I worked tirelessly to secure a major project with the design institute, but my husband fabricated lies out of nowhere, claiming I was dragging the company down. He handed the credit for my work to his first love.

Instead of getting angry, I laughed and gave my position as the company's Design Director to his precious first love too.

"Working on projects all the time is exhausting. Why don't I just make you the company's Design Director instead?"

Every single colleague thought I'd lost my mind, but nobody knew the project could only succeed because of my unique design style and my connections.

Without me, the project would not just fail. The entire company would collapse.

I had just woken up from a brutal hangover after drinking with clients the night before. The moment I walked into the company office, I witnessed a scene that made my blood run cold.

"Heather, our company's success today is all thanks to you! You've worked so hard. Let's drink to that!"

I watched Colton Tiller raise his glass. Amid the cheering and egging on from the crowd, his face flushed red as he drank a toast while linking arms with Heather Sparks.

After finishing the toast, Heather gave Colton an affectionate hug and said, "Colt, as long as I can help you, I'm not afraid of hard work."

A colleague immediately jumped in to suck up to Colton. "Heather, I've never seen Mr. Tiller drink like that with anyone. He must really value you!"

"Heather's the real hero of the company this time. I propose we all raise a glass to her!"

Seeing the cheerful atmosphere in the office, my chest felt crushed under the weight of a boulder.

Today was Saturday. Colton and I were supposed to go out to dinner to celebrate the company's successful year. However, when I woke up from my hangover, he was gone.

If one of my subordinates had not told me about today's company gathering, Colton would have kept me completely in the dark.

At first, I thought he simply did not tell me because I was still sleeping off the alcohol, but now, seeing him drink that toast with his arm linked with his first love Heather, I finally understood.

He did it on purpose. He deliberately kept it from me.

The moment Heather turned her head, she spotted me and put on a look of fake surprise.

"Liana, why are you only getting here now? We thought you'd taken the day off, so we started the gathering without you. Sorry about that."

The words sounded apologetic, but the mockery in her eyes was unmistakable. She even deliberately pressed her body closer to Colton as she sneered at me.

Hearing her words, Colton offered no explanation. Instead, he said with clear irritation, "Liana, you reek of alcohol. You know I hate that smell. And you obviously knew about today's gathering, so why are you showing up this late?”

"Since you're here now, you might as well hand over that design institute project to Heather. At least your drinking won't ruin things then."

Hand over the design institute project to Heather? This was a project I had worked my ass off on for half a year and was about to close!

The project was incredibly complex. Plenty of well-funded companies from out of town were fighting for a piece of it.

Our Apex Design Group was nothing compared to those giants. I spent half a year building relationships across every department. I drank until midnight regularly, to the point where I developed bleeding ulcers.

Now, just when the deal was finally about to close, Colton wanted me to hand over half a year’s worth of my blood, sweat, and tears to Heather.

It was truly laughable.

Back when Colton said he wanted to start an architectural design company, I did not hesitate to give up my permanent government position at the National Design Institute. I brought every penny of my savings to help him build the business from scratch.

With his background in finance, he could not handle the actual design work at all, let alone help the company thrive. As such, over the years, almost all the company's business fell on my shoulders.

I handled both the sales work and the design work. By pushing myself to the absolute limit, I managed to bring the company into the top three in the city's industry.

Heather only had to drink with Colton a few times to effortlessly steal my credit. Now, it seemed clear that Colton had been planning to get rid of me for a while.

Years of marriage meant nothing compared to his first love. How ironic. Maybe it was time to leave.

At that thought, a bitterness welled up in my chest, but my face remained expressionless as I said, "Fine."

A flash of mockery crossed Heather's eyes, but she still put on a show. "Liana, I'm just a newbie. This project involves billions of dollars. How could I possibly be qualified to handle it?”

"I only offered because Colton mentioned you've been drinking with clients every day and don't have time. I just wanted to help lighten your load."

Colton smiled and patted Heather's arm. "Heather, you're an elite from Yalen University. If you can't handle it, nobody in this company can."

I laughed out loud.

The Yalen program Colton kept bragging about was actually a community college that shared a campus with the university. It just had Yalen's name attached to it.

Only Colton would treat her like top talent and pay her a premium salary to work here.

When Colton heard me laugh, his expression darkened. "Liana, what's so funny? Without me, you'd never have become Design Director with nothing but your ability to drink with clients!”

"The company's on solid ground now. If Heather hadn't spoken up for you, I would've fired you ages ago!"

I laughed coldly.

Colton seemed to have forgotten that when the company first started, I handled every single piece of business. I was the one who taught him everything I knew. To win contracts for the company, I drank with clients more times than I could count.

Now that the company was doing well, he saw me as dead weight. He even looked at me with disgust.

