Chapter 1
I took five days off from work to travel home for my engagement party.
During the department meeting, our CEO, Charles Reed, announced with a face carved from granite that I, Anna Grant, was being bumped down to a junior role and my salary was being cut by fifty percent.
The whole office turned to stare at me. Their eyes held a mixture of smug satisfaction and pity that made my cheeks flame with shame.
What made the situation completely ridiculous was that my fiancé's family heard about the demotion and called off the engagement that same afternoon.
His mother's laugh was sharp as broken glass when she said, "She cannot handle a simple holiday request. Do you honestly imagine that kind of woman fits in with our family?"
I sent my resignation email before midnight.
The next morning, a loud knock at the door yanked me out of a restless sleep.
I opened it to find the CEO standing on my doorstep, dressed in a flawless suit and holding a paper bag of takeout breakfast.
He locked his gaze onto mine, and his voice came out low and steady. "I did not approve your resignation."
*****
Monday morning felt heavy, like the air before a thunderstorm.
I was Anna Grant, the team lead in the project department. I had finished my five-day leave and returned to my desk.
The small plant next to my monitor was drooping, which matched my spirits perfectly.
Charles's assistant sent out a notice for a department meeting at 9:30. I gathered my notebook and walked into the conference room a few minutes early.
My colleagues were clustered in tight knots, whispering among themselves. The moment I stepped through the door, the room fell silent, but every pair of eyes latched onto me as if I were the star of a show.
Some watched me with sympathy, others with a gleam of hidden amusement, but most of them seemed to be waiting for a scene to explode.
My stomach tightened. Something had gone wrong while I was away.
Vivian Lewis sat directly across from me. I had trained her from day one, and now she served as my assistant team lead.
She had clearly spent extra time on her makeup that morning, and she made no effort to mask the pleased look on her face.
She raised her coffee cup in my direction, her smile heavy with hidden meaning. "Anna, you're back?"
"Yes," I replied flatly, pulling out my chair and sitting down.
Trouble was brewing. I could feel it in my bones.
Right at 9:30, the conference room door swung open, and Charles walked in.
He wore a perfectly fitted black suit, tall and striking, but his expression was pure frost.
His gaze swept over the group and rested on me for a lingering two seconds. In that moment, the temperature in the room seemed to drop another ten degrees.
He pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat, tossing a folder onto the polished surface with a slap.
"Let's begin," he said, his tone clipped and cold. "There is only one item on the agenda today. Staffing adjustments."
The instant those words left his mouth, all eyes shot back toward me.
My knuckles went white where I gripped my water glass.
Charles leaned back, resting against the chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the table—one tap after another—each tap making my heart race.
"Anna," he said at last, his voice slicing through the tense silence.
I stood up. "Mr. Reed."
"When you went on leave, did you properly transfer oversight of the Southside Renovation Project?"
His question pierced straight through me, sharp and cold.
My pulse thudded in my ears. Before I left, I had organized every file and spent two full hours walking Vivian through the details personally.
"Mr. Reed, all duties were covered," I answered.
"Covered?" Charles let out a humorless laugh, stretching the word thin. "Then why did our partner, Mr. Cole, phone me directly?
"He demanded to know why a vital set of figures was inconsistent, which forced their team to scrap their work and start over from scratch.
"Anna, explain to me how you define the word 'covered'."
My mind was spinning. This was impossible. I had checked those numbers three separate times. There was no room for error.
I shot a glance at Vivian. She refused to meet my eyes. She ducked her head low, painting an expression of wounded innocence across her face.
"Anna, I-I truly have no idea what went wrong," she whispered. "That was the data you sent me. I submitted it without changing a single digit."
In a flash, the pieces snapped together. It was her. Vivian had altered the file I gave her.
"Mr. Reed, the data was accurate. I request a formal review," I said, my voice tight. It wasn't the quiver of guilt. It was pure rage barely held in check.
Charles looked at me, his face a mask of cold disappointment. "Review? You can't be serious.
"The company almost lost a ten-million-dollar contract because of your mistake, and you want a second opinion?
"Anna, I'm truly disappointed. Did you believe that landing a few good projects meant you could sit back and let the details slide?"