Chapter 3

For the next month, I lived the dream life of a nine-to-five worker.

The second the clock hit five, I clocked out and muted my phone.

Victoria tagged me a hundred times in our WhatsApp work group, but I ignored every single notification.

She targeted me during our morning team meeting:

"Sienna, is your workload too light lately? Have you followed up with our clients?"

"Are the supplier renewals signed? Don't think your seniority gives you the right to slack off!"

In front of everyone, I handed her a thick folder.

"Victoria, here is my complete daily log submitted yesterday before five. Every single task you mentioned has been completed. If you feel my workload is too light, feel free to assign me more projects. However, any overtime needs to be requested and approved in advance, otherwise it violates company policy."

Her face turned the color of raw liver, completely speechless.

Seeing this, Chloe immediately jumped in to smooth things over.

"Oh, Sienna, Victoria is just looking out for you. She wants you to reach your full potential. Speaking of which, you've been working on Julian Miller's account for six months. Why don't I help you lighten the load?"

Julian Miller was our biggest potential client. I had poured my heart into getting him to agree to the final pricing phase. Chloe had been drooling over this account for ages.

I smiled and pushed a file toward her. "Sure. Since you're so eager, you can handle this one first."

She took it, and her smile instantly vanished. It was a notoriously difficult supplier we had been arguing with for two months over contract details.

"Sienna, this..."

"Weren't you trying to lighten my load?" I looked at her calmly. "If you can't even handle a minor dispute like this, how do you expect to manage Julian's account?"

Chloe's face flushed with embarrassment, but she had no choice but to take the file.

Victoria watched from the side, silent and cold. She wanted nothing more than for Chloe to snatch my clients so she could kick me out for good.

Then, she started sabotaging me. She rejected my client entertainment expenses, claiming it "didn't align with the company's frugal budget." She held up the approval for client gifts, refusing to sign off on them.

It didn't matter. I paid out of my own pocket and bypassed her whenever I could. Every rejected request, every delayed email---I took screenshots of everything and saved them in my encrypted folder. These were my receipts.

When I got home that night, Ethan saw my sour mood and started lecturing me again.

"Isn't your manager just trying to assert some authority? Just swallow your pride, buy her a nice gift, and get over it. Why do you have to make things so tense?"

I looked at him, suddenly feeling exhausted. "Ethan, I was the one who got fined a thousand dollars. I was the one humiliated in public, and I was the one whose hard work was stolen. All you ever do is tell me to swallow my pride and back down."

"What else do you want to do? Sienna, are you really going to quit? How are we going to pay our $2,500 monthly mortgage? My career is finally taking off. Can't you just keep things stable for the sake of our home?"

Always "for the sake of our home."

I shut my mouth, refusing to argue. He didn't understand, or rather, he didn't care about my feelings at all. He only cared about his career, his mortgage, and his comfortable life.

I opened my laptop and continued organizing my client database.

Ethan leaned over to glance at my screen, frowning. "What are you doing with all that? Planning to jump ship? Let me warn you, don't do anything stupid. Your company has a non-compete agreement."

I sneered inwardly. He didn't even remember that I only signed a standard employment contract. There was no non-compete clause. He only knew how to warn and restrict me.

I calmly closed my laptop. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

What I was doing was making sure that before I left, I would take every single thing that belonged to me.