Chapter 2

The next morning, I dragged myself into work.

I'd just sat down at my desk when my phone buzzed. It was a payroll verification notification. I absentmindedly unlocked the screen, but the moment I saw the number, I felt like I'd been struck by lightning, and blood rushed to my head.

3,500 dollars.

I checked the zeroes and decimal point over and over to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

I was the company's sales supervisor. With base salary and commission, I never took home less than 20,000 dollars a month.

Last month, I'd practically worked myself to the bone for that huge contract. Just the performance bonus alone should've been over 10,000 dollars.

How could my total pay be only 3,500 dollars?

My hands trembling, I pulled up the HR management system to check the salary breakdown.

But a single glance was enough to make me so angry I almost smashed my phone.

Under the attendance column, it clearly read, "Sick Leave: 10 days."

Under performance bonuses, there was a single "0".

And the remark read, "Due to excessive absences, full attendance bonus and performance bonus for the month have been deducted."

I had only taken one day of sick leave last month—the day I was hospitalized for stomach bleeding. The other two days had been the weekend!

Clutching a printed copy of the payslip, I stormed into the administration department.

Kristie was sitting at her desk, holding a small mirror and leisurely touching up her lipstick.

"Kristie Madison!" I snapped, slamming the payslip onto her desk. "What's the meaning of this? Explain it to me!"

She jumped in fright, nearly smearing her lipstick. She looked up at me impatiently. "Why are you so angry this early in the morning?"

"Cut the crap!"

I pointed at the numbers on the payslip. "I only took one day off last month. Why is it recorded as ten days? And where's my performance bonus?"

She picked up the payslip, pretended to look at it, then casually tossed it back to me.

"Oh, that? I must have misread the attendance sheet and thought the '1' was a '10'."

She continued pursing her lips at the mirror as she spoke, as if this were all some trivial matter.

"Misread?" I repeated, laughing in sheer disbelief at her shameless attitude. "You managed to misread '1' as '10'? Then what about my performance bonus? I closed a five-million-dollar deal. The commission hasn't come down yet, but I should at least get my performance bonus!"

She put the mirror down and said unapologetically, "Performance bonus? Mr. Spradlin said that even though you closed the deal, you took too many sick days and affected the team morale, so your performance rating was a 'C'. Naturally, you don't get a bonus."

"Bullshit!" I snapped, unable to control myself. "I nearly killed myself to land that deal, and in the end, I affected team morale? Recalculate my pay right now, Kristie, and pay me what I'm owed!"

The argument quickly drew a crowd of coworkers.

Just then, the manager's office door opened, and Robert walked out with his hands behind his back.

"What's all this ruckus? Is this a farmer's market?"

At the sight of him, Kristie's eyes instantly reddened. She got up from her seat and sidled over, looking all aggrieved and pitiful.

"Mr. Spradlin… Brooke is complaining that her salary is too low and is forcing me to change it right now."

I looked at Robert and forced my anger down. "Mr. Spradlin, she's the one who altered my attendance records. That's a serious dereliction of duty! And on what grounds was my performance bonus completely deducted?"

He took the payslip, barely glanced at it, and tossed it back onto the desk. Then he turned to look at me, his gaze condescending and dismissive.

"Brooke, you've been working here for a long time. How can you still be so lacking in awareness?

"Kristie just graduated. It's understandable that she's not familiar with the work yet. As a senior employee, instead of helping train her, you're making such a huge scene over a bit of money. What will the other departments say about us?"