2: 2

Staring at the photo of my mother with tubes running out of every part of her, my vision went black and my heart slammed against my ribs.

I couldn't hold back anymore. I lunged forward, shoved Gail hard out of the way, and threw myself at the desk.

"Wire fifty thousand to the insurance card right now! I have to save my mother's life!"

The shove sent her crashing to the floor, the back of her head striking the wall, and she started wailing in pain.

"Security! Joyce Harding is attacking the finance department! Get over here and grab her!"

She clutched her head, twisting toward the guards across the lobby as she screamed.

Two of them jogged over, but one look at my bloodshot eyes and they hung back, not daring to touch me.

Gail's face went green. She braced a hand on her lower back, hauled herself up, and jabbed a trembling finger at me.

"Joyce, you… you're hijacking company systems! I'm calling the police!"

I didn't spare her threat a second of attention. My eyes locked on the screen as I clicked into the payroll system.

She was already dialing.

"I'm… I'm reporting you to Mr. Fox right now! We're in the peak of the project, every cent of capital is in motion!"

"You touch that and you're sabotaging the company's IPO! Wait till Mr. Fox comes down here and deals with you!"

My chest was on fire. I found my own employee photo and started the wage transfer.

Then I pulled up the leave system, ready to click approve.

All I could see now was my mother's worn, hollow face.

One click, and the money would land, the surgery could start, and I could finally be at the hospital with her.

"Go ahead and click it. But you'd better think about what comes after."

Chad Fox walked in through the lobby doors, his voice cold and hard.

"Mr. Fox, thank god you're here!"

"Joyce has lost her mind! She shoved me down, forced through her own wage transfer, and approved her own leave!"

Gail scrambled over and clung to his leg, playing the victim.

"Joyce, you signed a non-compete agreement when you were hired."

"We're at the peak of the project. If you transfer funds and quit without authorization, that's two breaches, and together you'd owe the company two million."

He calmly pulled out a stack of contracts and slapped them on the desk in front of me.

"Clause sixty-one, the hidden clause. It's spelled out in black and white."

The hand about to click froze. I stared at Clause sixty-one, and the blood in my body turned to ice.

The line was small, but it was unmistakable, and it was followed by a two-million penalty.

A tiny line of text I could never have spotted the day I signed.

And now it had me completely locked in.

"Click it! Go on, click it! Click it and you owe two million!" Beside me, Gail's face turned smug.

She brushed the dust off herself, circled around to my side, gloating now.

"Go ahead. Two million's nothing, just your entire salary garnished and still not enough to cover it."

"And even if you refuse to pay, Mr. Fox can drag you through court until you're finished. You'll never work again!"

I froze, staring at the clause with bloodshot eyes. My gaze flicked to the transfer on the screen, and my fingers started to shake.

Two seconds later, I glanced up at her and Chad, gritted my teeth, and jabbed down hard.

Two million, then. So be it! It would save my mother's life! I'd worry about the payment later!

As I hit it, a red scanning light swept across the camera, and Gail froze completely, her eyes going wide with disbelief.

Chad watched me, then flicked a look at that red light, and one corner of his mouth curved into a strange little smile.

Watching the transfer approval appear on the screen, I let out a slow breath. My mother was finally going to be saved.

But two seconds later, the process stopped, and a cold error message popped up.

"Face detected without administrator permissions. Your action is invalid, and the transferred wages have been frozen!"

My mind went blank with a roar, and every drop of blood in me turned to ice.

How could this happen?

"So Mr. Fox set the permissions ahead of time! Exactly to stop crazy women like you!"

Beside me, Gail finally caught up, covering her mouth and giggling softly.

A chill ran through me, and before I could do anything else, the attending physician called again.

"Miss Harding, your mother's been delayed too long. She's gone into terminal shock!"

3: 3

My legs buckled and I dropped straight to my knees.

The doctor sent another photo of my mother, her face flushed purple, her breathing about to stop at any moment.

"We've already put her on full ventilation, but if we don't receive the deposit within half an hour, we'll have no choice but to abandon the surgery."

The world went black in front of me, and the phone slid limply from my hand.

I scrambled forward and grabbed the leg of Mr. Fox's slacks, crushing what was left of my dignity, my voice raw.

"Mr. Fox, please, have mercy. Just transfer me the fifty thousand in wages first, my mom can't hold on much longer. If it saves her life, I'll do anything you want!"

He glanced down at me, a smile curving across that cold face, his voice softening.

"I'm not without a heart. For your ten years of service to this company, I'll lend you fifty thousand out of my own pocket to save your mother."

