Chapter 4

"Please take a look at this, Mr. Sawyer. Under your leadership, in just two weeks, our department's performance grew exponentially. This fully proves how important a capable male leader is to a team!" Roxy declared.

Then, with a shift in her tone, she began to point fingers at me. "In contrast, a certain female senior executive only knows how to pander to men. She has no leadership ability whatsoever and is completely unfit to sit in that position."

A chorus of agreeing voices rippled through the crowd.

Roxy proceeded to take out a joint petition before making an emotional appeal.

"Mr. Sawyer, Ms. Emerson is utterly inhumane. Not only does she suppress female employees from going on work assignments and getting promotions, she even forces employees who are close to giving birth to work overtime at their desks! She nearly caused the death of a mother and her unborn child!

"Just to meet her own performance targets, she has withheld the employees' wages, too. We have parents to support and children to look after. We have mortgages and car loans to repay. The money is our lifeline!"

Then, she produced another document and handed it to Justin. After shooting me a taunting smile, she raised her voice and added, "Most importantly, she embezzled funds from the female employees' benefits to fund male employees who are her sugar babies!"

Roxy threw one accusation after another at me, each more vicious than the last.

Justin's two male assistants eyed me with contempt and derision. "She looks like a respectable professional, but who knows? Maybe she herself was a sugar baby who climbed her way up by getting in bed with a man."

"I've always said that women are too emotional, even when it comes to work. They will never be able to achieve much success."

I glanced at the so-called evidence Roxy had presented before looking at Zach.

A few months ago, he told me his wife had given birth prematurely. The baby had to be put in an incubator, which cost thousands of dollars each day. He asked if I could give him an advance of three months' salary.

No one apart from him knew about it.

And now he was really hoping that once Justin took over, he'd be granted paternity leave, huh?

Smirking, I didn't bother defending myself.

Justin gathered each document Roxy had handed over. "I'll report everything you've raised to the company headquarters."

Turning to me, he said, "Ms. Emerson, it seems your employees aren't exactly on your side."

Roxy rolled her eyes. "Who in their right mind would support a boss like her?"

Following that meeting, I found myself at the center of controversy. Everyone had already dropped all pretense of civility with me. The male employees went to great lengths to keep their distance from me.

"Watch out. Don't let her set her sights on you, or your reputation's screwed."

Ingrid rushed into my office immediately. Without saying a word, she began packing up all the documents on my desk.

"You're about to be out of a job anyway, Ms. Emerson. I'll take these documents regarding the company's core project to Mr. Sawyer. After all, I'll be his assistant from now on. You don't have the authority to order me around anymore."

I nodded. Nothing here was worth holding onto.

That afternoon, as expected, I received a call from the board of directors back at the company headquarters.

The moment Ingrid heard about it, she ran out to the main office area and told everyone.

"A male boss like Mr. Sawyer is definitely easy to talk to. From now on, whenever I use my leave, I'm sure my pay won't be docked!"

Roxy's voice rang out the loudest, and her chin was high. She couldn't hide her delight.

"The hag, Nicole Emerson, is finally gone! From now on, we'll be getting the thousand dollars in family support allowance again. Who knows? Mr. Sawyer might even show more care for the female employees and raise it to two thousand. We won't have to suffer from humiliation under that hag anymore!"

The entire office was immersed in the joy of victory.

At that moment, Justin walked in and cleared his throat. "From this moment on, the Harvington branch will officially be under my management."

Enthusiastic applause rang out from all sides.

"Mr. Sawyer, with you leading us, we're definitely going to achieve great things!"

However, the next words out of his mouth fell over them like a bucket of icy water.

"Thank you, everyone. In my eyes, there's no distinction between men and women—only those who are capable and those who are not. The system Ms. Emerson implemented only fostered laziness.

"From now on, all leave benefits are canceled, and base salary is uniformly reduced to three thousand dollars a month.

"Given the company's current low revenue, starting tomorrow, we will implement a bottom-rank termination system. At the end of this month, whoever ranks the lowest in performance—regardless of gender—will be dismissed from the company with immediate effect."