Chapter 3

Sure enough, the General Manager soon called me into his office.

Justin was an Ivy League graduate who had been parachuted into his position. He always carried an insufferable, condescending attitude.

"Claire, the company made you the marketing manager because we trusted you. Look at what you’ve done!"

"You know we are targeting a younger demographic right now. The last thing we need is negative PR. Because of your toxic bullying behavior, our company is being dragged on TikTok and Reddit. You will personally bear all the financial losses!"

Just as I was about to laugh in his face, Justin cleared his throat, pretending to give me a way out. "Tell you what. Make a public apology to Chloe first to control the damage. If there are no further issues, we’ll only dock your performance bonus for this quarter."

He tapped the document on his desk. "This is the disciplinary form. Sign it if you have no objections."

My face remained expressionless, but I was sneering inside.

How could I not see through this? He was trying to defend Chloe while using me to establish his authority over the other departments.

Too bad I didn't play that game. "Justin, are you saying that if a dog bites me and I kick it away, I'm the one who has to apologize? Why don't you just fire me and hire a pack of dogs instead?"

Justin’s face twisted in anger.

"Claire! I am your boss! I explicitly told you to take care of the new hires. What’s wrong with driving her home and talking about work on the way?"

"You need to take responsibility for your mistakes!"

I stood up and calmly picked up the disciplinary form from his desk.

"First of all, I have no duty or obligation to take care of Chloe outside of work hours. I am not her mother. I don't owe her a ride home at midnight."

Justin cleared his throat and looked away.

I ripped the form to shreds.

"Secondly, if you aren't blind or deaf, you should have seen the video I played. You know Chloe fabricated the whole story to slander me, which is what actually damaged the company's reputation. If you can’t see that, you should resign. Your IQ is clearly not fit for the GM position."

He slammed his hand on the desk and stood up, glaring at me.

I tossed the ripped paper into his trash can.

"Lastly, you don't even have the authority to dock my bonus. Before the Chairman went to Europe for his business retreat, didn't he tell you that my department reports directly to him?"

With that, I smiled politely.

"Justin, based on what I just said, I suggest you use your brain and make a more rational decision."

He didn't realize that my confidence came from how indispensable I was to this company.

The only reason he was the GM was because I didn't want to waste my energy on corporate bureaucracy.

By the time I left his office, he was wiping sweat from his forehead.

I thought he would back down after this confrontation. Instead, he and Chloe doubled down, trying to rally the entire department to isolate me.

During another late night of overtime, Chloe walked up to me, her eyes filled with venom.

"Claire, no wonder a low-level manager like you can afford a hundred-thousand-dollar car."

"Turns out you’ve been stealing the bonuses that belong to us!"