Chapter 4

With the squad assembled, the next phase was execution.

Victoria’s plan was crude but effective: I had to infiltrate Carter’s company to dig up the real dirt.

Which worked out perfectly.

Carter had already begged me multiple times to work as his executive assistant, claiming it would "make it easier for us to see each other whenever we wanted." I had found it suffocating back then and made up every excuse to dodge him.

Now? I couldn't wait to walk through those doors.

The very next morning, I threw my resignation letter onto my boss's desk at my dead-end marketing firm.

While I was packing my cardboard box, Ashley, the resident office mean girl, started sneering. "Oh, must be nice having a sugar daddy. Quitting your job to stay home and count his money all day."

I was already running on pure rage, and she just volunteered as tribute.

Without a word, I marched over and slapped her across the face with everything I had.

*SMACK!*

The entire office went dead silent.

"Keep running that trash mouth, Ashley. Did you forget to brush your teeth after blowing the manager in the break room last night?" I leaned down, giving her my best villain smile. "Oh yeah, I saw you. Quite the show."

Ashley's face drained of color, her hand clutching her burning cheek, unable to utter a single syllable.

I picked up my box and strutted out under the stunned gazes of the entire floor.

I was done playing nice.

That evening, Carter heard the news that I’d quit. He showed up at my apartment practically drooling, his eyes shining with greedy excitement.

"Chloe, baby, you finally came to your senses!" He wrapped his arms around me, thrilled out of his mind. "Come work as my private assistant. We can be together all day, every day. Office quickies whenever we want..."

Fighting back the urge to vomit, I put on my sweetest pout and traced circles on his chest. "Stop it, you naughty boy... you're making me blush."

In my head, I was thinking: *Quickie this, you piece of garbage.*

Driven wild by my teasing, he dragged me straight toward the bedroom.

Realizing I couldn't keep this act up physically, inspiration struck. I squeezed my legs together and winced in dramatic agony.

"Babe, wait... I can't. My period just started."

Carter froze, his lust instantly morphing into frustration and suspicion. "Didn't you just have it last week?"

"Ugh, I've been so stressed out lately, my cycle is completely messed up..." I blinked up at him with wide, innocent doe eyes, mentally awarding myself an Oscar.

Annoyed as he was, he didn't force the issue. He grunted and stomped off to the bathroom to take a cold shower.

The following day, I officially started at Vance Enterprises as the Executive Assistant to the CEO.

The second I stepped onto the executive floor, countless eyes locked onto me—jealous, condescending, waiting for me to fail.

Whatever.

I wasn't here to make friends. I was here to burn the place down.

Relying on Carter's obsession with me, I quickly mapped out the entire corporate landscape.

Which departments held real power, which executives were his ride-or-die lackeys, and which hallway blind spots had broken security cameras.

Everything was running smoothly.

Until the afternoon of my third day.

I was pretending to bring Carter a fresh cup of coffee when I passed a half-closed conference room and heard a familiar voice inside.

Harper.

My heart skipped a beat. Hadn't she been fired ages ago? What was she doing here?

I pressed my ear against the crack of the door. Inside, Carter’s head of operations was talking to someone on speakerphone: "...Don't worry, the Harper situation is completely buried. Every core ledger she ever touched has been overwritten three times on the new cloud servers. Even the IRS couldn't find a damn thing now."