“You’re the new office hottie, huh?”
The voice was slick, coated in an unearned, predatory confidence that instantly made Emily’s posture stiffen. Ryan Patel, the prominent Head of Marketing, sauntered up to her desk, his hands slid deep into his trousers pockets as his gaze openly appreciated her form. Before Emily could even formulate a professional dismissal, Ryan stepped closer, extending a hand to clamp down firmly on her upper arm.
The repulsion was instantaneous, a sharp spike of adrenaline that bypassed any corporate hesitation. Emily recoiled, her right hand swinging upward in a swift, sharp motion that slapped his fingers away with a resounding crack that echoed across the immediate cubicles.
Ryan froze, his eyes widening in absolute, wounded shock as a dark flush crept up his collar. “You dare hit me?!”
“You harassed me,” Emily stated, her jaw locking as she stood up to face him, her voice entirely steady despite the hammering in her chest. “A slap was mercy.”
Ryan scoffed, deliberately rubbing his hand as if nursing a profound injury, his expression twisting into a malicious sneer. “Weren’t you just chasing Mr. Thompson in the boardroom? What’s wrong with a little touch from me? Stop playing the innocent saint.”
“Mr. Thompson! Mark my words!”
Sophia Reed’s shrill voice cut through the bullpen like a siren, signaling her sudden, calculated arrival. Almost on cue, the heavy glass door of the executive suite swung open, and Michael Thompson emerged, his dark brows furrowed into a deep line of irritation at the disruption.
“Don’t you dare move,” Emily warned Ryan, her gaze locked onto the marketing manager, refusing to let him slink away into the background.
“Let go of me!” Ryan struggled, trying to pull away from the perimeter of her desk as the CEO approached.
“What happened here?” Michael demanded, his commanding voice flattening the remaining ambient noise of the office as his sharp eyes swept over the scene.
“He harassed me!” Emily declared, her voice trembling slightly with a volatile mix of anger and lingering indignation. “He touched me without my consent!”
Ryan immediately turned toward the CEO, his entire demeanor shifting into a masterclass of feigned distress and corporate victimhood. “Mr. Thompson, I swear I didn’t! She’s… she’s completely unhinged. She’s using me to climb the corporate ladder, trying to come on to me right here at her desk!” He put on a terrifyingly convincing performance, adjusting his cuffs with trembling fingers. “Who let this scheming woman into our company? Fire her immediately!”
Emily looked directly past the manager, her eyes meeting Michael’s stony glare. “Mr. Thompson,” she interjected, her voice cutting through Ryan’s theatrics with absolute certainty. “You made the executive decision to hire me.”
Michael paused, a flicker of something entirely unreadable passing through his sharp, intelligent eyes as he weighed her words.
Ryan, completely misinterpreting the silence as a victory, began to gloat, a small smirk forming at the corner of his lips. “What the—”
“Mr. Thompson, I am so sorry!” Alex Johnson rushed forward into the clearing, looking completely mortified as he clutched a tablet to his chest. “I spoke out of turn earlier, sir. I apologize, but you must believe me! She was the one hitting on me in the lobby!”
The sheer absurdity of the mounting lies made Emily’s head spin. She braced herself for the inevitable termination, waiting for the axe to fall.
Michael’s voice was cold, decisive, and entirely devoid of emotion as he looked at the man standing before him. “Get out. You hear me? Get out.”
“It was clearly him harassing me! Why fire me instead?!” Emily exclaimed, her frustration finally boiling over as she stepped forward, entirely misunderstanding his target.
Michael sighed deeply, raising a hand to rub his temples as if trying to stave off a massive headache. “I meant him, Miss Carter. Not you.”
Ryan’s face instantly drained of all color, his mouth falling open. “Idiot!” he blurted out, referencing his own miscalculation before scrambling to salvage his career. “Mr. Thompson, I know I messed up! I have an eighty-year-old mother to support and a child on the way! If you fire me, they’ll literally starve! Mr. Thompson, I beg you, please give me another chance!”
Michael didn’t offer a single word of debate. He simply held up his right hand, extending three fingers into the air. “Three.”
“Mr. Thompson, please!” Ryan pleaded, his voice rising into a desperate whine.
Michael dropped a finger. “Two.”
Realizing the absolute finality of the countdown, Ryan stopped boggling. He began to babble frantic, hollow words of gratitude as Michael’s icy stare cut him off completely. “Thank you, Mr. Thompson!” he scurried out of the executive suite, thoroughly defeated, his head hanging low as he disappeared toward the elevators.
Michael watched him go, his expression remaining an impenetrable mask before his eyes flickered back to Emily. The nagging sense of recognition returned, sharper this time. “Have I seen her somewhere before?” he murmured under his breath, then turned squarely to his assistant. “Alex Johnson.”
“Yes, Mr. Thompson?”
