“Brandon, how come I never realized you were this petty before?” Jessica crossed her arms and glared at me. “I already told you that lately I have had Elliot clean up the company atmosphere and rebuild the corporate culture. I asked you to support me. However, instead of helping, you are throwing a tantrum and quitting.”

She pulled a key out of Elliot’s pocket and tossed it against my chest.

“Fine. Go enjoy the air conditioning if you want it that badly. Happy now? However, since you violated company policy, your entire quarterly bonus is gone.”

I did not move, and Jessica let out an icy laugh.

“Well? I am letting you use it now, so why are you not bringing the generator inside? Do not tell me you regret this after hearing your bonus got cut.”

I picked up the key and threw it straight into the trash can. “I already told you. I am resigning.”

The moment I turned to leave, several coworkers I had personally brought onto the team stood up as well.

“If Brandon quits, we quit.”

“Yeah. We are done with this. What kind of corporate culture is this supposed to be? All I have seen is people getting tortured.”

“I am out too.”

Panic flashed across Jessica’s face for a split second when she saw so many people resign at once. She then turned her anger on me.

“Brandon, do you even have a conscience?” she snapped.

“The company paid you, trained you, and gave you everything you have today. Instead of being grateful, you are encouraging everyone else to quit with you.”

I stared at the woman in front of me, arguing nonsense with complete confidence, and I suddenly felt sick.

For a moment, I could barely remember the version of her who once cried in front of me and begged for help.

I laughed bitterly.

“When you first started this company, you were not prepared. You did not even have enough funding. I emptied my savings to help you survive those early days so you would not go bankrupt.

“When you hit technical problems, you cried and begged me to help. I quit my job at a major company just to come work for you.

“So tell me, between the two of us, who exactly helped who? And who should really be grateful?”

Jessica fell silent.

A moment later, she grabbed my arm and pulled me into another room.

After she shut the door, her expression softened at once.

“Brandon, you misunderstood me.”

I raised an eyebrow.

She gave a helpless smile. “I know you have suffered these past few months. However, did you forget? I told you before that Elliot is only a stepping stone I am using to pave the way for you. Once he serves his purpose, I will get rid of him.

“I have always wanted to move you into management, but I was worried the other employees would not accept it. That is why I let Elliot reshape the company culture first. Once he finishes cleaning things up, I will use the same rules he created against him and fire him.

“Then when you step into management, everyone will compare you to Elliot and think you are amazing. Everything I have done was for your future.”

She said it so smoothly I almost believed her.

When Elliot first appeared by her side, she had told me the exact same thing.

She said she used his aggressive personality to do things she could not conveniently do herself. She said that in order to borrow his strength, she had no choice but to indulge his arrogance.

She told me it was necessary and asked me not to take it personally.

At first, I believed her.

That was why I ignored all of Elliot’s outrageous behavior and kept tolerating him again and again.

After what happened that day, after seeing her side with him so openly, even someone as slow as me could not keep lying to himself anymore.

Before I could speak, the door creaked open.

Jessica frowned at once.

“Who is there?”

She yanked the door open.

Elliot stood outside with tears running down his face.

“Jessica… were you telling the truth?

“You were only nice to me because you wanted to use me to help your boyfriend?”

Jessica looked completely torn. “Elliot, I am sorry.”

Tears streamed down Elliot’s face.

“If you do not like me, then there is no need to wait and find excuses to fire me later. I will leave on my own. Right now.”

He slammed the door and stormed off.

For once, Jessica did not chase after him. She turned back, sat down in front of me, and let out a heavy sigh.

“This just became complicated.

“Even if Elliot was only supposed to be a stepping stone for you, he cannot leave right now. Landing the Foster Group Pharmaceuticals contract was not only because of your new drug. Elliot has been following up on the deal too.

“If he suddenly quits now, will the client start getting suspicious?”

Jessica sighed dramatically for a while before she suddenly looked at me.

“Brandon, can you help me put on an act?”

I looked at her calmly while she continued pretending.

Ever since she became unusually close to Elliot, I had sensed something was wrong.

Every time Jessica acted like she was stuck in a difficult situation, it usually meant she had another condition waiting for me afterward.

She had never planned to throw Elliot into the fire.

The real person placed on the chessboard, the one forced to carry all the consequences, had always been me.

I still nodded without exposing her lies and watched her continue the performance.

Seeing me cooperate, Jessica brightened at once. “If we want to keep Elliot around, you will have to suffer a little for now.

“In a moment, we will pretend to have a huge falling out. I will fire you, and you will leave all your research data behind so the project will not be delayed. Then when you come back later, you can take over immediately.

“Once Elliot sees that I chose him over you, he will work even harder for me. After this order is finalized, I will fire him right away and bring you back as vice president in style.”

