2: 2

I hung up on Mark and stood in the stairwell for a while, gripping my phone.

Four years of results, wiped out by a single sheet of A4 paper. Who would even believe it?

Back at my desk, Meryl was sitting with her legs crossed, talking to Stuart Lambert from the next row over.

"Some people, huh. Doesn't matter how many deals they close. If they don't know the rules, it all comes to nothing in the end."

Stuart laughed along, head down, scrolling his phone.

"The manager's got a good head on him. He should've cracked down way sooner. Some people just get used to taking advantage of the company."

I sat back down in my chair, and something from two years ago came back to me.

Back then Stuart had been at the company three months, hadn't closed a single deal, and his probation was hanging by a thread.

One night he was crouched in the stairwell smoking, and I told him,

"I've got a client, pretty much a done deal. Take it. Count it as yours."

His eyes had gone red and he called me his big sister.

That deal got him through probation. He stayed on.

Last year at the company party, Meryl got so drunk from a client at the next table that she couldn't stand.

I stepped in front of her and threw back three shots in a row before I got the guy to back off.

She hung onto my arm and said, "Gloria, you're the best," then threw up all over me.

Now she's telling me to go make her tea.

And Stuart's laughing right along with her.

They've both forgotten.

Or they've decided they shouldn't remember.

Whatever Benjamin's giving them is worth more than anything I ever did for them.

Everybody in this company can do the math. Everybody but me.

At three that afternoon, Benjamin posted a new notice in the work area.

Black on white, stamped with the department seal.

"To standardize internal management, effective immediately, any use of office supplies without approval will result in forfeiture of the current month's bonus and all project commissions."

"Three violations will result in termination."

Benjamin didn't put the words "A4 paper" anywhere on it, but I knew exactly who the rule was for.

Next to it on the board hung another notice. Stuart's performance this month was outstanding, bonus raised fifteen percent.

Meryl earned an A on her quarterly review, one salary grade up.

Someone said, "Poor Gloria," so quietly it was like a mosquito buzzing once.

But nobody dared to stand with me.

Before the end of the day, Benjamin called me into his office.

"That big project. The client's coming to see the proposal tomorrow. Get everything ready and make sure it's airtight."

"Also, that management opening at headquarters. I turned it down for you."

"You've been terminated. You don't qualify."

I knew it wasn't that I didn't qualify. He was scared of me moving up.

Scared I'd take his seat and go through his books.

But some things, you bring down on your own head.

I gave a little smile. Who lasts here in the end is still anybody's guess.

At nine the next morning, Mark arrived with his team.

Benjamin was running around fawning over them like a lapdog.

I was on the bench now. My spot right beside the client, the one I always had, wasn't mine anymore.

And, just as I'd guessed, it wasn't long before things stirred up in there.

Stuart came hurrying over.

"Where are the materials? You didn't print them?"

"I'm not worthy of using A4 paper."

I pointed at the notice board.

"The whole company knows."

Stuart froze.

Benjamin shoved the conference room door open and rushed out, his face gone dark red.

"Gloria, what the hell are you doing? The client's waiting to see the process!"

He wasn't wrong. The core materials were what I'd worked out with Mark, so it should've been me handling it.

But why should I?

Mark's voice carried out from the conference room.

"How are you running a meeting with no materials?"

"Manager Sawyer, if you can't even spare a sheet of paper, why would I sign a twenty-million-dollar deal with you?"

Benjamin spun around and ran back toward the conference room.

"Mark, let me explain—"

"No need."

Mark stood up, and behind him his whole team got up and started filing out.

"Your department's a mess. I don't trust it."

As Mark passed my desk, he glanced at me and gave a small nod.

Benjamin took two steps after him, then stopped and whipped around to glare at me.

"Gloria, did you do this on purpose?"

"I wouldn't dare."

I squinted at him and smiled.

"I don't have printing access. That's the rule you set."

He jabbed a finger at me, and it kept shaking for a long moment.

I ignored him.

At five thirty I packed up and clocked out.

My phone kept buzzing. Twenty-some new messages in the company group chat.

All of them Benjamin tagging everyone to demand overtime.

I didn't even look. I went downstairs and got on the subway home.

Once I was settled in my seat, I started going through three years' worth of files on my laptop. Screenshots of invoices, copies of expense claims, the "kickbacks" clients had mentioned in passing.