“Bring me my marriage certificate from the vault. And by the way, last year, what was the exact name of the person your agency found for me to marry?”
Alex, ever efficient and unbothered by the sudden personal query, replied instantly. “Olivia Bennett, sir. Are you entirely sure you want to look at it now?”
Michael’s brow furrowed deeper. “I’m sure. Must I have remembered the details wrong?” He shook his head to clear the thought and looked back down at Emily. “Emily Carter, I’ll have Alex get you some preliminary materials to review. Okay?”
“Okay,” Emily replied, still slightly stunned by the rapid, chaotic turn of events.
Later that afternoon, Alex dropped a heavy, intimidating stack of legal and corporate documents onto her desk. “Take these documents back to your workstation and study them thoroughly,” he instructed before walking away. Emily simply sighed, pulling the first binder toward her, determined to prove her worth.
Days bled into a relentless routine of data entry and document sorting. One afternoon, while passing the threshold of the main executive office, Emily overheard a tense, hushed exchange between the CEO and his assistant.
“Mr. Johnson, I’m sorry,” Michael was saying, his voice laced with absolute frustration. “Any luck finding it?”
“Not yet, sir,” Alex admitted, his hands moving frantically through the drawers of a sleek credenza. “I remember distinctively leaving it right here, in this exact spot. But it just… vanished into thin air.”
Emily stepped into the doorway, her natural instinct to help overriding her hesitation. “Assistant Alex, what exactly are you looking for?”
“My marriage certificate,” Alex mumbled, too stressed to maintain his usual wall of corporate secrecy.
“Let me help you search!” Emily offered, stepping into the room.
“No need,” Michael interjected curtly, his tone snapping back into a sharp, authoritative ring that stopped her in her tracks. “Go get the certified product ingredient list from the research and development lab for my signature.”
“Ingredient list?” Emily asked, a bit confused by the sudden shift.
“Yes. Okay, go.”
Meanwhile, tucked away in a quiet, shadowy corner of the marketing floor, Ryan Patel—who had somehow managed to secure a temporary demotion rather than an immediate legal escort from the building—approached Sophia Reed. “Mr. Thompson, I sincerely regret my actions. Please don’t fire me,” he muttered, mimicking his own past pleas, before looking at her with a desperate intensity.
Sophia smirked, her eyes glinting with a dangerous, shared malice. “I can keep you employed here, Mr. Patel, and…” she leaned in close, her voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper, “you must help me this time. I absolutely cannot lose my position at Thompson Enterprises.”
“I’ll assist you with whatever you need,” Ryan said eagerly, smelling a chance at revenge. “If you handle something for me in return. What is it?”
“Make Emily Carter leave Thompson Enterprises forever,” Sophia stated, her jaw tightening as her eyes narrowed into cold slits. “Emily Carter… she’s the exact reason I got reprimanded by Mr. Thompson.”
“Don’t worry about a thing,” Ryan promised, a nasty, venomous smile spreading across his face. “I’ll personally make sure she’s gone by the end of the week.”
“Proceed then,” Sophia urged, a cold satisfaction settling over her as she watched him walk away. “Michael Thompson, I’ll remove every single woman who dares to covet you. You’re mine alone.”
Later that afternoon, Emily returned from the laboratory, holding the official formula documents securely in a manila folder. Just as she was about to enter Michael’s private office, Sophia stepped out from a side corridor, completely blocking her path.
“Who exactly let you in here?” Sophia demanded, her posture rigid.
“Mr. Thompson requested these,” Emily began, holding her ground. “And besides, I lost an earring near the threshold earlier. Right here,” she insisted, pointing down toward the plush carpet.
“Without my explicit permission, do not enter my office,” Michael’s stern, disembodied voice boomed from inside the room, cutting the conversation short.
“Okay, Mr. Thompson,” Emily mumbled, retreating a step.
Sophia, seeing her perfect opening, marched directly into the office, snatching the folder violently from Emily’s hands before she could set it down. “What do you think you’re doing here, Emily Carter?” Sophia shrieked, her voice echoing off the glass walls for the entire floor to hear. “Flaunting yourself for Mr. Thompson again?”
“I’m simply delivering the certified ingredient list,” Emily explained, her voice rising in defense.
Sophia flipped the folder open, her eyes widening in a magnificent show of calculated horror. “What have you done?! You dared to tamper with the proprietary formula! Adding mercury to the chemical breakdown? If this goes into production, the entire commercial batch will be ruined! You’re actively trying to destroy Thompson Enterprises!” she screamed, making a massive, dramatic spectacle.
“I didn’t do it!” Emily protested, her face turning entirely pale as the weight of the accusation hit her. “I never touched the text of this document. I literally just retrieved it from R&D.”
“How dare you lie to my face!” Sophia’s voice turned shrill as she clamped her hand onto Emily’s arm, dragging her forcefully toward the main corridor. “Adding toxins to a consumer product is highly illegal! Come with me to human resources right now!”
