Chapter 1

The very day my boss found out I was pregnant, he slapped my name right onto the layoff list.

"Evelyn, you're a senior employee here. Resigning voluntarily would make it much easier for you to rest and care for your baby."

"You know the company is going through tough times right now. Don't be greedy about severance pay. Walk away with some dignity."

"If you insist on staying, I'm afraid that little baby in your belly will have to suffer alongside you for the next ten months."

Hearing his blatant threat, I simply said I needed two days to think it over.

Two days later, when he brought up my "voluntary resignation" again, I slammed a thick dossier right onto his desk.

The moment he saw what was inside, he couldn't sit still anymore.

Thomas Vance leaned back in his executive chair, slowly blowing a thick ring of smoke into the air.

I stared at his greasy, round face. I had always known he was a shameless, Scrooge-level cheapskate, but his barefaced audacity still stunned me.

"Mr. Vance, labor laws clearly state that an employer cannot terminate a female employee during pregnancy."

I dug my nails into my palms, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

Instead of putting his cigarette out, Vance took another deep drag. Behind the thick haze of smoke, a mocking smirk spread across his lips.

"Fired? Evelyn, don't use such ugly words. We're practically family here."

"How could this be a termination? It's simply you choosing to submit your voluntary, proactive resignation so you can focus on your pregnancy."

He put heavy, deliberate emphasis on the words voluntary and proactive.

"You're a veteran here. The company is having a hard time. You should show a little empathy."

I stared at him, my stomach violently churning—half from the nauseating stench of smoke, half from sheer disgust toward the man sitting in front of me.

"I'll think about it."

Throwing those words down, I turned on my heel and walked out of his office.

The second I got back to my cubicle, several coworkers immediately huddled around me.

"Eve, are you really pregnant?"

"Did Mr. Vance call you in to talk about the layoffs?"

"Getting pregnant right at this moment... you literally walked into the crosshairs."

I took a deep breath and brushed them off casually: "It's fine. We just went over regular daily tasks."

Sitting down in my chair, I stared blankly at the calendar on my desk, my chest aching with stifled anger.

Profits had slipped recently, and rumors about Vance planning mass layoffs had been running wild for weeks.

Of all times, I had to find out I was pregnant right now.

Yet I had poured years of hard, meticulous work into this firm. Based on performance reviews alone, there was no universe in which I belonged on a chopping block.

Besides, I knew Vance inside and out. Circulating layoff rumors was just his favorite dirty trick.

He created artificial panic on purpose, squeezing employees until they cracked and quit on their own—just so he wouldn't have to pay a single cent of statutory severance.

While my mind raced, someone suddenly banged hard on my desk.

Vance's secretary, Chloe, marched over holding an enormous stack of binders and dropped them with a loud crash onto my desk.

"Eve, Mr. Vance told me to hand these over. You need to audit the expense reports and billing logs for the last two quarters."

She looked down at me, her voice icy: "You have to turn them in before end of day."

Looking at the stack towering nearly two feet high, I let out a bitter, furious laugh.

Two quarters of corporate accounts usually took three senior accountants nearly a whole week to audit. Now she expected me to do it all alone before clocking out?

"This workload is impossible. No one could finish this before end of day," I refused coldly.

Chloe's lips curved into a smug smirk. Her eyes drifted deliberately down toward my stomach.

"Can't finish it? Oh, right, Eve. You're an expectant mother now. If the work is too exhausting and your body can't handle it, just drop a resignation letter on HR's desk."

"Whatever you do, don't push yourself. If anything terrible happens to that baby in your belly, the company certainly can't take the blame."