Chapter 5

The porcelain figures shattered across the floor.

I nodded, picked up our photos, and tossed them straight into the trash.

"You're right. Let's throw it all away."

That was the last straw for Sean. He pointed at me, his finger trembling with rage.

"Just you wait, Cheryl! I'm not just going to fire you. I'll make sure no one in this industry ever hires you again, and you can forget about seeing a single cent from that project."

What he didn't know was that none of it mattered to me.

Once I got Sean and Hannah out of my house, everything finally went quiet. Not long after, I received a notification confirming that my resignation had been approved.

Sean followed through on his threat to blacklist me. He started spreading rumors throughout the industry that I had tried to pressure him into marrying me.

He even took footage of me wearing a wedding dress at the annual party, edited it to make me look as bad as possible, and posted it online.

Then someone leaked my private contact information. Before long, my phone was flooded with calls.

"Gold digger! So what if she's good at her job? She actually thought that made her good enough for the boss? She's read way too many billionaire romance novels if she thinks someone like her can just marry into his league!"

"Her whole outfit probably didn't even cost 200 bucks, and she still had the nerve to pressure her boss into marrying her in front of everyone? Someone that broke actually thinks she's good enough for him?"

The abuse online only got worse.

A few coworkers tried to defend me, saying I wasn't the person everyone was making me out to be, but their comments were quickly drowned out.

I didn't bother responding.

The next morning, I walked into the company with several lawyers behind me. The moment Sean saw me, he assumed I had come crawling back.

He snorted. "You were pretty tough yesterday. What happened? Here to beg me to forgive you?"

Hannah toyed with her director badge and looked at me smugly. "I'll admit, you're good at your job. If you get on your knees and apologize to me, maybe I'll let you stay under me as an ordinary employee.

"You can work your way up again from the bottom."

Sean scoffed. "You? Forget it. We could use someone to clean the bathrooms, though. If you're that desperate for work, beg me, and maybe I'll give you the job."

The two of them burst out laughing.

I said nothing, but one of the lawyers behind me warned them to watch their mouths.

Sean glanced at the lawyers behind me and burst out laughing. "Cheryl, if you want your share of the project money, just say so. Was it really necessary to hire a whole bunch of actors?

"What did you do, grab some punks off the street, dress them up in suits, and expect me to believe they're lawyers?”

I smiled. "You really think that project is still going forward?"

Sean froze. "What do you mean?"

I pulled out the contract and slapped it down on the table.

"Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Cheryl Jamison, heiress to Jamison Group. Since you replaced the project lead halfway through the project, Jamison Group is terminating the contract."

Hannah snatched the contract out of my hands. She didn't even glance at it before ripping it to shreds and flinging the pieces in my face.

"There are tons of people with the last name Jamison. Who do you think you're fooling? Quit pretending you're the client and get out!"

Sean took one look at my cheap clothes and scoffed. "Give it a rest. I could claim my father's the richest man in the world too. Anyone can make up whatever they want.

"Maybe you should put this much effort into your actual job instead of wasting your time trying to scheme your way ahead."

Even the coworkers who usually sided with me shook their heads, clearly convinced I was making a fool of myself by pretending to be some wealthy heiress.

Sean was just about to throw me out when the receptionist, Susan Torres, came rushing over.

"Mr. Conway, we have a serious problem! Jamison Group just issued an official statement terminating our contract. They're demanding ten times the breach-of-contract penalty.

"They're also going after you for defaming their heiress, Cheryl Jamison. Reporters have already surrounded the building!"