Karl, however, said, "You really don't know what's good for you, Emma! Isn't Julia just telling the truth here? Did she touch a sore spot or something?

"You ought to remember Julia's status as well. She's the future successor of this company! She only asked for your help out of pity, to give you a chance to earn some side income, Emma!"

Karl delivered this lecture with heavy gravity, making it seem as though turning down Julia's request meant I simply didn't know what was good for me.

In reality, this company was only respectable within the local market. It wasn't even on the radar nationally. I had concealed my identity as the primary successor to our family's business solely to gain foundational experience for managing our own assets.

In addition, the largest investor of this company still had to depend on cooperation with my family's business to operate.

I never thought I would end up dealing with someone so unreasonable and ungrateful in this company. I still decided to let it go, though. I knew that if I simply refused to engage, she wouldn't have the nerve to orchestrate any serious drama. It was entirely unnecessary to get upset over someone so insignificant.

I placed my heated meal on my desk, like I always did, the following day at lunch. I got up and went to the water cooler near the entrance to get some hot water, but when I returned, I was met with a shocking sight—the lunch box I had left on my desk was somehow in Julia's hands now.

I noticed that the neatly arranged food in the lunch box was now a complete mess from Julia digging through it with her cutlery, and to make matters worse, she was "generously" sharing my food with everyone else in the office.

In the short time it took me to grab some water, Julia had completely emptied my lunch box.

I felt my breathing stop for a moment because the nutritionist controlled my food portions properly every day, and because of my physical constitution, I couldn't eat any regular snacks. I would have to stay hungry all the way until evening since my lunch was gone.

I was absolutely livid. I rushed over and grabbed my empty lunch box back from Julia. "Who gave you permission to touch my food?"

Upon hearing how fierce I was, Julia flinched dramatically. "Oh, my goodness! Why do you have to yell like that?"

She retorted shrilly, "I was just sharing good food with everyone. I didn't even hold it against you when you were acting like a total miser yesterday, so don't start nitpicking today. If anything, you should be thanking me instead! I mean, thanks to this, people won't view you as a selfish person anymore!"

In that instant, a few colleagues nearby—who had initially looked guilty—immediately grew confident and started taking Julia's side when they heard her remarks.

"Julia is right! You should take it as a compliment that Julia even wanted to eat your food!"

I thought that even though the company was small, the rules, regulations, and departmental procedures were well-defined during my interview back then. I never expected that underneath it all, the place was just full of brown-nosers.

I refused to back down. "You're the ones being shameless here! I brought this food myself, so there's no reason why I should share it with everyone for free! If you're really that starved, go beg on the streets for scraps!"

In that instant, the commotion caught the attention of the colleagues who were further away, prompting them to cast observant glances toward our corner of the office.

Julia flushed with embarrassment and anger, clearly surprised that a low-level employee like me would dare to publicly snap at her. She lifted her chin stubbornly, refusing to give in. "How dare you call me a beggar! I can't believe my kindness is treated with such contempt!

"I told you yesterday that I would have simply paid for it, but you didn't want any of it. Why are you making such a scene when I merely had a few bites today? You don't have to make everyone else suffer just because you're selfish, Emma!"

I was trembling with fury after hearing her fallacious remarks.

"You'd better not twist the facts here, Julia! You ought to know that taking someone else's thing without permission is considered theft! How can you steal my food and act like you did nothing wrong?

"I'm warning you—if you fail to issue a public apology and provide compensation, I won't let you go!" I bellowed before I tossed my lunch box into the trash can. I then grabbed my handbag, turned on my heels, and walked away.

I ate a freshly made meal once I returned home, but I was still absolutely furious.

I unlocked my phone, ready to blast Julia publicly in the company-wide group chat. But at the last second, I realized that even though I didn't care about keeping the job, making a massive scene would only end up causing more trouble for me in the long run.

I messaged Julia privately with that in mind. "You'd better fully reimburse me for the food you stole at lunch and make a public apology by tomorrow morning. Otherwise, I'll contact the police and file a report."

I hadn't even set my phone down when a bunch of voice messages started rolling in. Julia's over-the-top, annoying tone filled the room. "You've got to be kidding me! You should be flattered that I even ate your lunch. Who do you think you're dealing with?

"Do you think I'm just some average person who doesn't know any better? You can go ahead and call the police—let's see who gets arrested and who gets fired from this company!"

It turned out that my attempt to play things down was mistaken by Julia as a sign of weakness.

She immediately took the screenshots of our private chat and posted them right into the company group chat. "Do you see this petty person at our office? She's bitter about her own life, so she expects others to cater to her every whim.

"I only helped her because I felt bad that she had nobody in her life, and now she's trying to frame me for it.

"In the future, everyone should refrain from doing charity needlessly. After all, there's a reason these miserable people end up the way they do. She's got no family, no ties, nothing at stake—we do, so don't get dragged into it."

Those who were normally close to Julia immediately stepped in to stir up trouble before most people even understood the situation.