“I won’t go! I didn’t do it! Let me go! Let me go!” Emily struggled against the manager’s grip, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.
“What is going on out here?” Michael’s deep voice boomed as he stepped out of his office, his formidable presence instantly halting the physical struggle.
“Mr. Thompson!” Sophia cried, practically throwing Emily toward him. “Emily Carter deliberately tampered with the flagship formula, trying to completely damage our global reputation!”
“I didn’t! I swear I never touched it!” Emily pleaded, hot tears of pure frustration welling in her eyes as she looked at the CEO.
“Stop lying!” Sophia spat, her expression triumphant. “Where is the original formula document? Did you already sell it to our direct competitors?”
Michael’s gaze was piercing, analyzing every micro-expression on Emily’s face. “Emily Carter, do you have any logical explanation?”
“I swear I didn’t touch the pages! Taylor Green told me to retrieve this specific document from the desk! I didn’t even look at the contents! How could I possibly know what was inside?”
“Enough with the innocent act! Let’s go straight to HR!” Sophia interrupted, pulling aggressively at Emily’s jacket.
“I told you I didn’t do it! I’m not going anywhere with you! Let me go!”
“Enough,” Michael said, a single, quietly authoritative word that instantly silenced both women. He looked directly into Emily’s eyes. “Did you go anywhere else on your way back from the lab?”
Emily took a shuddering breath, trying to force her racing mind to catalog her exact steps. “The pantry. I stopped by the pantry for a brief minute to get a glass of water. The folder was on the counter. It must have been swapped there!”
“Check the security footage from the pantry corridor immediately,” Michael ordered, turning to his assistant.
Sophia scoffed loudly, a mocking smile on her lips. “A thief crying, ‘stop thief’! Everyone in this department knows the pantry surveillance cameras have been broken for over a month.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed to cold slits.
“Mr. Thompson, the surveillance cameras were repaired long ago,” Alex Johnson said, stepping forward seamlessly as he held up a corporate tablet displaying a high-definition video playback.
On the clear screen, Ryan Patel was visibly captured slipping into the empty pantry, sliding a folder out of Emily’s unattended bag, and swapping it with an identical manila sleeve.
“It’s him?!” Michael exclaimed, recognizing the demoted manager instantly, his voice dropping into a dangerous register. “Wasn’t he stripped of his clearance? Why is he still on this floor?” He turned sharply to Alex. “Bring Ryan Patel here this instant.”
“Yes, sir!” Alex hurried off into the bullpen.
Moments later, Ryan was dragged back into the executive suite by two burly building security guards, his posture completely shattered. “Let go of me! Release me right now! On what grounds are you detaining me?!”
“Still making pathetic excuses?” Michael’s voice was pure ice as he stepped toward him. “The surveillance footage is right here, plain as day. Why did you swap the files to frame her?”
Ryan’s face completely drained of color, his eyes darting wildly. “Yes… It’s…”
Sophia, sensing the impending disaster, tried to violently intervene with a sharp look. “How dare you lie in front of Mr. Thompson? You’d better think very carefully before you speak, Ryan!”
“I… I just couldn’t accept the humiliation,” Ryan stammered, completely cracking under Michael’s intense gaze. “I wanted Emily Carter to get fired too! Mr. Thompson, I swear I never meant to actually harm the Thompson Corporation’s bottom line!”
“Save that pathetic story for the police,” Michael said, his voice entirely flat as he signaled the guards. “Take him away immediately.”
“Let go! I can walk myself!” Ryan protested bitterly as he was marched out toward the service elevators.
Michael watched the doors close, then slowly turned his gaze back to Emily. The entire room held its collective breath. To everyone’s absolute shock, his expression remained entirely unreadable and hard.
“Emily Carter, you failed your basic administrative duties. You’re fired.”
“Why?!” Emily cried out, the sheer, crushing injustice of his words hitting her like a physical blow. “Wasn’t this just investigated and proven? It wasn’t me!”
At that exact moment, Alex Johnson rushed back into the suite, a frantic, worried expression tight across his face. “Mr. Thompson, did you find it? It’s entirely my negligence, sir. I lost your primary marriage certificate. I’m not entirely sure if Mrs. Thompson still has her copy.”
Michael’s eyes hardened into flints of pure granite. “I checked the legal statutes, Alex. One certificate is more than enough for a divorce.” He shifted his cold gaze back to Emily. “Get out.”
Emily’s head spun in a dizzying galaxy of confusion. Marriage certificate? He’s married?
“Let’s go,” Sophia said triumphantly, a cruel, satisfied smile returning to her lips as she grabbed Emily’s arm to escort her from the floor.
“Let go of me! Stop dragging me!” Emily shouted, tearing her arm away with fierce dignity and marching toward the glass exit on her own terms, her career shattered but her spirit entirely unbroken.