Chapter 1
The real heiress came to our company to gain some life experience.
When the boss needed a PPT, she offered me 3 grand to do it.
When he wanted data pulled, she gave me another 6 grand.
And for an urgent proposal, she paid 15 thousand to buy my idea outright.
I was over the moon.
That was when my best friend sneered at me and said I had no class.
She remarked, "Is money all you care about? Don't you have any self-respect at all?"
So I turned the heiress down.
Later, my friend's proposal blew up.
She screamed at the boss, lost her mind, and in a fit of rage, wore my dress into his office and took a dump there.
A blurry video was leaked online. Overnight, I went viral.
On the surface, I became the poster girl for "workplace justice," the badass heroine of corporate revenge fantasies.
In reality, I got fired and blacklisted by every company in the industry.
Two months into unemployment, late one night, my friend dumped my luggage out of our shared apartment.
She laughed mockingly, "All that traffic and you still couldn't make anything of it? Get lost, poop-girl."
I dragged my suitcase through empty streets. Later, I was pulled into an alley by extremists and tortured to death.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the real heiress joined the company.
*****
Sonia Brooks texted me: [Lydia, wanna grab lunch together? I ordered two meals.]
Sonia: [Also, the boss asked me to make a PowerPoint, but I have no idea how to do it. Can you help me out? Of course, I'll pay you for it.]
Watching the chat window light up with messages on my computer screen, I felt surreal for a moment.
It took a while for it to sink in.
I realized I'd travelled back in time.
I was back on the very first day Sonia, the real heiress, joined the company.
Just then, a voice remarked, "She can't even make a PowerPoint. How did this newbie even get hired?
"Look at her Dior outfit and Hermès bag. Bet some old sugar daddy bought it for her.
"Stay away from girls like that, or you'll end up getting your mind twisted and wind up as someone's kept woman. All those years of studying would be for nothing."
My bestie, Pamela Cox, was sitting next to me, running her mouth and trash-talking Sonia.
The chat window on my screen kept lighting up with Sonia's messages.
Sonia: [Lydia, the boss wants me to pull some data again, but I'm still clueless. Can you help me out? I'll pay you 3 thousand bucks. Deal?]
Sonia: [Is 6 thousand enough if you do the PowerPoint too?]
It was déjà vu all over again.
I could feel my fists clenching tighter.
I'd just graduated, and my paycheck was 1500 dollars a month.
Every penny after rent went to stretching out food, utilities, and whatever else I needed. I was barely making it in this city.
But everything was different now.
Sonia was basically dropping a fortune right in my lap.
Just for pulling up some numbers, I could pocket 3 thousand dollars.
Crank out a PowerPoint? That was another 6 grand.
This was a windfall. How could I not be tempted?
Pamela kept peeking at my screen, and when she saw what was going on, her brows knitted in a deep scowl.
"You're not seriously thinking about saying yes, are you?" she asked. "That girl's trouble. Seriously, keep your distance.
"Are you really that money-hungry? Is cash all you care about? How can you sell out your self-respect just for some quick cash?"
Pamela was laying into me, her voice sharp and full of judgment.
I shot her a sideways glance, feeling disdainful within.
In my previous life, Pamela was always preaching from her moral high horse, telling me not to make extra cash on the side.
But secretly, she was messaging Sonia, trying to snag those gigs herself.
Too bad Sonia didn't think Pamela had what it took, so she just brushed Pamela off.
And, of course, Sonia was right about Pamela.
Her data was full of mistakes, and her proposals were a total mess.
When the boss tried to point out Pamela's mistakes, she wouldn't listen. Instead, she claimed she was being discriminated against at work and started shouting back at the boss right there.
And as if that wasn't wild enough, she got so worked up about losing the argument that she stormed into the boss's office and took a huge dump right there while wearing my dress.
When the boss found poop on his desk, he totally lost it and scrambled to check the security cameras, which nobody had ever used them.
The cameras were covered in dust. The video was so fuzzy, one could barely tell what was happening.
All one could make out from the blurry footage was what the culprit was wearing.
As a result, Pamela pointed the finger at me with zero proof, and I got blamed for everything.
I tried to clear my name, but nobody cared.
When that blurry video got leaked online by accident, things went nuts.
Suddenly, I became the poster girl for "workplace justice", and went viral.
I was overwhelmed.
Pamela even suggested I pull some wild stunt on livestream, then use the hype to hawk products.
But there was no way I'd humiliate myself like that, so I kept putting it off and never did it.