project Specialist.

Chloe Vance will take over as A-Team Project Manager. The handover is to be completed before end of day today.

After two seconds of silence in the chat, Malcolm was the first to send congratulations.

A string of me-too congratulations followed.

I stared at the screen, my fingertips ice-cold.

Really funny.

My boyfriend, congratulating the woman who took my bonus and my position, right there in the group chat.

I sent a congratulations emoji in the chat too.

The group chat ended on that message.

Two minutes later, Chloe came over for the handover.

"Effie, Mr. Whitney told me to do the handover with you. Please organize all the client information and give it to me."

I didn't look at her.

"The client data is all in the system. Export it yourself."

She was caught short.

"I mean the clients' addresses, preferences, family relationships. Didn't you keep records of those?"

I finally shot her a glance.

"That's the clients' private information. It's not appropriate to disclose it."

Her face darkened a shade.

"This is company policy—"

"Company policy is all in the system. Private information isn't within the scope of the handover."

Her face darkened further.

"Then organize all the client proposals, transaction records, contract attachments, and quotes for me."

"They're all in the system. My new title is specialist, not your assistant."

Her face went from dark to pale, and her shoulders began to shake.

"Effie, how could you be like this…"

I knew Malcolm must have arrived.

Sure enough, Malcolm's voice came from behind her.

"Effie, Chloe isn't the one who demoted you, so why are you taking it out on her?"

"Chloe just got promoted and she's under a lot of pressure, and you're deliberately making things hard for her. How can you be so narrow-minded? Can't you stand to see someone do better than you? Do you have to embarrass her in front of everyone?"

How ironic of him to say that.

He came over just to humiliate me one more time, to make me understand, clearly, that I wasn't worthy.

I looked up at him.

"Malcolm, didn't that 'congratulations' of yours embarrass me?"