Chapter 4

The restaurant manager picked up after two rings.

I asked a few direct questions and got the exact answers I anticipated.

After hanging up, I saved the recorded call directly into an encrypted folder on my drive.

A week later, the annual intern evaluation and conversion presentation officially began.

The executive conference room was packed with department heads, chaired personally by the VP of Human Resources.

When it was Chloe’s turn, she stepped up to the podium, her eyes instantly brimming with tears.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm Chloe, an intern with the Creative Design team."

"Standing here today means the world to me. I grew up in a tiny, struggling rural town, and my family has nothing. This job is my only lifeline."

The moment she finished speaking, several department directors softened, looking at her with genuine sympathy.

Chloe clicked to the first slide of her deck, pointing to a rendered layout.

"During my time here, I spearheaded the brand visual package for Sterling Development."

"I pulled three consecutive all-nighters and analyzed hundreds of case studies to build this."

"Even when certain senior colleagues tried to hold me back, and even tried to pin their own project blunders onto my shoulders, I swallowed my tears and pushed through."

As she spoke, she shot a pointed glance straight at me.

Instantly, every pair of eyes in the room locked onto my face.

Dave leaned over, whispering frantically under his breath.

"Is she insane?! Lauren, you built that entire project from scratch! She literally just ran the printer!"

I didn't utter a word. I just sat there, quietly watching her perform.

Chloe brought up her "original design drafts."

"As you can see, this was my initial concept. Even though it was heavily altered later on, the core creative vision remains entirely mine."

The HR VP nodded along, visibly impressed.

"Chloe, we love seeing young talent with grit. But you mentioned a senior colleague gave you trouble. Could you elaborate on that?"

That was the exact opening Chloe had been fishing for.

She took a trembling breath, allowing a single tear to slide down her cheek.

"I don't hold a grudge against Lauren. She was probably just under a lot of pressure."

"Last week, she asked me to mail a lookbook to Sterling. I had no idea she had slipped something inside, but the client was deeply offended, and Lauren lost half her bonus."

"Afterward, she cursed me out in the office and threatened to get me fired."

"And at our last team dinner, Mark offered to treat us, but Lauren forced everyone—including me—to pay over $700 out of pocket. Because of that, I can't even afford rent next month."

Whispers broke out across the room.

Several executives looked at me with open disgust.

The HR VP’s face hardened.

"Lauren, is this true? This company has zero tolerance for workplace bullying and hazing interns!"

I stood up calmly.

"Since Chloe brought up both of these incidents, it turns out I’ve prepared some materials of my own."

"I had originally intended to present this during the Q&A segment, but now works just as well."

I walked down to the podium and plugged my flash drive into the console.

Chloe stared at me, trembling with rehearsed vulnerability.

"Lauren, you don't have to fabricate fake evidence just to smear me. Everything I said is the absolute truth."

I didn't even look at her. I hit the spacebar.

What flashed across the giant projection screen made everyone’s jaws drop.