Chapter 1

After hanging up, I tossed the cake into the trash can.

I had never been a fan of such overly sweet stuff anyway. I only bought the cake to cater to Hailey Miller's tastes. There was no reason to force myself to eat it since she didn't appreciate the gesture.

I ordered a hot chicken sandwich, loaded with hot honey sauce and spicy mayo, and treated myself to something I actually enjoyed.

After eating my fill, I lay on the couch to rest.

I thought Hailey wouldn't come home tonight, but she showed up earlier than expected. The moment she walked through the door, she pinched her nose and snapped, "Did you sneak in spicy food behind my back?"

I didn't even look at her and lazily replied, "Eating spicy food isn't a crime, and it's not sneaking either. Doing dirty stuff behind someone's back is what sneaking really is."

Maybe I hit a nerve because Hailey immediately flew into a rage. She lunged forward, yanked me off the couch, and slapped me hard across the face.

"You know damn well I can't handle spice, so you did it on purpose just to spite me, didn't you? And stop with the snarky comments about me cheating. You have a filthy mind!"

I didn't even bother to argue. Instead, I took a photo of my face that was swollen from the slap and bleeding lip. This was proof of her domestic violence, which would come in handy in court.

She looked at me with pure contempt. "You loser. Are you trying to take photos and play the victim?"

I shot her a cold look. "I'm saving them for the police."

She scoffed. "Well, go ahead if you're not afraid of embarrassing yourself!"

I stood up, grabbed my coat, and headed for the door. I didn't want to stay in this suffocating place for another second.

She grabbed my arm with a feral look in her eyes. "I'm not done settling scores with you over Jaxon. Where do you think you're going?"

I wrenched my arm free and impatiently replied, "What do you mean, settle scores? Did he run to you to tattle again?"

Ever since Jaxon Preston joined the company, I'd had to deal with a constant stream of sabotage and slander. To be honest, I had seen it so often that it didn't surprise me anymore.

Sure enough, Hailey started listing my crimes. "All I did was give him a watch. How dare you threaten him? Apologize to him right now, or I'm going to demote you!"

Without waiting for my response, she dialed Jaxon's number and put the call on speaker. I could barely say a word before he started his wounded act.

"I'm the one who should apologize, Ms. Miller. I shouldn't have accepted your gift if it was going to make Mr. Chase so mad. I'll return the watch. Please just tell Mr. Chase to stop targeting me at work."

His acting was so bad that I almost laughed, but Hailey bought it.

She glared at me and snapped, "Who do you think you are, Landon Chase? You're just a technician and don't even call the shots in this company. If you won't stop bullying the employees, believe it or not, I'll send you off to the factory!"

I wasn't intimidated by her threat at all. Instead, I firmly shot back, "Fine! Send me there. Just don't regret it!"

With that, I stormed out and slammed the door, completely ignoring her angry screams behind me.

…

The next day, I headed to the factory and didn't pick up any of Hailey's calls when she blew up my phone with dozens of them.

Furious, she tagged me in the office group chat. "How dare you skip work? Are you trying to get yourself fired?"

I replied with a photo of the factory and reminded her, "Didn't you send me to the factory, Ms. Miller? You're quite forgetful, aren't you?"

Chaos erupted in the group chat, while executives and shareholders immediately voiced their outrage.

We were in the middle of a critical development phase for a new project, and I was the chief technology officer.

Everything would grind to a halt if I wasn't there to lead, and every day the project was stalled, it cost the company millions of dollars.

Under pressure, Hailey finally softened her attitude. "What I said last night was just my anger talking, so don't take it seriously. You developed this project yourself. We really can't do this without you."

I scoffed. It didn't take long for her to regret what she had done.