Chapter 2
During a break, I sat in a corner scrolling on my phone when a middle-aged man sat down next to me.
He asked for my thoughts on the industry.
I figured he was just another attendee, so I talked casually with him.
So he was Sebastian from Sentinel.
"I should probably inform my supervisor about this," I said.
"That would be Ms. Smith, right? We know her." The voice on the line paused. "But Mr. Cooper prefers to discuss this only with you. If your company has an issue with that, we can drop it."
Only with me?
My hands shook after I hung up.
I knew exactly what this meant.
It meant that this client, who could not be landed in two years, might be closed by me, the new hire.
It also meant I was about to steal Emilia's client.
I sat at my desk and thought it over all afternoon.
In the end, I went to see Emilia.
"Emilia, I need to update you on something," I told her everything about the call.
She stayed quiet for a few seconds after I finished.
Then she smiled. "Victoria, this is great. If the client recognizes your talent, that's your strength."
"But Emilia, this is the client you've been pursuing for two years..." I said.
"If I couldn't land it in two years, maybe it just wasn't meant for me." She patted my shoulder. "You take the meeting. If you close it, it's yours."
"Really?" I asked.
"Of course. We're a team. Your win is our win."
I was genuinely moved.
That night, I stayed until eleven, preparing materials for the next day.
The next day, I met Sebastian.
Three days later, I received the letter of intent.
A week later, the contract was signed.
It was 2 million dollars, the biggest deal our company landed that year.
The day we signed, I was so emotional that I almost cried.
I texted Emilia: [Emilia, it's signed!]
She replied: [Ok.]
Just that one word.
I didn't overthink it until a week later, when the sales review meeting was held.
On the projector, the title slide read: [Sentinel Group, $2M Project Retrospective]
[Presenter: Emilia Smith.]
I sat in the audience, frozen.
Emilia stood at the front, confident and composed. "This project took us two years of pursuit. We faced countless setbacks, rejections, closed doors..."
I listened as she described the proposals I wrote, the late nights I pulled, and the client meetings I took.
My name wasn't mentioned once on any slide.
"Finally, thanks to the hard work of the entire project team, especially Hannah, who followed through every step and contributed tremendously," Emilia said.
Hannah stood up.
The whole room applauded.
I sat in the corner, completely still.
After the meeting, I approached Emilia. "Emilia, about that project..."
"What about it?" She was packing up her laptop.
"Why wasn't my name mentioned in the presentation?"
She stopped and looked at me.
"Victoria," she said with a light smile. "You've only been here a year. You're still young. Some things... aren't yours just because your name is on a contract."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Clients are company resources. Projects are team efforts. Did you really think this happened because of you alone? Without the company, you're nothing," she said.
I stood there, speechless.
"Alright, don't overthink it. You're young. You have a long career ahead. Learning to share credit will take you far." Emilia finished packing and walked out.
I stayed behind in the empty meeting room.
That was the day I learned what office politics really meant.
Then I understood.
But I didn't hold back.
The day after Emilia spoke to me, I did something "unacceptable."
I emailed the big boss.
[Subject: Supplemental Information Regarding the Sentinel Group Project]
It was simple: attached were my chat logs with Sebastian, meeting notes, and the signed contract page.
All the evidence pointed to one truth. That deal was closed by me alone.
Once I sent it, I knew it was over.
Not because the boss didn't see it. I later found out he did. He just chose to ignore it.
But because Emilia found out about the email.
I never learned who told her.
Maybe his secretary, maybe IT, maybe someone else.
Either way, on the third day, my desk was moved.
"Someone will show you to the storage room," someone from admin said flatly. "We're rearranging the floor plan."
I didn't argue. I took my computer and moved.
From that day on, no one spoke to me.
They didn't invite me to meetings.
My name wasn't included on weekly updates.
If I walked into the break room, people turned and left.
I became invisible.