Chapter 3

Ariel's smile only widened. "Hear that, Mr. Spencer? That's what you call giving the people what they want."

I ignored her and kept my eyes fixed on the tablet my assistant had handed me.

On the screen was a screenshot from an anonymous industry forum.

The OP of a trending post was Heather Thompson, a programmer I had personally trained and promoted.

Six months ago, her father had fallen seriously ill and needed emergency surgery. I had personally lent her 60,000 dollars to help her through it.

At the time, all I had told her was, "Take care of your family. Don't worry about work."

Now, she had identified herself as a company insider and left a key reply on the trending post.

Heather: [OP's right. Our company genuinely hasn't done a company-wide salary review in two years.]

That single line cut straight through my chest like a blade.

Ariel clearly noticed the color drain from my face and mistook it for fear. Her smile grew even more brazen. "So, Mr. Spencer. Ready to consider my proposal now?"

That was when my phone started buzzing nonstop. Calls from several of my most important clients came in one after another.

"Mr. Spencer, is what's online true? If your core talent is this unstable, we're going to have to reconsider next year's project with you."

"Mr. Spencer, I'm holding back your final payment until you get your internal mess sorted out."

…

Overnight, my company became the poster child for fake kindness and quiet exploitation.

People dug up my personal history, my family background, even the car I drove, and posted it all online. Thousands of insults and curses flooded my private messages.

Down at street level, the crowd of influencers holding signs that read "No More Empty Promises" and "Boycott Heartless Bosses" kept growing.

Robin Baker, the HR Director, rushed in to find me, practically breathless. "Mr. Spencer, we need to launch crisis management right now.

"We can build an interactive landing page overnight that converts all our benefits, unlimited vacation, pet perks, happy hour, into their actual market value.

"Let everyone see what we've really been giving people. Let the numbers speak. The rumors will die on their own."

I was ready to go along with it. But just as I was about to give the order, Jimmy turned his laptop toward me. "Mr. Spencer, you should see this first."

It was a clip of internal security footage that someone had leaked online.

In the video, several longtime employees, the ones who had always been warmest to my face and benefited most from the company's perks, sat around the break room drinking coffee.

"You think the boss is an idiot or something, doing all this flashy stuff? Might as well just pay us in cash."

"Right? He probably thinks he's some kind of saint too. Ha."

"Good thing Ariel chewed him out this time. Maybe it'll wake him up a little. He's too naive."

On the screen, they laughed at me without a care as they petted the cats curled up in their laps.

I felt the blood in my veins turn to ice.

I raised a hand, signaling Robin to stop the entire crisis plan. "Don't bother."

Robin froze where she stood. "Mr. Spencer? Why? If we don't respond soon, our reputation is going to..."

I looked out the window at the crowd raising their signs. The last trace of warmth vanished from my eyes.

"They don't want the truth. They just want a target to hit. They want money, don't they?" I turned to my assistant. "I'll give them a chance to talk about nothing but money."

My assistant stared at me, clearly at a loss as to what I meant.

I picked up the phone on my desk, dialed the internal line for Admin, and instructed, "Notify everyone. Tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m., the company will hold a strategy announcement.

"We'll announce a major restructuring of the company's future direction and organizational structure."

…

The next day, the largest conference hall in the building was packed to capacity.

Almost every face in the room wore the same expression, the kind people could never quite hide when they were waiting for a show.

They clustered together and whispered among themselves. The room buzzed with the anticipation of a celebration about to begin.