All Chapters of So Done With 3 Years of Free Labor: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Warren, are you deaf?"Marcus Reed's spit sprayed across my face. "You're handing over that hundred grand today!"Tiffany Collins stood with a folder hugged to her chest, her mouth curling. "There were twelve of us on that project team. What gives you the right to keep it all?"That was when Manager Gerald Dawson pushed through the crowd, playing peacemaker. "Warren, this isn't like you. I don't know how you got that bonus approved without going through me, but we're all colleagues here. Hand it over, split it evenly across the department, throw in a token payment for everyone's hurt feelings, and I'll personally see to it you get promoted next year."I looked at the faces in front of me and snorted out of exasperation."Hurt feelings? Whose feelings, exactly?"Marcus slapped his palm against the edge of my monitor. "Ours, obviously! You think you can pocket all that money and treat the rest of us like idiots?"A chorus of agreement rose around me."Exactly, playing the good l

Chapter 2

I hadn't expected Tiffany to call me in a panic at two in the morning."Warren! Manager Dawson gave the order—you need to upload every source file for that project to the shared drive tonight!"Those files are company property! You signed an NDA! If you don't upload them, that's a breach of contract. Two hundred thousand in damages would be letting you off easy!"I lay in bed, spinning my lighter between my fingers. "Source files?""Yes! Every image, every slide, every layout from the client project!"I laughed and threw the question right back at her. "Tiffany, do you even know what this project is called?"There was a pause on the other end of the line, her confidence draining fast."It's... the client visuals thing, isn't it? What else would it be?"That made me laugh even harder. Not one person had ever bothered to actually look into this project—not my so-called peers, not the department heads above them. For three years, they'd all gotten comfortable dumping every task on

Chapter 3

The next day, the main conference room was packed. It wasn't just our department—people from Marketing and Customer Service had wandered in with their coffee to grab seats too.The HR manager sat in the corner. VP Bradley Cohen sat beside the head of the table, twirling a pen between his fingers. Marcus had on a brand-new suit, his tie knotted crooked. Tiffany wore bright red lipstick and hugged a thick stack of printer paper to her chest. Manager Dawson sat at the head of the table, his eyes half-closed behind his gold-rimmed glasses.This was a public trial, and I was the one on the stand.The moment Marcus saw me walk in, he slammed his hand on the table. "Warren! You actually showed up!"I pulled out a chair, set my bag on the table, and didn't say a word.Tiffany dropped her stack of paper onto the table, letting it fan out. "Three years of Warren's screwups. It's all right here."She jabbed a finger at the first page, her voice rising. "March 2022—he delayed a poster deli

Chapter 4

Marcus froze. "Isn't it just... making promo slides and posters for clients?"Tiffany chimed in. "Right! It's a visual design package!"I laughed again and said, "Let me educate you all, then. The project behind this hundred-thousand-dollar bonus has a full name: the Smart Investment Visuals Layout System. It's an automated design tool that generates client brochures, posters, and pitch decks. For three months, I didn't go home once. I slept in this conference room. Did any of you ever ask me a single question about it? All you saw was an extra hundred thousand dollars in my bank account."I turned to Vice President Cohen. "Mr. Cohen, you've known I was working on this from the day it was greenlit. You signed off on my weekly progress reports every single week. Since we're all here, let me show you the finished product."Cohen nodded, setting his pen down on the table. "Go ahead."I pulled out the silver flash drive, took a black one out of my bag, and plugged it into the computer

Chapter 5

The second the screen lit up, Manager Dawson lunged forward. Veins stood out on his face as he yanked the power cable out of the wall. "Nobody's watching this! It's fake!"The room erupted.Marcus jumped over and clamped down on my wrist. "Warren! You hacked the manager's computer! That's a crime!"I couldn't shake him off—his grip was strong. Three years ago, those same hands had handed me a latte, trying to butter me up. Now, they were trying to strangle me."Let go of him!" Cohen slammed his hand on the table, his voice rising. "Manager Dawson, what do you think you're doing?"Manager Dawson hid the cable behind his back, breathing hard. "Mr. Cohen, this system is illegitimate. It has to be some kind of hacking tool! I'm protecting company assets here!"I smiled and glanced down at my phone."Manager Dawson, that's the display cable you pulled. The computer's still running."I held up my phone. On the screen, Project X's cloud interface was scrolling on its own. A notificati

