Chapter 3

"Griffin, you aren't seriously upset about this, are you?" Wesley gave me a taunting smile, his words dripping with sarcasm. "You're too cheap to order anything decent yourself, yet you refuse to give up your position and do your job. What, do you actually think you are the department's operations manager?"

Without another word, I logged into the system and transferred the meal-ordering permissions to him on the spot. Then, I printed out a confirmation form, placed it in front of him in full view of everyone, and told him to sign it.

Wesley let out a smug snort and signed his name without the slightest hesitation.

I put the form away and returned to my desk.

For the next two weeks, our entire department seemed to be on vacation. Nobody took their work seriously. Every morning at ten, everyone gathered around Wesley's desk to discuss what expensive delicacies they wanted for lunch.

Mushroom chicken soup, freshly sliced salmon, imported cherries... The afternoon tea orders never stopped either, and the bills kept climbing higher by the day.

First came the 300-dollar lunch boxes, then the premium caviar platters costing over 500 dollars, followed by imported fruit platters priced at more than a thousand dollars.

In just one week, the 13 people in our department had racked up more than 100,000 dollars in meal expenses.

I kept my head down and did my work. Whenever an invoice came in, I photographed it, checked the details, and filed it away.

On Friday afternoon, we held our monthly department review meeting.

I opened my laptop to prepare my presentation, only to discover that the core proposal I had spent half a month working on had vanished from my desktop.

Before I could investigate, Wesley confidently stood up and plugged a flash drive into the projector.

The proposal that appeared on the screen was an exact copy of mine!

The department head watched the presentation, nodding in approval and praising Wesley repeatedly.

I stood up immediately and demanded to know why Wesley had plagiarized my work. Joyce jumped in to defend him.

"Griffin, stop making baseless accusations! Wesley stayed up half the night for several nights to finish that proposal. I saw him working on it with my own eyes. You couldn't come up with anything worthwhile yourself, so now you want to steal credit from a new hire? Have you no shame?"

My other coworkers quickly backed her up.

"Exactly! We can all testify that Wesley has been working on that proposal every day."

"Wesley works so hard ordering meals for everyone, and he still makes time to work on proposals. What about you?"

"You used to take advantage of the meal-ordering system, and now you want to steal someone else's work, too? That is disgusting."

I tried to explain, but our department head cut me off with a stern expression.

"Griffin, come to my office. Now."

The moment we entered, he threw a performance evaluation form onto his desk.

"Your recent performance has been a huge disappointment. As a team leader, you need to be more open-minded instead of constantly trying to undermine new employees."

Before I could leave, he added meaningfully, "Your team held its performance vote this morning. Out of 13 people, 12 rated you unsatisfactory. You're getting the lowest performance rating this month. Go back and think seriously about what you've done."

I stood in the doorway, feeling cold all over.

I had been the top performer on our team every single month.

I took on the toughest projects, stayed late for the longest hours, and was always the first to step in when something went wrong. Yet now, my entire team had practically joined forces to give me the lowest possible rating.

I did not argue. I simply turned and walked out of the office.

As soon as I stepped into the hallway, a text message popped up on my phone. It was a pickup notification informing me that the matching couple's watches I had reserved at a luxury boutique for my third anniversary with Joyce had been collected.

I had spent 30,000 dollars from my personal savings on those watches, reserving them two months in advance as an anniversary gift for Joyce.

Assuming she had picked them up herself, I followed the hallway toward her office. Instead, I found her carefully fastening the men's watch around Wesley's wrist.

"You've worked so hard to improve everyone's meals and make life better for the department. This is my gift to celebrate your passing the probation period."

Wesley turned his wrist to admire the watch, pretending to hesitate. "Thanks, Joyce. This must have cost a fortune. I can't accept something this expensive."

"Go ahead and keep it. You deserve it."

I stared at the watch that should have been mine. I was so furious that I actually laughed. Then, I picked up a nearby cup of coffee and threw its contents straight into Wesley's face.

"Ah!" Wesley shrieked and stumbled backward.

Joyce wiped her face, exploding with rage.

"Griffin, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Using my money to buy him a gift. How generous of you."

Exposed in front of everyone, Joyce showed not the slightest trace of guilt. Instead, she lifted her chin and shot back defiantly.

"We've been together for three years! What is yours is mine! Wesley has secured so many benefits for the department. What is wrong with me giving him a little gift on behalf of everyone? Do you really have to make a scene at work?"

I met her gaze calmly.

"Then we're done. We're breaking up. I want every single dollar of my money you've spent over the years paid back in full."

Wesley pretended to remove the watch. "Griffin, don't blame Joyce. I will give it back to you..."

Joyce grabbed his hand to stop him, her face burning with humiliation and anger. "Fine! We're breaking up! I've had enough of a man like you!"

She turned to me with a cold laugh. "Wesley was right about you all along. Who knows how many kickbacks you've pocketed from the meal orders? And you still have the nerve to demand money from me?"

I was about to respond when the head of the finance department, Max Foster, approached us with a thick stack of documents.

"Who's responsible for ordering meals for your department? There's a problem with your meal expense reimbursements over the past two weeks. I need that person to come with me immediately!"