As he spoke, he patted my shoulder–harder than necessary.
And then, when no one else was watching, he pinched me. Hard.
The sharp pain shot through my shoulder. Without thinking, I kicked him square in the chest.
Ryan fell to the ground, clutching his chest and gasping for air.
Emily rushed over, kneeling beside him, her face full of concern and panic.
I couldn’t help but think back to the time I’d worked so hard to close a deal that I drank myself into the hospital with stomach bleeding. She
hadn’t cared half as much then.
Emily shot to her feet, her face twisted with anger. She slapped me across the face.
“Are you insane, Jake?” she yelled. “Ryan was just trying to help you, and you attacked him? What kind of person bullies their coworker like
this?”
At that moment, HR walked into the room, clearly on their way to discuss my resignation.
Before they could even speak, Emily snapped, “Process his paperwork and get him out of here. Now.”
She signed off on my resignation without hesitation, but she wasn’t done.
As if to rub salt in the wound, she added, “This company is making hundreds of thousands in profits every day. Only an idiot would leave now.”
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1:03 PM
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Then she turned to Ryan, her tone softening again. “Don’t worry, Ryan. In a few months, you’ll have everything you’ve ever wanted–houses, cars, anything. I’ll make sure of it.”
The other coworkers chimed in, their excitement palpable.
“Emily’s the best!”
“Next month, whoever hits the top sales goals, I’ll buy them a house, Emily declared confidently.
Ryan’s eyes sparkled with greed, and the others cheered louder.
Emily’s arrogance grew as she basked in their praise.
“And as for certain people,” she said, casting a cold glance my way, “who think they can bully their coworkers and refuse to follow orders–I’ll make sure no company ever hires them again.”
The room erupted into laughter and insults aimed at me, their voices growing more frenzied by the second.
For a moment, I hesitated. Should I say something? Should I tell them what I knew?
That morning, my dad had called to let me know something interesting. Turns out, the biggest investor in Emily’s company for the past two
years was… him.
When he heard I was planning to quit and return home to take over the family business, he decided to run a full background check on her
company.
The results weren’t good.
He’d already decided to pull the investment, citing breach of contract. Not only that, but he was planning to sue for triple damages.
I knew exactly how much weight my dad’s company carried in her investment portfolio.
Once he pulled out, forget about buying houses and cars–keeping the company afloat for another month would be a miracle.
I opened my mouth to say something but stopped.
Emily mistook my silence for regret. She rolled her eyes and sneered.
“Well? If you apologize to Ryan now, there’s still time to fix this.”
“Otherwise-”
Before she could finish, someone burst into the room.
It was the head of finance, their face pale and anxious.
“Emily, we’ve got a problem,” they said quickly. “Our biggest investor just sent a notice. They found serious discrepancies in our financial records and suspect fraud. Not only are they pulling out, but they’re also suing us for triple damages!”
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The lively discussion in the room froze. Everyone exchanged uneasy glances.
