Chapter 1

When I brought up my resignation before the holidays, HR Director Rachel Davis brushed it off.

"Oh, that," she said, her tone completely unbothered. "I saw your resignation letter, and Mr. Howell saw it too. But you know how busy things get before the holidays.

"We just didn't have time to talk about it properly. Now that the holidays are over, why don't we sit down and have a real chat?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Talk about what?"

I had already handed in my notice and cleared my desk. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing left to discuss.

"Talk terms, of course!" Rachel said smoothly. "Mr. Howell said he'd give you a $500 monthly raise. With the economy being what it is right now, what other company is going to give you a raise like that? Do the math. That's an extra 6,000 dollars a year."

I couldn't help but run the numbers in my head.

The slackers in our department, who clocked out on the dot every day and had never actually finished a single project from start to finish, reportedly pulled down $10,000 bonuses each.

Meanwhile, last year alone, I generated millions in revenue for the firm, including a massive eight-million-dollar account that I managed entirely by myself from day one.

I carried the workload of three people, logged more overtime hours than anyone else in the department, and didn't take a single sick day all year.

Yet when they handed out Employee of the Year awards at the annual gala, every contract I had closed was suddenly attributed to Eliza Hale.

She walked away with a $50,000 bonus, plus the latest flagship iPhone.

Mine? A total of 250 dollars.

It was absurd. Just thinking about it made my blood boil.

"Rachel, why was my bonus exactly 250 dollars?" I demanded directly.

The line went quiet.

"Look, Camille," she began, carefully picking her words, "you have to understand that the company has policies in place. While you do produce a lot of work, you tend to take things a bit too seriously.

"You don't place enough emphasis on teamwork. You skip team-building events, and you hardly socialize with your coworkers. Bonuses are calculated based on overall performance, after all."

I let out a bitter laugh, recalling last year's team-building trip to the mountains. I couldn't go because I was stuck working overtime.

The Friday night department dinner? I missed it because I was burning the midnight oil on a proposal. And that night out at the lounge? I turned it down because I had a high-stakes client meeting early the next morning that demanded careful preparation.

Every event I skipped was sacrificed for the sake of doing a better job. And now, they were using those very sacrifices to write me off.

And what were the others doing while I was grinding? Drinking, singing, taking group photos, and posting them on Instagram with captions like "Work Family" and "Best Team Ever."

And now, Rachel called it overall performance.

"Is there anything else?" I said, losing interest in continuing the topic.

Rachel paused, lowering her voice. "Well... Mr. Howell also mentioned that a few of your projects last year received some negative feedback from clients, so..."

"Which client?" I pressed. "What was the issue? When was it submitted? And why am I just hearing about this now?"

"Well, I don't have the details," she stumbled. "It's just what I heard."

So, she only heard I was doing a poor job. She only heard that I had complaints against me. She only heard that I wasn't a team player.

And then, she decided that my bonus was 250 dollars.

What a deliberate, insulting slap in the face!