Light flared in my eyes. I lurched forward, bowing my head to the floor over and over in thanks.

"Thank you, Mr. Fox, I'll pay you back as fast as I can! I'll remember this kindness for the rest of my life!"

Beside him, Gail froze, her face all confusion, and rushed to cut in.

"Mr. Fox, she just tore up the whole finance department and shoved past me! And you're paying out of your own pocket to help her?"

But Mr. Fox raised a hand to stop her, his gaze settling back on me, the corner of his mouth lifting.

"I can lend you the money. But I have one condition."

My head snapped up, unease rising in my chest.

He pulled out a lifetime contract and tossed it in front of me.

"Sign this lifetime labor contract, voluntarily give up your benefits and retirement, three hundred a month in fixed pay, term of service thirty years!"

"It's all written out clearly on there. Read it."

I froze.

Three hundred a month, thirty years, no benefits.

For fifty thousand, he wanted to buy out the next thirty years of my life. Worse than working off the books.

Beside him, Gail let out a snicker, deliberately raising her voice to mock me.

"Joyce, this is a lifeline Mr. Fox is throwing you. Hurry up and sign it, take the money, save your mom. Better than standing here watching her go!"

"Tsk, tsk. Three hundred. That's not even loose change compared to my salary."

Raw humiliation and fury flooded my head. I clenched my fists and screamed, my eyes red.

"You... you're using my situation to force a slave contract on me! You think I won't call the police and have you all hauled off right now?!"

"Call the police?" The warmth drained from Mr. Fox's face, leaving only something cold and grim. He glanced at the phone in my hand.

"You call the police now, and between the response, getting them to the scene, and finishing the statement, that's at least three hours round trip! And the hospital's only given your mother about ten more minutes, right? By the time the police are done, your mother will be long gone!"

4: 4

He toed at the contract on the floor. “So either you play stubborn and call the cops, or you sign and take the money to save her. Your choice.”

I stared at the countdown on my phone screen, my head full of my mother's failing face in the ICU, my lips trembling so hard I could barely stand.

Call the police, and my mother would never last that long. Sign the contract, and my whole life was over.

Both roads were dead ends.

I flung the labor contract away, stumbled to the computer, frantically pulled up the resignation form and slapped it onto the desk.

“Then I quit! I'm quitting right now! The fifty thousand severance, I'll only take half.”

“Just transfer the money right now to save my mom. She can't afford to lose another second!”

My voice was hoarse, close to sobbing.

“You can quit, of course.” Mr. Fox let out a scoffing laugh and pointed at my work computer again.

“But per your non-compete agreement, before you leave you have to manually delete every client file and project archive on that machine. Eighty gigabytes total, sixty pages of categories. Every last one gone, nothing left behind! To keep you from leaking trade secrets.”

I looked at the wall of folders packed across the screen.

Just clicking through them once would take two hours, never mind wiping them clean.

But the hospital had left my mother only ten minutes.

“I'll come back tomorrow and delete all of it! Just send the severance to the hospital first, please? My mom really can't wait!”

I screamed it, breaking apart, my voice all desperation.

“No way! Who's going to guarantee you don't sell off our secrets tonight?”

Mr. Fox just folded his arms and watched me, deliberately raising his wrist to check his watch. “Eight minutes left. Take your time deleting. Wouldn't want to hold you up from saving anyone.”

Gail sneered from the side.

“Joyce, you've built up quite a lot of projects for the company these ten years. Hard work deleting all that. Better hurry.”

Looking at the gloating on both their faces, my vision went black, and all the despair I'd been holding in tore straight past reason.

I snatched up the computer and slammed it down against the floor.

A deafening crash, the case burst open, and shards flew out and struck Gail's face.

She touched the cut bleeding open on her cheek and shrieked in terror.

Mr. Fox backed up step after step, staring at me in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind? Joyce.”

I said nothing, bent down, picked up the broken graphics card and snapped it in two, then lifted my eyes and stared him down, my voice gone numb.

“Mr. Fox, all the electronic data is destroyed. There's no leak risk anymore.”

“Now, can you transfer my severance?”

My phone rang out sharply. The whole lobby went dead silent in an instant, every eye on me.

I stiffly pressed answer. The doctor's exhausted voice came through, carrying across the entire lobby.

“Miss Harding, I'm sorry. Two minutes ago your mother's heart stopped. We did everything we could, but it was too late. Right before she went, she kept saying your name over and over, saying you'd surely come to save her...”