"I know, right? She never once reciprocates when we share snacks or fruits in the office. She claims that she's allergic to them. How can anyone be allergic to so many things? She could at least come up with a better excuse."

"What do you expect? She's a miserable orphan, so she's bound to be petty and selfish. Julia only got the short end of the stick because she was too kindhearted."

"You shouldn't let it get to you, Julia. You're the heiress of the family behind Grand Epoch Capital, so these absolute nobodies aren't even worth your time."

Those one-sided flattery comments in the group chat finally made me realize why Julia acted so brazenly.

It turned out she had been dropping hints ever since her first day of internship that she was only working there for the "experience" and that she was the successor of Grand Epoch Capital, which just happened to be the company's biggest investor.

In addition, combined with Julia's arrogant attitude and her head-to-toe luxury brands—which I could tell were knockoffs, though regular people never noticed—it worked perfectly with her lies. After all, as long as one appeared sufficiently confident, even a fabricated persona could trick others.

That was precisely why the whole group was dogpiling on me at that moment.

I sneered as I quickly typed out the message. "If she's the actual heiress, then we're really screwed. If you're all so eager to bootlick and power-trip, then don't blame me for not playing nice.

"You guys had better not back down when the police arrive at the scene tomorrow. We're going to lay everything out on the table and see who's the one who should actually be ashamed."

I didn't bother waiting around to see how they replied after saying my piece. I directly opened my contact list and called my lawyer. "I need you to look into Julia Hall's background. Give me a full sweep of her family history going back three generations—direct line, extended relatives, everything.

"I also need you to dig up everything you can on whoever is running things between Grand Epoch Capital and our branch here—the more detailed, the better."

I finally felt my anger ease up slightly once I finished giving the orders.

I went straight to the nearest police station the following day. I explained everything that had happened the day before and handed over the receipts for the ingredients along with proof of my nutritionist's wages.

Though the police officers were shocked that a single meal could be expensive enough to meet the threshold for a criminal case, they still dutifully accompanied me to the company.

Upon arriving at the reception desk at the company, the police officers presented their credentials and requested access to the surveillance footage.

I decided to head over to my desk first to pack up my belongings. After everything that had gone down, I really didn't have any desire to stay with the company anymore.

I had just arrived at the entrance of the office when someone suddenly threw a bowl of gooey liquid in my face, causing the clumpy, muddy sludge to drip from my hair. I wiped my face, immediately choking on a sharp, pungent odor of cheap, artificial chemicals mixed with powdered peanuts.

"Oh, my bad, Emma! I just whipped up this peanut sauce, and it accidentally slipped out of my hands!" Julia stood in front of me, holding the empty bowl and covering her mouth as she shook with laughter, though her eyes flashed with pure malice.

"Didn't you say you have an inherently allergic constitution and would die if you ate even a single bite of food that wasn't cooked at home? I was just curious to see if you were faking it to build up some fragile, high-maintenance image, Emma."

I immediately started gasping for air, as out of all my allergies, peanuts were the absolute deadliest. It wasn't long before my exposed skin started to break out in hives and itch fiercely.

I felt as if someone were strangling me as the peanut residue traveled down my nasal passage and into my throat. I stumbled backward against an office desk as the sudden lack of air made me lose my balance.

"Oh, my—look at you faking it! You missed your calling as an actress, Emma!" Julia, without a shred of remorse, pointed and laughed in my face. She even stepped forward and violently kicked my fallen handbag with the sharp heel of her shoe.

"You're truly a pathetic, orphaned old hag. You're surviving on scraps every day, yet you still dare to pretend like you're some kind of wealthy heiress. You're just jealous that I'm younger than you and have a better background!"

In that instant, the colleagues nearby, led by Karl, just stood by and whispered among themselves while enjoying the spectacle instead of stepping in to stop it.

"Emma is such a drama queen! She just got splashed with a bit of the peanut sauce, yet she's already gasping for air!"

"I know, right? She brought this on herself for crossing Julia! She totally deserves this!"

I was trembling all over with fury. I exerted my remaining strength to take out the emergency medicine I carried with me and swallowed it down raw, not caring about how much it hurt to swallow.

It was then that the office door swung open. "Hold it right there! What's going on here?"

Gilbert Lowe, the department manager with a protruding beer belly, entered briskly with the two police officers who had just taken my statement earlier.

Upon seeing Mr. Lowe, Julia instantly turned on the waterworks to beat me to the punch. She then turned to the police officers and said, "You came just in time! Emma is so obsessed with framing me that she's risking her own life with her allergies just to make me look bad!"

Having spotted the situation, the police immediately intervened to separate the parties, frowning as they asked, "What's going on here? How did a fight break out when we're just here to investigate a theft case?"

I let out a cold chuckle and pointed at the glaring red rashes covering my body. "It was Julia Hall's doing. She intentionally stole and destroyed my meals worth thousands of dollars. She knew exactly how severe my allergies are and still intentionally threw an allergen at me. That's a clear case of aggravated assault!"