After I snapped at Eileen without holding back that day, she held a grudge.

Not only did she dump the most draining grunt work and the nightmare clients on my desk, but she also intentionally withheld my top-performer bonus from last month and then acted like it was perfectly justified.

"Since I wasn't managing this team last month, those performance metrics don't apply anymore. The bonus is off the table."

It was obvious that she was making things tough for me. But in the workplace, the golden rule was to mind our own business. My colleagues were tearing her to shreds in our private group chat, but they'd still bow and scrape to her face, calling her "Ms. Shaffer" fawningly.

She seemed to enjoy that flattery.

Emboldened, she started turning her personal errands into tasks for the team and rushed to get them done as soon as possible.

"My son has a school art contest. Everyone, vote for Number 6. Get your friends and family to do it, too.

"My brother has a working quota to meet at his bank. Everyone needs to sign up for a credit card through him.

"My cousin's farm has recently had fresh produce. Who's buying?"

If anyone were to scroll through our work group chat, there was barely any actual work, just a never-ending list of demands and instructions from Eileen.

Then came the Thanksgiving holidays.

I was blissfully asleep at home when Eileen started calling everyone individually at 2:00 am. She wanted us to get up and give a video of her son a like.

Of the 32 people on our team, I was the only one who didn't reply with a thumbs-up emoji to confirm I'd done so. She started spamming my phone, and the ringing sounded like a death knell in the middle of the night.

I jolted awake. After glancing at the screen, I muttered a "psycho" under my breath and switched to silent mode.

For seven days, I didn't even bother to open the work group chat, so I missed all her passive-aggressive swipes at me.

"Young people these days have such bad attitudes. They can't even handle the simplest tasks."

When I showed up at the office after the holidays, acting as if nothing had happened, she lost it.

At the morning meeting, she turned it into a full-blown interrogation and called me out by name, questioning, "Why didn't you answer my calls during the Thanksgiving holidays? I had work for you."

I stared at her, looking genuinely confused. "You said it yourself that it was the holidays. That's my time off, so whether I answer the calls or not is my choice."

Eileen's face soured. "Keeping your phone on 24/7 is basic professional common sense. Don't you even know that?"

In the meeting room, my colleagues chimed in. They were the same people who had called Eileen a lunatic every other day in our private group chat, but now, they couldn't even wait to give me a scolding on her behalf.

"Exactly. I never silence my phone at night, just in case something comes up.

"I thought everyone knew that. Is Blaire Norton the only one who doesn't?

"Well, she just graduated. She's still stuck in that student mindset."

I rolled my eyes so hard I nearly saw the back of my skull.

Eileen's expression was gloomy as she tapped her folder on the table and said, "Look, Blaire. I know you're still adjusting to the workplace, and those are trivial issues.

"But have you ever considered what happens if a client calls at 2:00 am and you don't pick up? That could cost us a major partnership.

"To avoid that, you'll hand over all your client details to me after this meeting."

That was when I finally understood why Eileen was gunning for me.

I had cracked the most difficult clients she'd assigned me, and the contracts were scheduled to be signed next week.

There was no way she could just stand by and watch my performance skyrocket when she hated me this much.

After she made that demand, silence fell over the meeting room.

My colleagues exchanged glances. They all knew that she was targeting me, but no one dared say a single word, terrified of becoming her next target.

I couldn't help but let out a sharp, cold laugh. "And what if I refuse to hand them over?"

Her voice hardened. "In that case, you're refusing a work assignment. That's a violation of company policy."

She looked totally confident, as if certain that I would cave and comply when faced with such serious consequences.

But it was too bad that she was wrong. Even as a corporate slave, I was stubborn.

With a screech, I shoved my chair back, its legs scraping across the floor. The sound of the chair base against the floor tiles was harsh and unpleasant, which made several colleagues frown.

Eileen looked furious. "How dare you—"

I stood and didn't hesitate to cut her off. "In that case, fire me. I don't want this job anymore anyway."

With that, I walked straight out of the meeting room, leaving her exploding with rage behind me. Her voice was cold as she yelled, "Blaire!"

As the heavy door shut, my ears finally had a moment of peace.

I knew Eileen was just trying to intimidate me, and that most of my colleagues were on her side.

Leading the pack was Rachel Baker, the first person who'd jumped in to lecture me during that morning meeting. I remembered her because she was Eileen's number-one lackey.

Just to suck up to Eileen, she'd bought half the fresh produce from Eileen's cousin's farm and led the charge in taking digs at me.

Earlier that day, I'd received a call from a client. They told me that the partnership we'd negotiated was temporarily off, and no matter how hard I tried to save it, it was to no avail.

The second I hung up, Rachel started throwing her snide remarks.

"Some people just can't drop that spoiled-princess attitude and expect the whole team to coddle them.

"Now, look. The client's gone, and she's probably losing her job next."

I sharply looked up and stared her down. "How do you know my client backed out?"

Rachel panicked and guiltily darted her eyes away. "Didn't you just say it yourself? I heard you."

