Chapter 2

The room fell dead silent. Nobody dared to utter a word.

After a tense dozen seconds, Dan, a senior member on our team, spoke up. "Chloe."

Suddenly, like dominoes falling, the others chimed in. "Yeah, it should go to Chloe."

I stood there, completely stunned.

I had always looked out for these people. I trained them for free, shared my expertise, and constantly fought for their promotions and perks. Yet right now, every single one of them was kissing up to the slacker, Chloe.

Only Sarah stepped forward, gently patting my back and standing silently beside me.

Chloe smirked triumphantly. "See that, Clara? The people have spoken."

I clenched my fists so tight my nails dug into my palms, glaring at her.

Mr. Hayes quickly stepped between us, playing the peacemaker with an oily smile. "Come on, Clara, aren't you just upset about the money? You could have talked to me privately. Why cause such an ugly scene in the office? Tell you what, I'll personally write you a check for three thousand dollars out of my own pocket as an extra corporate perk. How does that sound?"

Ha. What a generous joke. I didn't know what kind of special tie Chloe had to him, but watching him bend every rule of fairness just to steal my achievements and hand them to her made me sick.

I pulled two crisp hundred-dollar bills from my purse and slapped them right against his chest. "Keep it. I wouldn't take a dime of your pathetic bonus."

Sarah grabbed my arm, quickly pulling me back. "Sorry, Mr. Hayes! She's just having a bad day!"

She dragged me straight into the breakroom and whispered frantically, "Clara, stop fighting them! If you push this, they're going to make your life a living hell here."

"Don't you know? Chloe is Mr. Hayes's favorite niece! They're family. Giving her the bonus is just moving money from his left pocket to his right pocket. Six hundred grand is a fortune—of course he's giving it to his own blood."

So that was it. Nepotism. But if he never intended to give me the bonus, why promise it in the first place? Why go back on his word like a total coward?

I sighed, shaking my head. "With Chloe's absolute lack of skill, this department is going to crash and burn."

That night, I tossed and turned in bed. The more I thought about it, the more I realized Mr. Hayes had lost his mind. The entire company had rotted from the inside out.

When I graduated from college, my older brother had begged me to join his corporate empire, Sterling Enterprises. But back then, I was young and stubborn. I wanted to build something on my own merit, so I joined this struggling startup instead.

When I first arrived, the company was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Revenue was practically zero, and major clients wouldn't even look in our direction.

I analyzed our bottlenecks, borrowed successful strategies from Sterling's playbook, and pitched a comprehensive restructuring plan to Mr. Hayes.

He wasn't sure if it would work, but he gave me his trust and approved my pitch.

Gradually, things turned around. Knowing that relying on mom-and-pop clients wouldn't sustain us long-term, I set my sights on the corporate giant my brother had built: Sterling Enterprises.

Mr. Hayes thought I was chasing a pipe dream, but he let our team give it a shot.

I didn't use any family connections or backdoors. I led my team through endless late nights, pouring everything we had into our proposal. In the end, we beat out dozens of competitors and landed the Sterling contract purely on merit.

From that day on, our department became the cash cow of the company. Thanks to the Sterling deal, our profits skyrocketed.

Back then, Mr. Hayes was hardworking, fair, and dedicated. But over the past year, he had started stuffing every useless relative he had onto the payroll, regardless of their qualifications.

And now, he was letting his niece hijack my role and steal my life's work.

Staring at the ceiling, I felt nothing but profound disappointment.