Chapter 4

A sharp pain shot through my head, and bright red blood streamed down my face.

“Get your head out of the clouds. Aside from a generous boss like me, what company would hire a walking jinx like you?”

He stormed over and jabbed his finger against my shoulder again and again.

“You should be grateful I haven’t fired you. How dare you talk about resigning? The company invested years in training you, not so you could turn around and betray us!

“You want to resign? Fine. Hand over all your contacts and business connections first. Otherwise…”

He narrowed his eyes and paused before enunciating every word.

“You won’t be walking out of this office today!”

Generous?

I laughed coldly to myself. He simply couldn’t bear to lose his tireless workhorse.

Just then, Denise pushed open the door after hearing the commotion.

The moment she saw the blood on my head, she screamed.

“Mr. Farr, calm down! Alex is the backbone of this company! All our biggest clients will only work with Alex. Without her, who else could land deals this size for the company?”

She turned to me, looking deeply concerned.

“Alex, please calm down too. What other boss would treat you as well as Mr. Farr does? Just apologize, and he might still let you stay.”

I looked at Denise’s calm expression. It was a shame she wasn’t an actress with talent like that.

She appeared to be defending me, but every word struck James like a knife.

She was reminding him that without me, he was nothing as a boss.

There was no doubt she was challenging his authority.

“Who does she think she is? Does she really think she’s special because she landed a few projects? Anyone could have closed those deals.”

James’ face instantly flushed red, and his hand trembled as he pointed at me.

“Alex Smith, I order you to hand every detail of the Dawnbreaker Project over to Denise. She’ll take it through to the signing.

“As for you, go to the operations department and reflect on your behavior.”

So that was what this was about.

I worked on the Dawnbreaker Project for eight months.

I personally handled every step, from market research and proposal development to client relations.

The project was worth $60 million, making it the largest contract in Sterling’s history.

Once we closed the deal, Sterling would become a top-tier company.

James thought the Dawnbreaker Project was already his for the taking. He wanted to push me out before the contract was signed so Denise could claim the credit.

As for why he was doing this…

After watching Denise repeatedly enter and leave James’s office over the past month, her face flushed every time she emerged, what else could I have failed to understand?

From the moment of the raffle, the whole thing had been a calculated trap designed to bleed me dry.

First, they humiliated me with the raffle and pressured me to hand over my contacts.

Then they planned to send me to the operations department, where they could exploit me whenever they pleased.

What a brilliant scheme.

James assumed I was too emotionally attached to leave the company.

But he had miscalculated.

I wasn’t some emotionless tool. I was a living, breathing person.

I looked at him with a faint, unreadable smile.

“You’re really going to hand the Dawnbreaker Project to an intern who can’t even understand the terms of a contract?”

James glared at my disdainful expression.

“So what if she’s an intern? When you first started working, you were even less capable than Denise. Don’t think the company will collapse just because you leave.”

A cold laugh escaped my throat.

“Fine. I hope the signing goes well.”

Then I turned around and walked out of the company.

I didn’t go to the hospital to have my wound treated.

Instead, I called Ethan Lee, the Chairman of Dawnbreaker Group.

I wanted to see how they planned to close the deal now.

Three days later, at the Dawnbreaker Project signing ceremony, James wore a black suit and mingled confidently with the business leaders in attendance.

At ten o’clock that morning, the bidding ceremony began on schedule.

James stood before the large screen with a laser pointer, passionately recounting the company’s history and outlining the prospects of its strategic partnership with Dawnbreaker Group.

“This is the most important day since Sterling was founded!”

His voice rang through the venue, followed by thunderous applause.

An event assistant walked onto the stage carrying the contract. The next moment, camera flashes focused on James, while everyone below held their breath, waiting to witness this historic moment.

James accepted the contract from the assistant with a triumphant smile.

But the instant he opened it, all the color drained from his face.