That shell company of Benjamin's existed for one thing, to swallow up company assets.

Stuart had laundered money through it for him. Meryl had faked reports for him.

Isn't it "embezzling company property"? Fine. Let's do a proper accounting of who embezzled more.

And who deserves to be punished.

3: 3

That night, the doorbell rang.

It was Hailey Fox, the receptionist.

She pushed her phone straight into my hands.

On the screen was a stretch of surveillance footage.

In the frame, right beside the shredder in Benjamin Sawyer's office, sat a stack of expense receipts he hadn't finished feeding through.

Dates, amounts, the letterheads of the other companies. All of it clear as day.

"He does this every month. Shreds the originals, makes fakes, and hands those to accounting."

I looked up at her.

"If we blow the whistle on this, he'll be cornered and dangerous. Aren't you scared?"

Hailey's eyes were steady.

"No. This dead-end job isn't worth much anyway."

"I just can't stand watching him push people around like that."

I thought back to the end of last year, when a client had reduced her to tears and she'd crouched in the corner of the hallway wiping her eyes.

I'd handed her a pack of tissues and said,

"It's fine. Just think of him as a dog. Don't waste your temper on a dog."

I never imagined she'd carry that with her all the way to today.

I thanked her. Hailey shook her head.

"That's not even all of it. This afternoon's client was behind closed doors with him for almost two hours."

"I caught one phrase. 'Split the accounting.'"

Double contracts, a shell company skimming the difference in the middle, pocketing the gap.

Standard Benjamin Sawyer.

After Hailey left, I made a trip to HR.

Rita Chavez was at her desk gnawing on an apple. She froze when she saw me, and her eyes flicked to the door on reflex.

"Relax. No one followed me."

I closed the door.

Rita was an HR hire who'd started the same year I did.

For four years she'd watched me get pushed around, and watched Benjamin work his hand deeper and deeper into the accounting pot.

Whatever she knew, she never kept from me.

"I want to see the agreement Benjamin signed when he was hired."

She didn't hesitate. She kept clear of the camera's blind spots.

She handed me the confidentiality and integrity pledge Benjamin had signed on his first day. It read:

Using one's position to accept benefits or misappropriate company assets, the company reserves the right to pursue legal liability.

Amounts exceeding two hundred thousand would be turned over to judicial authorities.

Three years of expenses and money runs passing through his hands, all told.

Just from the records I had in hand, it came to seven figures and then some.

I said quietly,

"I've made you take a risk."

Rita shook her head.

"I'm just an HR rep. None of this is my business."

"But if the company actually goes under, I'll have to job-hunt all over again. Not worth it."

I gave a small smile.

"Don't worry."

The company wasn't going down that easily.

The moment I stepped out, Benjamin's call came through.

His voice came at me full force.

"Gloria Simmons, get to my office right now and wait for me."

"If Mark Chavez's project really falls through, the loss is on your head."

"This industry only runs so wide. You make things hard for me, and I'll make sure you can't land a single deal in this city."

I went to his office.

He wasn't back yet. In the trash can beside the shredder there were still torn scraps of paper he hadn't finished.

Pieced together, it was a photocopy of a contract with XX Trading, and slipped between the middle pages, in handwriting:

"Payment account: XXXX."

His personal account.

Once I'd gathered the evidence, footsteps came from the doorway.

It was Benjamin outside, on the phone with someone above him.

"Don't worry, sir. Gloria's back, I've got eyes on her."

"Her resignation paperwork isn't done yet. I'll have her finish that deal! She wouldn't dare walk out on it."

"There won't be any loss to the company!"

Benjamin really did dream pretty.

By the time Benjamin came back into the office, I'd long since finished putting the evidence in order.

He saw me and rattled off a load of garbage. Treat the company like your home, once you're out in the world you have to learn to share responsibility, and so on.

I need you to teach me that?

Downstairs and heading home, I stood under a streetlight and dialed Mark Chavez.

"Mr. Chavez, don't commit to the project yet. Stall on your end another week."

Mark's voice carried a smile.

"You found something?"

"I found it."

I tipped my head back and looked at the lit window on our company's floor.

"Enough to last him a lifetime."

Mark was quiet for a beat, then said, "You've changed how I see you, young lady."

"I'm not particularly skilled,"

I said.

"I just didn't want to be finished off by a single sheet of A4 paper."