When I was talking to the client earlier, I'd kept my voice down the entire time. She was far away, so there was no way she could have heard me.

Suddenly, I remembered the smug, mocking look Eileen had shot me when I walked in this morning and immediately realized what was happening.

Without saying a single word, I lunged at Rachel and knocked her onto the floor. Then, I grabbed her phone and unlocked it using facial recognition.

While she screamed and cursed at me for invading her privacy, I pulled up her chat logs with Eileen and saw the screenshot Eileen had sent her. It had the profile picture of the client I'd spent weeks winning over.

Eileen had promised the client a 2% discount if they moved the deal to her, and since no one would say no to free money, the client agreed.

I gritted my teeth in hatred.

Meanwhile, Rachel was still cursing, saying that because I'd raised my hand against her, she and Eileen were going to make sure I paid for it.

She even raised her hand, ready to slap me, but I slapped her back and laughed coldly as she fell back onto the floor.

"Don't worry. I'm going to deal with both of you first."

I printed out copies of the screenshot along with Eileen's previous 16 commandments and hit the elevator call button. When I arrived at the top floor, I walked straight into the meeting room.

The CEO's assistant froze as I reached out to open the door. "Blaire, there's a meeting going on—"

But I walked in anyway.

The room of executives fell silent at my sudden intrusion. They frowned, and Eileen's expression darkened as she immediately tried to lecture me.

"We're in a meeting, Blaire, so how dare you just burst in here. Do you have zero common sense?"

Chuckling, I took out the printed screenshots and threw them in her face. The white papers fluttered all over the entire meeting room.

Eileen's eyes went wide when she saw the screenshots.

As she shot to her feet, I folded my arms and sarcastically asked, "So, Ms. Shaffer, is intentionally undercutting your team to steal their clients part of your common sense?"

I'd printed enough copies to make sure that every executive, not just Eileen, could see the screenshots.

The leaders from other teams looked at the screenshots and clicked their tongues. "Ms. Shaffer, are you even stealing clients from your employee now?"

Eileen was seething.

She first shot a venomous glare at the executive who'd just spoken up, then turned around and took a deep breath.

"This concerns our team, and I'll handle it after the meeting. Blaire, you may leave."

I laughed and pulled out a chair, taking a seat right there and then.

"No way. What if you claim I fabricated everything after I leave?

"Since all the executives are here for a meeting today, why don't you explain yourself and clear your name?"

The executive traded glances before turning their collective gaze toward the CEO, Lawrence Norton. He remained silent and watched the two of us with a chillingly neutral expression, so none of the others dared speak.

When Eileen saw that he wasn't stepping in, she started to panic and frantically explained, "Don't believe these screenshots, Mr. Norton. They're photoshopped, and I'd never done something like this."

Lawrence ignored her. He finished scanning the printouts and looked up. "This is a chat log between you and the client, isn't it? Since you claim it's fake, pull up your actual messages with them right now and prove it."

Eileen froze. Her eyes instinctively darted to the side.

That was when the man sitting next to Lawrence spoke up. "Mr. Norton, even if this is true, we can't really blame Eileen.

"Business is tough these days. If she lowered the price, she was just trying to secure the client and doing what's best for the company."

The man who'd spoken was Eileen's husband, Oscar Stuart. I'd heard about him from my colleagues the moment she joined our team. He was the head of procurement, well-connected and carried a lot of weight in the company.

When Lawrence heard him, he looked over. "If it takes a price cut to close the deal, how did this junior employee manage to land the deal?"

Oscar faltered for a second before smiling. "Well, you know how it is. These young women get impatient, and sometimes, they use unconventional methods to hit their targets."

Eileen's eyes immediately lit up. She nodded vigorously and chimed in, "Exactly! I saw it with my own eyes. Blaire was going on private dates with that client. She even skipped work several times just to meet him at his office."

I was so mad at the accusation that I actually laughed and blurted, "That's bullshit!"

Enraged, I marched forward to grab her collar. "I visited his office to talk business, and the two times I saw him outside of that, there were other people around.

"Are you having some kind of psychotic break and hallucinating about seeing me on a date with him? Please, get yourself to the hospital."

Eileen's face turned bright red. She shoved my hand away and snapped, "I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. It's a waste of time."

She turned back to Lawrence and said, "Mr. Norton, I've been with this company for years. I'd never lie to you."

He said nothing, and his expression was unreadable.

"If what Ms. Shaffer says is true, she has to be fired."

"We don't tolerate these kinds of unconventional methods here in the company."

"It would be a disaster for our reputation if word got out."

One by one, the executives started siding with Eileen. Her smugness returned in full force as she looked down at me with pure, condescending mockery, absolutely certain that I'd be the one packing my bags that day.

I just smirked.

At any other company, I'd have been terrified of being slandered by an entire board. But here…

I listened to the chatter and tapped the table impatiently. "Lawrence Norton, your daughter's being dragged through the mud here. How much longer are you going to stay silent?"

When the executives in the meeting room heard that, they all fell dead silent.

Eileen was flabbergasted. "What did you just say? Who's Mr. Norton's daughter?"