Chapter 6

The room descended into chaos.Manager Dawson lunged for the tower, fingers reaching for the power button. I stepped in front of it, blocking him."What's the rush?" I said. "Every inbox in the company already has it. You can't delete this."Marcus's grip on my wrist suddenly went slack. He backed into a corner, pulled out his phone, and swiped frantically. His face turned gray."Manager Dawson... the forum..."Someone posted the recording… from yesterday, us locking his computer, forcing him to upload the source files!"The post title is 'Anyone Else Dealing with This? My Department Is Extorting Bonuses and Locking People's Computers!'"Tiffany's hair was a mess, her makeup smeared. She screamed and lunged for Marcus's phone. "Delete it! Delete it now!"Marcus shoved her off. "Delete it? It's already got a hundred thousand views!"Tiffany rounded on him. "It was you! You're the one who suggested locking his computer yesterday!"Marcus's eyes went bloodshot as he glared back

Chapter 7

Everyone in the room was breathing harder now. A two-million-dollar penalty versus a five-million-dollar investment—even an idiot knew which way that math went.I hung up the phone and turned to Cohen.Sweat beaded on his forehead, his lips trembling. "Warren... it was all a misunderstanding..."I shook my head and pulled up Project X's local terminal."It wasn't a misunderstanding."Marcus. Tiffany. Manager Dawson. For three years, I wrote three hundred and seventy-two performance reports for the three of you. I built sixty-four side-job design packages. I put in eight hundred and forty hours of unpaid overtime. At market rate, you owe me four hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Pay up today, or a lawyer's letter arrives tomorrow."Marcus crumpled to the floor. "Warren... Warren, I was wrong... I don't even want the hundred-thousand-dollar bonus anymore..."I crouched down and looked him straight in the eye."That hundred thousand was always mine. And so is the four hundred a

Chapter 8

Cohen leaned in for a closer look, his knees buckling so badly he had to grab the table to keep from collapsing."This..."The Chairman stared at the screen, and a smile crept across his face. "Good. Ruthless. I like it."He turned to the woman from the audit team in the black suit. "How far has the investigation gone?"She adjusted her glasses and pulled a sealed evidence bag out of her briefcase. "Economic crimes investigators are already waiting downstairs. That BMW Gerald bought last year was registered under his brother-in-law's name, but the payments traced back to the account he used to collect his kickbacks. This is the seizure order."At those words, Gerald collapsed to the floor.Marcus suddenly threw himself forward and grabbed my leg. "Warren! I'll pay you back—the four hundred and eighty thousand, all of it! I'll pay you five hundred! No—six hundred thousand!"I looked down at him."Too late. That fabricated report about my 'mistakes'—Project X already recovered ev

Chapter 9

Another commotion broke out at the door. Frank Ratcliffe, the client's lead executive, had arrived, trailed by two assistants carrying metal briefcases."Hey, Warren! I brought the investment contract here! Five million dollars, and I even brought my own pen!" He held up a hand. "One clause is locked in stone: you're the project lead, full stop. If the Group so much as fires you or touches your bonus, the two-million-dollar penalty gets auto-deducted, no questions asked."He glanced around at the wreckage of the room, spotted Marcus and Tiffany pinned down by security, and grinned. "Still cleaning up the trash in here, I see. No rush. I'll wait."He took the contract from his assistant and slapped it down on the table. "Sign."I picked up the pen.Marcus suddenly let out a howl. "Warren! You won! You won everything! Are you happy now?"My pen paused for a second. I turned to look at him."No. I'm not. I still want the four hundred and eighty thousand you owe me. The lawyer's let

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