Chapter 1

My six-hundred-thousand-dollar annual bonus was slashed to two hundred bucks.

Furious, I marched into my boss's office to confront him.

Instead of explaining himself, he pulled the new intern forward and said smugly, "My niece graduated from Harvard. She deserves this money far more than you do."

"Besides, you're a senior employee here. You need to show some team spirit and make sacrifices."

Like hell I would.

I pulled all-nighters for this bonus, raking in tens of millions for the company.

Why on earth should my hard-earned cash be handed over to an intern who'd only been here for two months?

I opened my mouth to argue, but my boss lost his patience and called security to drag me out.

"Keep throwing a tantrum and you're fired!" he barked. "That client is an old account of ours. Literally anyone can handle them. Do you actually think you're irreplaceable?"

I scoffed. That very night, I handed in my resignation and took a position at my brother's conglomerate.

Just like that, I became this idiot boss's biggest client.

At the annual review, the project I led was, once again, the most profitable in the entire firm.

Looking at the financial reports, Mr. Hayes was grinning from ear to ear. He patted my shoulder warmly. "Fantastic work, Clara. You've brought in tremendous value this year. I'm rewarding you with a six-hundred-thousand-dollar year-end bonus."

I was thrilled. A whole year of blood, sweat, and tears had finally paid off.

Yet, when the direct deposit hit my bank account, my six hundred thousand turned out to be just two hundred dollars.

Panicked, I rushed straight to payroll.

The HR accountant looked at her screen and shrugged. "Nope, that's correct. Your year-end bonus is two hundred dollars."

How could that be? Wasn't the project lead promised six hundred thousand? I was the lead!

Just as I was about to march into the corner office, Mr. Hayes strolled into our department.

I cut straight to the chase. "Mr. Hayes, why did I only get two hundred dollars for my bonus? Is there a mistake? You promised the project lead six hundred thousand."

Mr. Hayes flashed a practiced, polite smile. "Ah, Clara, I was just about to address that."

He stepped up to the front of the room and cleared his throat, tapping on a desk.

"Listen up, everyone. I have an announcement. Moving forward, Chloe Hayes will be stepping up as the new lead for this project."

I froze. Chloe was on my team, sure, but she was completely incompetent. She dragged deadlines down, contributed nothing, and constantly left messes that I had to clean up.

And now, someone like that was taking over my position?

Mr. Hayes turned back to me with a calm shrug. "You see, Clara, I did say the six hundred grand goes to the project lead. So naturally, the money belongs to Chloe."

I couldn't believe the audacity. The massive profits from this project were solely my doing. I was the one managing the client relationship, guiding the team, and doing the heavy lifting. How could she possibly take credit for my results when bonus season rolled around?

Who could stomach this kind of disrespect?

I confronted him directly. "Mr. Hayes, the profits from this account were generated entirely under my leadership. What right does she have to steal all the credit?"

Taken aback that I had embarrassed him in front of the entire floor, Mr. Hayes's face darkened, though he tried to smooth it over. "It's not just hers. This is the collective fruit of everyone's hard work. Success doesn't belong to any single individual."

I let out a bitter laugh and pulled up my mobile banking app, showing the screen to everyone. "Then why does she get six hundred thousand while I'm tossed a pathetic two hundred bucks?"

Mr. Hayes wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, stammering, "Well... our company has always rewarded effort. The project lead shoulders the greatest responsibility, so of course they get the lion's share."

I scoffed. "Mr. Hayes, I've been leading the Sterling account since day one. Chloe was appointed literally thirty seconds ago. If we're talking about contributions, every cent of that belongs to me."

The moment the words left my mouth, Chloe slammed her hands on the table, standing up without an ounce of shame. "Clara, drop the act! Cut the crap about 'contributions'—you're just greedy for the cash!"

"Sure, you were the lead before, but you barely did anything! All you ever did was bark orders while the rest of us broke our backs doing the actual work."

"Especially me! I worked late every single day. If we're talking about who gave the most, it's obviously me. Why else would the boss promote me? It's only fair that I get the big bonus."

She was lying through her teeth. I always divided the tasks fairly—giving the team the simpler parts while I tackled the most complex problems myself. When did that become 'barking orders without working'?

I tore right through her lies. "Chloe, stop pretending. You only stayed late because you spent your entire shift scrolling through TikTok! You couldn't finish your work on time, scrambled at the last second, and left a mountain of errors that I had to stay up fixing. You have the nerve to claim you did the most?"

Chloe crossed her arms smugly. "So what? Say whatever you want, but I'm the project lead now. The money is mine."

She turned to face the rest of the team. "Let the room decide. Who deserves this bonus? Me, or Clara?"