Chapter 1

"I've finished revising the project acceptance report. I removed Chloe's name."

I was on my way to the break room to get some water. Those words froze me in place.

The speaker was Tasha Parker—the same woman who had once cried and begged me to bring her onto the project team.

"Good. She may be the project lead, but what has she actually done these past three months? All she does is sit in meetings and sign papers. We wrote all the real code."

That was Vinny Owen, chiming in. His skills were mediocre at best, but he was obedient—reason enough for me to make an exception and hire him.

"If she takes forty percent of the bonus, I've worked this whole year for nothing. Leadership looks at results. As long as we stick together, someone like her is easy to deal with. We need to find a way to make her leave on her own."

The last voice belonged to Patricia Brown—my number-one assistant on this project.

"No need to find a way. Just confront her."

There was a sharp edge to Tasha's voice. "The project's almost finished. The core data is all in our hands now. She doesn't understand technology. Without us, either the project collapses or she walks. Someone who just coasts along like her won't dare make a scene."

"Exactly! Let's do it that way. I've disliked her for a long time," Vinny added. "Always putting on airs, pretending to be a leader."

The three of them were perfectly aligned. What they seemed to have forgotten was this—

Three months ago, the company was facing layoffs.

It was these three who messaged me late at night, one after another, pouring out their misery. Elderly parents, young children, mortgages and pressure—begging me to pull them up before they sank.

I softened. I applied for extra slots and brought them into this year's top-tier core project.

For three months, I handled coordination, external negotiations, and resource acquisition. I shielded them from client nitpicking time and again, and fixed more of their bug-riddled proposals than I could count.

To help them earn more, I deliberately assigned all the basic execution work to them, while I took on the hardest, most thankless problems myself.

And now?

My coordination had become "doing no real work."

My delegation had turned into "not understanding technology."

I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

The laughter stopped instantly, like a duck with its throat squeezed shut.

Patricia reacted first. A flicker of embarrassment crossed her face before she quickly replaced it with righteous defiance.

"Chloe, since you've heard everything, there's no point beating around the bush."

She set her coffee down and crossed her arms, looking straight at me.

"We're all adults. We believe in pay based on contribution. On this project, you really didn't put in much effort."

I walked over to the coffee machine and calmly poured myself a cup of water from the dispenser next to it.

"Didn't put in effort?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Don't take it the wrong way," Tasha cut in. "We wrote the code. We ran the tests. Even the final presentation was done by us. And you? All you did was talk."

"Chloe, be fair," Vinny added, his tone edged with disdain. "We already thanked you for that so-called recommendation. We even treated you to coffee. But that's a separate matter. Tens of thousands in bonuses—there's no way you should take half just because you talked a little, right?"

I took a sip of water and found it almost amusing.

"Then what do you want?"

The three exchanged glances. Patricia pulled a document from her bag and slapped it onto the table.

"This is a voluntary resignation form. Sign it.

"As long as you withdraw from the project team on your own, we won't expose to the whole company how you've been occupying a position without doing real work. We'll leave you some dignity."

"Otherwise," she continued coolly, "once we jointly report you to headquarters for incompetence and delaying progress, you could even face compensation claims. You'll lose both money and your job."