Chapter 1

"Look, Ms. Cooper. This is the nature collage the kids made today."

Mabel Morris, the administration supervisor, had sent me a few photos. In them, a group of children was gathered around the teacher, arranging leaves and flower petals into little animal shapes.

Their faces lit up with smiles. Looking at them, I couldn't help but smile, too.

I built this company with one goal—to create a workplace where working moms could work without constantly worrying about their kids.

To make that possible, I spared no expense in building an in-house daycare in a prime office building where the rent alone cost a fortune.

The facilities used top-tier eco-friendly materials; the teachers were a professional early-education team; and a nutritionist customized the meals. The cost per child was over eight thousand dollars a month, but it was completely free for employees.

Almost every mom in the company had sent her child there. It saved them the commute and the expensive daycare fees.

For three months, the daycare received nothing but glowing praise. I thought everyone would appreciate my goodwill. Until one day, a notification popped up on my phone.

It read, "My Boss Built a Free Daycare, but I Want to Escape This Gilded Cage."

I tapped it open. The post was written by a staff member from the operations department, Keira Brown.

She wrote, "Everyone envies our company for having free daycare. They say only a female boss would understand mothers. Well, guess what? This is also the smartest trap a capitalist can set.

"She uses our children to tie us down so we have no reason to refuse overtime. Want to say your kid has no one to watch them? Sorry, the company is already watching them for you.

"So, we work 72 hours a week just like those with no families, grinding ourselves to dust. This isn't a benefit. It's exploitation disguised as motherly empathy."

At the end of the post was a photo of her from behind, working late at night. The caption read, "I don't want to be bound. I just want to be a normal mom—clock out on time and go home to cook my kid a warm meal."

The photo hadn't even been taken at my company. I laughed in disbelief.

We never forced overtime. In fact, to accommodate the moms, we enforced a strict rule—no meetings after 5:00 pm. Her claim of a 72-hour workweek was pure fiction.

Her comment about wanting to go home to her child was even more ridiculous. Her kid was at the daycare every day, eating meals that were far more nutritious and varied than what most families could provide.

The comments section, unsurprisingly, blew up.

"Damn. What a manipulative boss. She's crafty, I'll give her that."

"I knew it. No capitalist is a good person."

"Every 'benefit' they give you comes with strings attached."

"Expose her! We'll help you take this company down!"

My grip tightened around my phone, and my knuckles turned white. I told my assistant, Claire Norman, to bring Keira in. A second later, someone knocked on my office door. It was Keira.

Behind her stood a few other moms from the company, including Layla West. Last month, Layla's family had an emergency, and I personally approved two weeks of paid leave and even advanced her three months' salary.

Now, she stood behind Keira with her head lowered.

"Got a minute, Ms. Cooper?" Keira asked, lifting her chin. She sat herself down on the couch across from me without waiting to be invited. "I'm sure you've seen my post. I'm just expressing what everyone else thinks."

I looked at her coldly. "How did a company benefit somehow turn into a trap? I'm providing your child with an eight-thousand-dollar-per-month quality education, and you call that exploitation?"

Keira laughed mockingly. "Eight thousand? You're twisting the logic, Ms. Cooper. That money doesn't go into my pocket. Besides, I don't need your fancy-sounding educational philosophy. We moms…"

She leaned forward, eyes gleaming with greed. "We just want something more practical. Convert the daycare budget into cash allowances and give us the money.

"Whether we stay home with our kids or hire a nanny, that should be our choice. That is what real employee benefits are. Understand?"

What she wanted wasn't freedom. She intended to turn a collective company benefit into her own personal payout.

I glanced at the women standing behind her. All of them avoided eye contact, unwilling to meet my stare. Only Layla looked up at me briefly, her lips parting as if she wanted to speak.

However, Keira immediately shot her a warning glare, and she shrank back. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm.

"The board approved the company benefits," I said. "There's no way they'll be changed just to satisfy your unreasonable demand."

Keira laughed as if I had told a joke. "Unreasonable? Ms. Cooper, I don't think you understand the situation."

She waved her phone at me. The screen showed the skyrocketing likes and comments on her post in real time. "This isn't just my demand anymore. This is the voice of every oppressed working mother out there."

I clenched my jaw and snapped, "You're not obligated to use the company benefit if you don't want to, nor do I have any obligation to tailor everything around you!"

Keira stood and stomped toward the door, clearly unwilling to accept it. Before leaving, she threw one last threat over her shoulder. "If you ignore public opinion, who knows how big this will blow up tomorrow."