Chapter 2

Hearing that I wanted a divorce, my father panicked instantly.

"Son! Did Brenda do something behind your back?!"

"Where is she? I'm coming to settle the score right now!"

I replied calmly.

"She just gave her secretary a one-year paid sabbatical."

"Do you know what that means?"

My dad paused, visibly baffled.

"Did I hear that right? You're divorcing her just because she gave an employee a paid year off?"

Brenda interjected indignantly from the side.

"It's just a one-year paid leave prize! It's not like the company can't afford it. Did you really have to drag your dad into this?"

Without glancing at her, I reminded my father.

"Dad, do you remember when you and Mom were building your empire in New York, and Mom took a whole year off?"

The moment the words landed, my father understood completely. Fury erupted through the receiver.

"So that's it! How dare Brenda give her secretary a paid year off! I'm on it right now!"

"If Brenda really pulled something like this, I will make sure she never works in business again!"

Brenda caught the venom in my father's voice.

She quickly snatched the phone from my hand to explain.

"Dad, you've got it wrong! Austin's year off was just the grand prize from our Thanksgiving raffle!"

"You're always saying that high performance depends on the hard work of our staff. I organized a raffle to lift morale and reward my team—what's wrong with that?"

"Logan is just jealous that Austin won. He's being impulsive and talking about divorce. I'll calm him down. Don't take his threats about divorce and cutting funds seriously!"

Employees nearby began shouting toward the phone as well.

"Yeah, Mr. Hayes! We all picked our own gift boxes! It was totally random!"

"Even if the prizes are different, we're all really happy with the holiday bonuses!"

"I personally dropped the cards into the gift bags. It was completely fair. Whoever won the grand prize just got lucky!"

Hearing everyone speak up, my dad's resolve seemed to waver.

Brenda took my hand.

"Logan, did you misunderstand something? I would never favor anyone over you."

"If I'm biased toward anyone, it's only you."

"Stop talking about divorce. If you're upset, how about I prepare a surprise gift box for you every single day?"

I yanked my hand back and pointed at the man who had just claimed he put the cards in the bags.

"Random? Then let me ask you—what did you win?"

"It couldn't be that you just *happened* to randomly draw one of the top prizes you placed yourself, could it?"

Everyone’s eyes turned toward the man.

I lowered my gaze and noticed a matching gold beaded bracelet on his wrist—identical to the one Austin wore.

It all made sense.

He was Austin's best buddy, Sam, head of the marketing department.

He had organized this entire retreat under Brenda's instructions. Rigging a raffle would have been child's play for him.

Sam's voice was unmistakably guilty.

"...Second prize."

"And what is second prize?" I pressed.

His eyes darted nervously between Austin and Brenda, guilt written all over his face.

"Six months of paid leave."

I burst out laughing.

"What a pair of great brothers! You even managed to win the top prizes together."

I glared directly at Sam.

"Did you say earlier that you personally put the raffle cards into the bags?"

Sam instinctively took half a step back, too scared to answer.

Austin stepped forward defensively.

"I know Sam's character. He would never cheat!"

"Just because we got lucky and won together, we deserve to be condemned?"

Brenda frowned deeply.

"Logan Hayes, what is wrong with you today? You're mad that Austin won, you're mad when I give you the Grand Champion prize, and now you're obsessing over Sam's prize?"

"Nobody else has an issue with the raffle. Why are you clinging to this?"

The other employees nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I never have good luck, but I'm super happy with my thousand-dollar holiday bonus. Thank you, Boss!"

"Statistically, anything can happen. There's no rule saying the organizer can't win big."

Hearing the crowd, my dad chimed in through the phone to calm me down.

"Logan, did you make a mistake? It doesn't look like they rigged it on purpose. Maybe it really was just a coincidence, and you're overthinking it?"

Suppressing the rage inside me, my voice remained cold and steady.