Chapter 3

Bella covered her cheek and stared at me in disbelief.

Her expression turned so vicious it looked like she wanted to tear me apart.

“Gina Cole! You actually hit me?!”

Her shriek twisted with rage.

I stared back at her coldly.

If the law weren’t stopping me, I wanted to do far worse than slap her.

“What do I have left to be afraid of?

“I can barely keep a job because of you. So what if I hit you?”

Something in my expression made her falter.

She instinctively took a step back.

“You’ll regret this!”

Then she started screaming hysterically.

At that exact moment, Charles walked out of his office.

Bella’s expression changed instantly.

Tears welled in her eyes as she rushed into his arms.

“Mr. Grant! Gina hit me! You have to do something!”

Charles frowned at me.

“Gina, do you never want to work in this industry again?”

Bella nestled against him.

Then, as if she had suddenly remembered something, she shot me a smug look.

“Exactly.

“Let me guess. What company would still hire you now?

“You’re useless. You can’t close a single deal.”

I froze.

She was right.

With that bizarre Contract Transfer System following me around, what difference did it make where I worked?

What sales company would keep someone who never had any results to show for her work?

“If every deal I close is just going to become yours, then why should I keep working at all?

“I might as well quit sales completely.”

Bella covered her mouth and giggled.

“Gina, I don’t care if you decide to give up.

“But you might want to think this through.

“What happens to your mortgage if you stop working?

“And what about your son’s school expenses?”

Her smile made me sick.

“How about this?

“If you get down on your knees and apologize to me right now, I might consider letting you come back.

“You’ll only get the base salary, of course, but that’s still better than making nothing, isn’t it?

“At least you’ll be able to feed your kid.”

My heart sank.

Bella had gone straight for the one weakness I couldn’t ignore.

She had left me with no real choice.

Even knowing it was a trap, I had no choice but to walk into it.

My nails dug deep into my palms.

I closed my eyes and took a slow breath.

Then I bent my knees and lowered myself onto the cold floor.

“I’m sorry.

“Please let me come back to work.”

Bella looked down at me and laughed softly.

Then she reached out and patted my cheek.

“See? Was that so hard?

“Be here on time tomorrow. Don’t be late.”

When I arrived at the office the next morning, I discovered that my desk had been moved beside the restroom.

The desk itself was tiny.

It was buried under piles of junk, and the whole corner smelled like damp carpet and disinfectant.

I knew Bella had done it deliberately.

Frowning, I rolled up my sleeves and started clearing the mess.

I had barely begun when mocking voices came from behind me.

“Well, look who it is.”

Liam grinned.

“Weren’t you acting pretty tough before? I heard you’re making two thousand a month now.

“So who’s running their mouth now?”

Zack laughed beside him.

“And I heard you had to get on your knees and beg Bella to let you come back. That’s embarrassing.

“If it were me, I’d be too ashamed to show my face around here.”

The two of them stood there enjoying every second of my humiliation.

Now that Bella had the upper hand, they couldn’t wait to suck up to her by kicking me while I was down.

I couldn’t be bothered wasting my time on them.

I just wanted to clear enough space to sit down and get through the day.

So I lowered my head and kept cleaning.

Then Liam deliberately walked past and slammed his arm into the desk.

Everything piled on top of it crashed to the floor.

“Oh, sorry, Gina.”

He smiled without a trace of sincerity.

“I didn’t see that.

“You’re cleaning anyway, right?

“Might as well clean all of it up together.”