Chapter 1

"You're finally here, Lucy!"

The receptionist stuck her tongue out slightly when she spotted me and said in a subdued voice, "Our boss' son will be coming in very soon. We should try not to get on Shermaine's bad side today."

"What's going on? Shouldn't he be abroad right now?" I asked.

Alex Hammond was the only son of our company's CEO, Owen Hammond. I had been working here for six months. Yet, Alex used the excuse that he was studying abroad and hadn't once set foot in our office.

"You haven't heard the news, huh? Mr. Hammond Senior suffered a heart attack last night. He was hospitalized and transferred to the ICU. He's still unconscious at the moment."

The receptionist was clearly intrigued. "The Hammonds have summoned Mr. Hammond home since they want him to take over managing the company temporarily. He's already arrived at the airport, and he'll head over right away."

My heart sank.

Owen had been transferred to the ICU? I recalled running into him in the office yesterday afternoon.

I took my phone out and was about to call Owen's assistant to ask about his current condition. A high-pitched voice came from behind me just then.

"Oho! Our busiest, top sales lady is finally here?"

I turned around and found Shermaine Cook staring contemptuously at me with her arms crossed. She wore a red, tight-fitting dress and too much perfume.

"I thought you had completely forgotten about our company's rules just because you had secured an important deal yesterday. You dare come in late on the very first day Mr. Hammond is inspecting our company. How insolent of you!"

When I first joined the company, Shermaine would often brag about being the top salesperson in our department. She kept telling me to learn as much as I could from her.

During my first month here, I managed to surpass her in both the number of deals I had secured and the amount of profit earned from these deals.

Since then, she would make all kinds of sarcastic remarks whenever we ran into each other.

Before this, Shermaine would go on and on about how I had outperformed her after learning all the tricks from her. It was her first time being so harsh and direct while speaking to me.

I couldn't be bothered to react to that, so I turned around and tried to look for a quiet corner to make the call. Still, Shermaine moved to block my way.

"What's the matter? Feeling embarrassed? Feel like hiding away now?"

She suddenly raised her voice the moment her gaze fell on my face. "My goodness! Did you put more effort into your makeup today? Are you planning to seduce Mr. Hammond because you've heard that he's coming today?"

There was a moment of silence. All eyes were on me.

Shermaine was so loud that even our colleagues from other departments who were passing by halted in their tracks after hearing what she said.

During my six months working here, I wore light makeup most of the time.

Having met with my client last night, I looked a little haggard today since I had gone to bed quite late. I used a darker shade of lipstick so that my lips wouldn't look too pale.

However, Shermaine just went ahead and accused me of plotting something like seducing Alex.

"Shermaine, you should just keep your mouth shut if you have nothing better to say."

Shermaine's face was flushed scarlet. "What made you think you could say something like that to me? You're clearly scheming something because Mr. Hammond is coming today!"

I asked frigidly, "Are you the police? Do you think you have that much authority? What's it to you how I wear my makeup at work?"

"Why you…"

"Also, I've received permission from Mr. Hammond Senior to have flexible working hours. If you have any objections to that, you can always visit Mr. Hammond Senior at the ICU and tell him about it."

Shermaine's expression slowly hardened with each word I said.

"Lucy, don't get ahead of yourself! Mr. Hammond Senior is in the ICU now. Soon, he won't be the one making the calls in this company."

The thought of Alex seemed to have given Shermaine confidence yet again. Her voice turned shrill.

"Mr. Hammond is our new boss! Do you think you can impress him with your work performance so far?

"I might as well let you know that Mr. Hammond and I have known each other for a long time. He hates women like you, who try to approach him by pulling cheap tricks, the most!"

Shermaine had a smug look on her face. She seemed to already think of herself as our company's CEO's wife.

"Still, it's not completely impossible for you to get on Mr. Hammond's good side."

She cleared her throat and ordered in an authoritative tone of voice.

"Mr. Hammond is quite particular about cleanliness. He might spare you some of his attention if you get on your knees and wipe the CEO's office floor clean.

"Oh, the restroom especially! Mr. Hammond will get really mad even if he finds a single strand of hair on the floor."

I lifted my gaze and stared at her expressionlessly. "I do sales. I'm not a cleaning lady."

Shermaine chuckled. "If you don't heed my words, you won't even be able to work here as a cleaning lady soon."