Chapter 3

I walked through the doors of Horizon Group, my new company.

The receptionist already recognized me and greeted me with a smile: "Ms. Bennett! Mr. Walker is waiting for you in his office."

Mr. Walker's office was at the end of the corridor, door open.

He was looking at something on his computer. When he heard the knock, he looked up and smiled: "Sophia, come in. Have a seat."

I sat across from him.

"There's something I want to discuss with you." He got straight to the point.

I sat up a bit straighter: "Go ahead."

"That project from before the holidays—you remember it, right? The eight-million-dollar contract with your former company."

The project I'd pulled countless all-nighters for, revised endless times, only to have Claire accept the award for it in the end.

Mr. Walker continued: "This project needs to be inspected now. Originally I was going to send someone else, but then I thought—you followed this project from beginning to end. Nobody understands it better than you."

"So I'd like you to go," he looked at me, "to your former company this morning to inspect the project."

I looked into Mr. Walker's candid eyes.

I remembered the day I resigned, how Mr. Grant didn't even look up as he set my resignation letter aside.

I remembered Claire standing on stage accepting my award, eyes red as she thanked everyone.

I remembered Melissa saying my $250 year-end bonus was because I didn't fit in.

I remembered this morning—the phone calls they'd taken turns making, ordering, threatening, coaxing, finally turning into furious cursing.

"Alright, I'll go right away." I smiled slightly. "Besides, I'm curious to see what they're like on their first day back."

After leaving Mr. Walker's office, I went to HR to complete my onboarding.

Finally, the HR manager handed me an ID badge.

It read: Project Director—Sophia.

Back at my desk, just as I sat down, Mr. Grant called.

Over seven years, this number had appeared on my phone countless times. Late-night urgent calls, weekend overtime orders, last-minute tasks during business trips.

Every time, I answered immediately, saying "Yes, Mr. Grant," "Right away, Mr. Grant," "No problem, Mr. Grant."

I answered.

"Sophia!" He was furious. "Well, well! Not answering calls, not replying to messages, blocking everyone! Think you're something special now, don't you?"

"Let me tell you—don't be so ungrateful!" He got angrier as he spoke. "If you don't show up today, I'll mark you as absent without leave and fire you! I'll put it on your record—let's see which company will dare hire you then!"

Fire me.

I laughed internally.

"Mr. Grant," I said calmly, "I'll be at your company shortly."

Mr. Grant's voice couldn't hide his smugness: "Ha, so you do know what's good for you. Hurry up—I'm waiting."

When I received Mr. Walker's job offer before the holidays, I didn't accept immediately.

The night of the annual meeting when Claire stole my credit, I received that $250 year-end bonus.

That night, I stayed awake until six the next morning.

I figured something out.

This company never valued ability.

All it could give me was more work, more blame, more silent suffering in the corner.

And when you finally broke through, the person on stage accepting awards would always be someone who knew how to play the game.

That very night, I decided to resign and join my former biggest client's company.

Coming back to the present, I stood up and hung the ID badge around my neck.

When I showed up at my former company as a client, I wondered what their expressions would be.

I was looking forward to it.