As Colton's words grew increasingly harsh, I took a deep breath and walked straight up to Heather.

The colleagues around us backed away, apparently worried they'd get caught in the crossfire if Heather and I started fighting, but I stayed calm.

Smiling, I pulled out a share transfer agreement from my bag. "Working on projects all the time is exhausting. Why don't I just make you the company's Design Director instead?"

In an instant, everyone in the company stared at me in disbelief. They probably thought I had lost my mind and was just saying things out of anger.

After all, my colleagues knew how much blood and sweat I had poured into this company to get to where I was today.

"Liana, don't be impulsive! If you leave the company, all those years of hard work will be for nothing!"

Colton, however, thought I was threatening him with my resignation. He said angrily, "Liana, what the hell are you doing? I'm the boss of this company. Can't I even criticize you?"

I laughed coldly again. Was this not exactly what Colton wanted to see? I was handing his first love everything I had.

My relationship with him, my position, my status, and even everything in his life that had once been mine. Shouldn’t he be happy?

Beside us, Heather clutched the share transfer agreement tightly. Her eyes were filled with desire, but she still put on an act. "Liana, are you upset because of what Colton said? Please don't misunderstand. I really just wanted to help.”

"You're the company's Design Director and a founding member. Everyone respects you. How could a newbie like me possibly accept becoming a shareholder?"

She made a show of handing the agreement back to me, but her movements were slow. Clearly, she was reluctant to let go of the windfall that had just fallen into her lap.

Seeing this, I smiled slightly and gave her a gentle push. "Why would I be upset? I couldn't be happier.”

"With such a talented graduate like you leading our company, we're bound to reach new heights. You're the perfect fit."

Colton looked at me with suspicion for several moments before snorting coldly. "Heather, if she's giving it to you, take it. With your abilities, you'd become a shareholder sooner or later anyway.”

"Since all our colleagues are here today, we might as well let everyone know the company has a new Design Director."

Finally, Heather stopped pretending. Her eyes lit up with joy as she clutched the share transfer agreement tightly.

I smiled at the sight.

Colton spent all his time fooling around with Heather. He had no idea the competition for this project was far more intense than they could imagine.

If my old mentor had not personally vouched for me after seeing my design plans, I never would have secured it.

Right now, those plans were still in my possession. I was the only one who knew them.

What was more, Heather seemed unaware that being Design Director was not so easy. She would have to take responsibility for everything in the company.

Standing off to the side, Colton watched me stand there coldly after giving both the project and the executive position to Heather. He seemed to feel he had gone a bit too far. "Fine. Since you're being so sensible, I'll let you come to today's celebration dinner.”

"Make sure you raise a glass to Heather later."

Heather spoke up with feigned difficulty. "I thought Liana had taken the day off, so I didn't reserve a seat for her. I'll give Liana my seat."

Colton immediately said with concern, "You're the star of today's event. How can you not have a seat?”

"Liana can just have a couple drinks standing up. She's used to it anyway."

Hearing Colton's words, I laughed and refused. "No need."

A flash of mockery crossed Heather's eyes, but she put on another act. "Liana, you're not still mad at Colton, are you? If you're really that upset, I'll apologize to you."

As she spoke, she moved closer with a pitiful expression on her face. Watching her over-the-top performance, I felt disgusted and gave her a light push to stop her.

To my surprise, Heather acted as if she had been hit with tremendous force. She stumbled back several steps and fell to the ground.

The next moment, Heather threw herself at Colton's legs, clinging to him pathetically.

"Colton, please don't be angry. As long as Liana feels better, she can kick me a few more times. I don't mind!"

Only then did Colton react. Furious, he pointed his finger at me. "Liana, you actually dared to hit someone! You've crossed the line! If Heather is seriously hurt, you won't be able to make up for it even if you gave your life!"

I said nothing and just gave Heather a cold look.

Panic flashed in Heather's eyes. She quickly clutched her chest and collapsed on the ground. "Colton, my heart hurts so much. I feel awful."

Colton immediately placed his hand over her heart, his eyes full of concern, while hurling abuse at me.

"You're just jealous that Heather is more capable than you, so you want to hurt her! Our company doesn't need someone incompetent and petty like you. Get out of here right now!"

Incompetent? Petty?

Fine. I wanted nothing more than to see if Heather could handle this project without me.

I turned and left.

The directors from the design institute had actually invited me to dinner today. I had planned to decline, but now there was no need to.

The project leaders had helped tremendously. No matter what, I should still show my gratitude.

I decided to go to the mall to buy two bottles of expensive whiskey, but on my way out, I ran into Colton and Heather's group.

"Liana, what are you doing here?" Colton blocked my path.