Chapter 3

I stood there stunned, unable to believe Ethan had actually gone behind my back like that. But it was already too late. No matter how angry I was, I couldn't change what had happened.

Michelle's hiring paperwork had already gone through, and she was officially part of the lab.

When I got home that night, I was so angry I couldn't bring myself to say a word.

Ethan could tell something was wrong and spoke to me in a gentle, soothing voice. "Michelle really needs this opportunity. Her family's struggling. Her mom's been bedridden for years, and she even had to borrow money just to afford grad school.

"She's been supporting herself the whole time, so she's had to miss a lot of classes. That's why she failed so many courses."

Then he showed me photos of Michelle's sick mother and the modest place she lived in.

In the end, I felt sorry for her. So I let it go.

From then on, I made time every day to help Michelle with her experiments. Whenever she ran into a problem, I showed her the best approach and did everything I could to boost her success rate so she could pass probation and earn a permanent position.

I thought that after everything I was doing for her, even if she wasn't grateful, she would at least work hard enough not to let me down.

I never imagined that helping her would be the beginning of a nightmare.

Before long, word spread throughout the company that I had made an exception to hire Michelle, and people started complaining.

I didn't think much of it. As long as Michelle proved herself with solid results, I figured the criticism would die down on its own.

But after she passed probation, she started making mistake after mistake. Somehow, her performance was even worse than before.

Ethan worked in compliance, so he knew exactly what she was doing wrong. Yet every time, he looked the other way and gave her a perfect score anyway.

Watching him blatantly rig her evaluations right in front of everyone was more than I could take. I decided to confront him about it.

Ethan kept his head down, writing his final report as if none of this mattered to him. "Michelle just started here. Of course she's going to make mistakes. I can't be too hard on someone who's new."

I wasn't convinced. "You never gave me or anyone else that kind of leeway when we were new."

If anything, Ethan had always been hardest on me. There were times when I hadn't even technically broken a rule, but he still docked points from my evaluation and fined me without hesitation.

Afterward, he would explain that he was only being so strict because he wanted me to improve. He also said he couldn't afford to show me any favoritism, or everyone else he had penalized would start complaining.

I wasn't happy about it, but I understood where he was coming from, so I accepted it.

But this time, I couldn't.

Ethan was starting to look impatient. "So you think it's unfair? Fine. I'll cut you some slack next time too. I just got promoted, and I'm still wrapping up the handover. I've still got several reports to finish, so you should get going. This isn't worth wasting any more time on."

With that, he got to his feet and jokingly ushered me out of his office.

I was frustrated. I knew he was only brushing me off because he knew he was in the wrong.

Everyone in the company knew R&D had the heaviest workload. But when I was going through my own promotion and handover, I had still made time for everything Ethan asked of me, whether it was work-related or personal.

Even during the most critical stages of an experiment, I had gone along with every one of his inspections, no matter how excessive they seemed.

But with his office door shut in my face, I had no choice but to head back to the lab.

I had barely reached the entrance when I heard someone ask, "Michelle, why does Ethan treat you so well? Isn't he Sara's boyfriend?"

Michelle scoffed. "Sara? What's so great about her? She walks around acting like she's such a big deal, like she's better than everyone else. Ethan's been sick of her for a long time. He already wants to dump her."

One of my coworkers, clearly enjoying the drama, chimed in, "Why? I think Sara's great at what she does. She hasn't even been with the company a year, and she's already been promoted twice."