Chapter 1

"I've already revised the project's acceptance report and removed James' name from it," someone said.

I was just about to get myself a cup of coffee from the break room when those words stopped me in my tracks.

Shane Moonton had said those words, which was funny because he'd cried like a baby when he begged me to get him onto the team. At the time, he had been so desperate to be at my beck and call.

"You did good by doing that! He might be the nominal leader of this project, but what has he actually done for the team these past three months? All he knows is to sign papers and sit in meetings. We're the ones who broke our backs with all that coding!"

And that was Lila Rowle adding in her two cents. Her technical skills were average, but she could be relied on to follow instructions. That was why I'd made an exception to add her to the project's roster.

"I might as well have been working for nothing for the past year if we let him walk away with 40% of the bonus. Anyway, management only cares about results. As long as we stick to the same story, it'll be easy enough for us to deal with a networking fiend like him.

"What we need to do now is come up with a plan to make him quit of his own volition."

That last speaker was none other than Kevin Lowell, who was my assistant in this project.

"We don't need to bother with a plan. We should just confront him." Shane's voice was laced with ruthlessness as he took a long drag from his cigarette.

Then, he continued, "The project's pretty much over and done with. Plus, we have all the core data. He doesn't even know the basics. If it weren't for us, either the project would be a bust, or he'd be fired. The guy's a total social loafer. I'm sure he wouldn't dare to raise a fuss about this."

"You're right! Let's do that! I've been sick of that guy right from the start. Look at him strutting around the office like a peacock... God, who does he think he is? Our boss?"

The trio quickly came to an accord. Alas, they had forgotten something very important.

And that was that the company had been preparing for layoffs three months ago.

They had been the ones who had contacted me late at night, telling me their sob stories about their mortgage payments, car loans, and whatnot. They had begged me to give them a chance.

The soft-hearted fool that I was, I did. I petitioned the higher-ups for three additional slots on the roster and granted them a spot on the company's annual S-tier core project.

For the past three months, I had handled the overall planning for this project, negotiated with our partners, and secured us resources. I shielded them from countless of our client's unreasonable demands and helped them revise their deeply flawed proposals.

In order to pad their wallets, I even assigned them the most basic tasks possible while I handled the more challenging work.

Yet now, my strategic plans were relegated to "not pulling my own weight," and my decision to delegate was seen as "having no technical skills."

I inhaled deeply and pushed the door open.

Their gleeful chuckles came to an abrupt stop.

Kevin was the first to recover. There was a flicker of awkwardness on his face before he quickly donned a look of righteous confidence. Then, he stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and said, "James, since you've already heard everything, then there's no point in us hiding it any longer."

He shoved both hands in his pockets and leaned against the table. "We're all adults here, aren't we? And as adults, we should be paid according to what we've contributed at work. So, let's be honest here. You didn't really bring anything to the table."

I strode over to the coffee machine and calmly poured myself an Americano.

"I didn't bring anything to the table, you say?" I drawled, eyeing him coldly.

"It's nothing personal," Shane cut in. "It's true that we wrote the code, and we ran the tests. We even did the final presentation slides ourselves. What did you even do? All you did was string a couple of sentences."

"James, do be reasonable." Lila chimed in, her voice tinged with contempt. "We've already thanked you for your so-called recommendation by treating you to a meal. This and that are different things.

"For starters, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses. You can't expect us to let you walk away with half of it when all you did was talk."

I took a sip of my bitter coffee and found it all very amusing. "What do you want, exactly?"

The three exchanged glances. Kevin then whipped out a document from his bag and slapped it on the table. "This is a resignation letter. Sign it.

"As long as you leave this team voluntarily, we won't expose the fact that you've been collecting your paychecks despite not doing your job. We'll let you save your dignity. If you refuse, we'll file a joint complaint that your incompetence has caused the project several setbacks.

"When that happens, the company will make you pay for damages. You'll lose both your job and your money."