Chapter 6

His mouth opened, as if he wanted to say something.

I walked right past him without a word.

I walked straight to HR. "Jerry, here is my promotion paperwork. Let me know if anything is missing."

Jerry, the HR rep, flipped through my file with a confused expression.

"But your department's promotion slot has already been submitted."

"What?" I froze.

"Austin submitted it yesterday. He said Summer Reed was the main contributor to the high-value project, so he requested the promotion slot go to her. She's being fast-tracked to Team Lead."

Team Lead was my current position.

Austin was literally stealing my hard work and success to pave a path for his ex-girlfriend.

My phone buzzed.

[Summer helped cover up the proposal mix-up yesterday. Clarifying it publicly would destroy her reputation.]

[Think of this promotion as compensation for her. Your promotion can wait until next quarter.]

I stared at the screen, a blinding rage erupting in my chest.

I was furious at Austin's utter shamelessness.

But I was even more furious at myself for loving him so blindly in the past, allowing him to treat my career like his personal playground.

But this time, I wasn't going to take it lying down.

Without a second thought, I filed a formal complaint disputing Summer's promotion.

Since I had proof that I was the sole creator and executor of the project, HR verified and rejected her promotion in less than half a day.

During that time, Austin sent me dozens of angry messages. I ignored every single one of them.

When the notification popped up on my computer screen confirming my own promotion was approved, I finally let out a long breath.

My phone lit up with a final text from Austin:

[Are you happy now that you've thrown your little fit? Make sure you come home early tonight. Don't make things uglier than they already are.]

Even now, Austin thought I was just acting out of jealousy.

With a few taps, I blocked his number and sent him straight to my blacklist.

Then, I went back to my temporary hotel room.

The next morning.

After the sales department's morning meeting, I was asked to stay behind to discuss my transition to Sales Director.

But the moment I stepped out of the conference room, the atmosphere in the office had completely changed.

When people saw me, they looked at me like I was a piece of trash, quickly lowering their heads and whispering as they hurried past.

Snatches of their conversation drifted over.

"So she's the homewrecker?"

"She seemed so professional. I had no idea she was that kind of person..."

A terrible feeling crept into my chest.

I hurried back to my desk and opened WhatsApp.

The company group chat had been completely spammed by Summer.

[A certain Team Lead, Sera Vance, has repeatedly harassed and tried to seduce my fiancé.

When she failed, she maliciously sabotaged my promotion out of spite. How can the company allow someone so toxic to work here!]

The comments underneath were brutal.

"No wonder she didn't show up to the engagement dinner. She was jealous!"

Summer had uploaded dozens of cropped screenshots of my chat history with Austin.

She had deleted all of Austin's replies, making it look like I was unilaterally begging and harassing him.

To avoid office gossip, Austin and I had never made our relationship public.

But since everyone had just eaten his free engagement dinner, it was obvious whose side they were going to take.

The rumors had been brewing for an hour, with thousands of messages flying back and forth.

Yet, Austin, the co-star of this drama, had said absolutely nothing to defend me.

In fact, those screenshots were taken from his perspective.

My stomach turned. I started typing rapidly, trying to draft a clarification.

Suddenly, a loud commotion erupted at the entrance of the office.

Summer pushed past the coworkers trying to stop her and marched straight to my desk.

Before I could even react, a sharp slap landed squarely on my cheek.

"You cheap homewrecker! Seducing my fiancé and you still have the nerve to show up to work!"