Chapter 1

Kara froze on the spot.

She shrieked, “Who the hell do you think you are! Do you really think you’re allowed through this entrance? Get out!”

I completely ignored her and pressed the access control switch at the main entrance.

She screamed and hurriedly pulled her hand back, nearly falling backward.

I looked at the Castellano Group emblem beside me, but I felt no satisfaction whatsoever.

I never imagined that a company with more than a century of history would still harbor such blatant class discrimination.

I took the elevator all the way to the top floor.

I didn’t rush into the boardroom, nor did I intend to look for my fiancé, Damian, first.

Instead, I turned and headed toward the archives, planning to see for myself the company’s employee appointment records and internal regulations from the past few years.

The moment I reached the door, a hand suddenly reached out from behind and grabbed me.

“You actually made it all the way inside!”

“This is not a place someone of your status has any right to set foot in!”

I lowered my eyes.

It was that same female assistant again.

She came running up breathlessly. The moment she looked up and saw me standing in front of the archives, she pointed at my face and cursed.

“You never went through my verification and registration process. You have absolutely no right to enter this company!”

“You disobeyed my orders and still expect to establish yourself within the Group? What a ridiculous fantasy!”

What?

My expression darkened.

“This is the first time I’ve heard that whether an ordinary employee stays with the Group depends on the mood of an assistant.”

Instead of backing down, the female assistant raised her chin and sneered with utter disdain.

“Who else would you expect to rely on?”

“I’ve been by President Damian’s side for so long that everyone who wants access to the inner circle has to pass through me first!”

“You’re just a new intern. On your very first day, you barged through the main entrance and showed absolutely no respect for the Group’s senior management!”

“I have every right to fire you on the spot!”

The employees nearby had heard the argument and gathered around us. Most of them immediately echoed her words.

“People at the bottom are getting more and more unruly these days!”

“She dares to use the main entrance today. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow she’ll start coveting the Group’s power!”

“If Assistant Kara says you’re not qualified, then you’re not qualified. Even if you go crying to President Damian, you’re still finished as long as Kara says no!”

“Exactly! Kara is President Damian’s most favored confidante. Whatever she says goes!”

“You offended Kara, which means you offended the Vice President! What are you waiting for? Get out!”

Standing in the middle of the crowd, I listened to their self-righteous accusations and couldn’t help finding the whole situation absurd.

Damian Castellano was my fiancé.

He had always been calm and measured in the way he handled things.

Yet today, even though he clearly knew I was about to take over as President of the Group, he still expected me to keep yielding to an assistant who abused her authority.

I had already begun to harbor doubts, and everything happening before me now seemed to confirm one thing—

Damian had been secretly encouraging her to behave however she pleased.

Seeing me remain where I was, Kara raised a hand and poked me on the shoulder.

“Hey, do you understand now?”

“Leave on your own while President Damian is still in his meeting!”

“Otherwise, knowing Damian’s personality, once he sees that I’ve been bullied, he’ll make sure you can’t survive anywhere on the entire West Coast!”

The moment she reached out, my eyes fell on the snake-bone platinum bracelet around her wrist.

Wasn’t that the exact bracelet Damian had asked me to have custom-made last month, claiming he wanted to give it to his mother as a gift for the Group’s anniversary gala?

There were only seven of those bracelets in the entire world.

And there was only one snake-bone clasp like that.

He had only told me that his mother preferred cool-toned metals, so I had used three different connections to acquire it at an auction in Milan.

I never imagined that it would end up on Kara’s wrist.

Everything suddenly became clear.

I took a deep breath, slapped her hand away, and said coldly,

“Fine. Then have Damian come and say all of this to me himself.”

“I’d like to see whether he actually dares.”