Only then did I understand why Jessica had gone through so many twists and turns.

She wanted me to lower my guard so I would hand over all my experimental data before leaving.

Elliot was useless when it came to research. He had no skills, and he loved blaming everything else around him.

He claimed we excluded him and refused to share data with him. He even said that if he had had access to our research, he would have been the first to develop the new medicine.

That was why he accomplished nothing in the lab and eventually transferred to become Jessica’s assistant.

The first time Jessica saw him, her eyes lit up. She gave him a salary far above the company average, handed out bonuses, and showered him with gifts.

Elliot was never satisfied.

He believed he was a misunderstood genius and that we were all suppressing him. That was why he constantly targeted our research department.

I never expected him to still obsess over my data. I never expected my own girlfriend to go that far just to help him get it.

All that scheming was pointless then.

The medicine had already deactivated. There was no way the company could deliver the final product on time. Once the penalties hit, the compensation alone would cost hundreds of millions. Even selling the entire company would not be enough to pay it back.

Once the company collapsed, what was the point of supporting Elliot anymore?

The sudden power outage had already damaged the lab equipment earlier. A huge amount of data had been corrupted.

Even if Elliot took over the lab then, he would not gain anything useful.

I let out an icy laugh and handed the key to Jessica. “Fine. We will do it your way. All the data is stored in the instruments and computers anyway.”

The company was doomed, and I was resigning no matter what. The important data was safely stored on my personal flash drive.

As for the damaged files they wanted so badly, they could have fun with those.

Jessica looked overjoyed. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me.

“Brandon, I knew you understood me best.”

I sneered inwardly.

I understood her very well.

Otherwise, I would not have seen through every ugly little scheme in her heart so clearly.

After I walked out, I ran into Elliot at the end of the hallway. He flashed me a smug grin.

I walked straight past him without looking his way.

Neither of them knew that after all their scheming and running around, they would gain nothing.

The new drug that could have brought them unimaginable profits had already been ruined by their own cruelty.

Right in front of everyone, Jessica handed me a voluntary resignation form.

Several employees looked stunned. They had no idea what happened between Jessica and me behind closed doors, but everyone knew I was the backbone of the research department.

Jessica stayed unmoved.

I signed the form without hesitation.

“Good,” she said coldly. “Get lost. If anyone else wants to quit, I will gladly approve it today too.”

Many veteran employees were furious at her attitude and stood up to resign as well.

Jessica looked at them mockingly. “Let me remind all of you something,” she said. “Brandon already handed all the data over to me. If you want to leave, then leave. I can hire someone else to continue the work with this data.

“If you think you can threaten the company, dream on.”

To Jessica’s surprise, the researchers did not blame me after hearing that. They looked at her with expressions full of pity and mockery.

At that moment, Elliot looked up from his phone in excitement.

“Ms. Shaw, Mr. Foster is coming to inspect the drug development results.”

Jessica brightened at once.

She glanced proudly around the room at the remaining employees. “Anyone who stays will get a bonus once the first payment from the contract comes in.”

She then turned to me with open ridicule in her eyes. “I should thank you. You saved me a huge severance payout, and you spared me the trouble of getting rid of people one by one.

“I can hire new staff after you leave. Honestly, I was never comfortable with the entire research department being full of your people.

“And did you seriously think I would invite you back as vice president?” She laughed. “I was lying.”

I exchanged looks with the coworkers resigning alongside me. All of us knew there was about to be a very interesting show.

The partner for that deal, Griffin Foster, was one of the biggest names in the industry. He had invested heavily because he believed in the new drug I developed. He had even started building media hype ahead of time.

Hospitals everywhere already knew that Foster Group Pharmaceuticals was about to release a groundbreaking new medicine.

If the product failed to launch on schedule, it was easy to imagine how furious Griffin would be.

When that happened, every resource Foster Group could have provided would instead turn into weapons aimed straight at Jessica.

I smiled faintly.

“Since you saved money on severance pay, you should use it to hire yourself a good lawyer,” I said. “Otherwise the days ahead might become rough.”

Jessica clearly did not understand what I meant. She let out an icy snort.

“Stop acting jealous,” she said. “Once we establish a deep partnership with Foster Group Pharmaceuticals, this company will go public. By then, even if you begged to come back as an intern, you would not qualify.”

Soon, Griffin arrived with several researchers from his company. Jessica hurried forward to greet them warmly.

“The drug development was completely finalized yesterday,” she said confidently. “We only need a few more side-effect tests. We will deliver on schedule at the beginning of next month.

“Mr. Foster, this way please. I will personally show you the lab.”

The next second, Jessica opened the laboratory door herself.