I hung up and walked along the road toward the subway station.

Tomorrow, certain people would never sit in that office pushing others around again.

4: 4

The next morning, Sawyer took a call and couldn't stop grinning.

"Just got the confirmation from Dickerson's side. His new project is going straight to our department."

"Another twenty-million deal. Chavez's project can wait."

"Second-half numbers? We won't have to sweat those."

"Everyone keep your heads down and work hard. No funny ideas, and you'll all get your share."

Stuart clapped. Meryl gave two claps of her own.

When he was done, Sawyer seemed to hesitate a moment, then called me into his office.

"Dickerson asked for you by name."

"Thing about you is, you've got the ability. You just take yourself way too seriously."

He said it like he had every right to.

"Finish this project properly before you go."

"I can put in a good word or two for you in your reference check."

"Your call."

I smiled.

He took that as me falling in line and waved me out.

Dickerson was an old friend of the company chairman. Five years of working together, and he'd only ever trusted me.

Asking for me by name this time was Dickerson's own decision.

I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop. My phone buzzed.

A voice message from Dickerson.

"Gloria, I heard you're leaving?"

"That Sawyer guy came to me. Said the project would be handled by some Meryl Hughes on his team from now on."

"I told him you're the one who signs the contract, and you're the one who does the proposal."

"Switch people and I don't sign."

I sent back one line.

"Thank you, Mr. Dickerson."

"Don't mention it."

"Oh, and your chairman is coming by for tea next week. If you're free, you should stop in too."

Dickerson didn't miss a thing.

He said tea, but what he was really telling me was that I could meet the chairman face to face.

At ten-thirty, Sawyer posted an announcement in the company-wide group.

Red background, gold letters, a clapping-hands sticker.

"Warmest congratulations to our department for landing a major annual account!"

"Led by Meryl Hughes, with execution support from Stuart Lambert."

Meryl leading it.

That was rich. Dickerson had never even met her.

The group lit up.

"Congrats!"

"Amazing!"

"We should all learn from Assistant Hughes!"

"A new sales champion, out of nowhere!"

Meryl replied underneath.

"Thank you to my manager for grooming me, and to the team for the support. I'll keep working hard."

Grooming.

Groomed by who?

I was the one who ran the factory visits with Dickerson, drank whiskey with him, pulled all-nighters reworking proposals. That's what earned his trust.

One word from Sawyer, "led by," and four years of my blood and sweat got hung around Meryl's neck.

You want to talk projects? Fine.

At two in the afternoon, I filled out a leave request and asked HR's Rita Chavez to process it.

She was curious. "You're leaving now, of all times?"

I could read what she was thinking.

"Relax, I'm not grabbing my things and bolting."

"Those two big deals. Without me, let's see if Sawyer can hold them together."

I packed up my laptop, grabbed my bag.

Booked a ticket to the nearest resort island.

I'd been saving up PTO for a long time. This was the perfect time to use it.

Nine the next morning, I was lying on a lounge chair on the hotel balcony.

Facing the ocean, sun warm, flowers in bloom.

My phone buzzed more than forty times, all missed calls from Sawyer.

"Gloria Simmons! Have you lost your mind?"

He was howling like a rabid dog.

"Dickerson's pushing for the proposal. You're not here, so who does it?"

"Chavez's project just fell through and you still have the nerve to take leave—"

"Manager Sawyer."

I took a sip of coconut water.

"Dickerson wants to sign with me. Send Meryl over instead."

"Chavez was waiting on me too. Send Stuart over."

"I don't even have permission to use a sheet of A4 paper. How would I dare do a proposal?"

On the other end, Sawyer had nothing to say.

"You've gotten too big for your damn britches. Think the sales department can't run without you—"

"The leave went through proper channels."

I smiled.

"Aren't you the one who's all about the rules?"

Just then, on Sawyer's end, there was the sound of a door being shoved open in a hurry.

Then Stuart's voice, panicked.

"Sawyer, headquarters... they suddenly want to audit our accounts over here."

There it was.

Sawyer went quiet for a moment, then roared.

"Gloria Simmons, have you been scheming against me this whole time?"

I smiled out at the water.

"I wouldn't dare. You're the one who came after me first, with a single sheet of A4 paper."

From here on, we'll see who's standing at the end.

Let me show you exactly who a single sheet of A4 paper destroys.