Chapter 3
"Say that one more time—I dare you," I hissed.
I stared him down, my nails biting into my palms until the skin nearly broke.
He just threw back a smirk, that same oily look of pure condescension.
"I'm the boss here. If I say you owe, you cut the check. If I say you're a problem, you're a problem."
Crack!
A heavy ceramic mug slammed onto the desk, inches from Richard's face.
May yanked me back as a few of the other girls stepped in, forming a human wall between us.
Someone said, "Richard, why are you always cornering the new hires? Act like a professional for once."
Another added, "This is a total scam. What's next, you gonna bill us for the electricity we use on overtime?"
A colleague chimed in, "Seriously, you're always shaking us down, but I haven't seen you put in a dime of your own."
Richard's face contorted before he finally snapped, his voice booming across the floor.
He roared, "Oh, so it's a mutiny now? None of you care about keeping your jobs, is that the deal?
"May, your kid just started at that prep school. You finish paying off that jumbo mortgage yet, or is the bank still breathing down your neck?"
"Jessica, you and your husband finally scrape together enough for a down payment, or are you still renting that dump?
"And Lily, you just took out a car loan last month; you really think you can afford to grow a backbone right now?
"If I weren't signing your checks, you losers would be starving on a street corner. And you still have the nerve to talk back to me?"
His words hit like a physical blow, gutting the room into a heavy, suffocating silence.
A few heads dropped instantly; others just slinked back to their cubicles.
I couldn't wrap my head around who was protecting Richard, letting him act like some untouchable God.
But one thing was certain—he might have friends in high places, but I owned the mountain.
I whipped out my phone. "Don't sweat it, guys. I'm calling my dad to end this right now."
The line didn't even ring twice before someone picked up.
But it wasn't my dad. It was his executive assistant, Margaret Summers.
"Mr. Brown is in a high-stakes board meeting and isn't taking interruptions," she clipped.
The line went dead, and when I tried to redial, it went straight to an automated "out of office" message.
Richard, who had actually looked rattled for a second, let out a sharp, jagged laugh.
He lunged forward, ripped the phone out of my hand, and spiked it onto the hardwood floor.
"Give it a rest! I don't care if the CEO himself walks in here—you're paying what you owe!" he roared.
I stared at the spiderweb of cracks on my screen, a cold pit of dread opening in my stomach.
Feeling the eyes of the entire office on me, I forced a breath and stepped out from behind May's shadow. "Fine. I'll pay."
"If you hadn't played the hero, we could've avoided the drama! You need to learn the pecking order around here," Richard snapped. "As for the rest of you, consider this a lesson—everyone owes an extra 75-dollar donation!"
From that day on, I was radioactive.
Every time I stepped into the bullpen, the chatter died instantly as people scattered to their desks. If I went for a refill at the Keurig, the area cleared out like I had the plague. Even in the cafeteria, I was an island.
Even May, who'd been my only ally, kept her eyes glued to the floor and power-walked past me whenever our paths crossed.
Ducking into the breakroom, I caught the tail end of the latest gossip.
Someone muttered, "It's her fault, May and the rest of us got hit with that 75-dollar 'donation'.
"She talked a big game like she was some connected nepo-baby, but she's just another broke intern who screwed us over."
Another warned, "Whatever, just don't get caught near her. If Richard thinks we're on her side, he'll put targets on our backs next."
I stood there, a bitter knot tightening in my throat.
Turned out, in that corporate hellscape, trying to do the right thing just made you a liability to everyone else.
Richard wasn't just targeting me anymore—he was using peer pressure as a weapon to break my spirit.
But I wasn't going to fold.
I welcomed the challenge, ready for whatever gutter-tier tactics Richard had planned.