Chapter 3

Walter was trembling with pure rage.

"You ungrateful dog! You still dare to extort money from me?!"

I locked eyes with him.

"Mr. Vance, my overtime logs, unpaid commissions, and every single record of the company's off-the-books tax evasion are safely backed up."

"If that ten grand isn't in my account within ten minutes, my next stops will be the Department of Labor and the IRS."

"By then, your losses will be a hell of a lot more than ten thousand."

Silence swallowed the room again.

Everyone looked at me as if I were a terrifying stranger.

The quiet, hardworking, easy-going Ethan was completely gone.

Walter glared at me, his jaw clenching so hard his teeth squeaked.

He knew I held the company's dirty laundry.

Through gritted teeth, he spat out words to Brenda:

"Brenda! Process his exit! Wire his money! Get him out of my sight!"

"Let's see if this arrogant prick can even find a job to keep from begging on the street!"

Terrified, Brenda dashed back to her desk and hammered away at her keyboard.

Ten minutes later.

A deposit notification pinged on my phone. Ten thousand two hundred dollars, cleared.

Right behind it was a formal termination agreement, stamped and signed.

In plain black and white: The employee and company have resolved all disputes; the employee bears zero ongoing liability for corporate actions.

I tucked the paper into my jacket.

Grabbing a cardboard box, I began packing up my personal belongings.

Chloe stood nearby, watching me pack. A smug, malicious smirk spread across her lips.

She stepped closer, leaning in so only the two of us could hear.

"Thanks for clearing the seat for me, Ethan."

"I'm taking that eight-thousand-dollar commission to buy myself a brand-new Chanel bag. You can stay home and beg on LinkedIn."

"Arrogant broke jerk. You deserve to stay a loser your entire life."

There it was. Her true colors.

In my previous life, she played the innocent lamb while climbing over my corpse.

In this life, the mask slipped right off.

I tossed my last notebook into the box.

"Chloe, enjoy your little shopping spree while you still can."

"I really hope that designer bag can help pay off thirty million dollars in international damages."

Chloe rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Psycho! You're just burning with jealousy!"

"Mr. Vance already used his master key to push the contract through!"

"The thirty percent deposit hits our account today. Tonight, Walter is treating the entire team to a fancy steakhouse dinner, while you get to rot on instant ramen!"

Marcus sneered from across the floor.

"Well, that's life! Cowards can stick to delivering UberEats!"

"Chloe, don't waste your breath on a washed-up loser. Let's celebrate your monster deal tonight!"

The office erupted into cheers, high-fives, and ass-kissing.

Everyone was celebrating.

Everyone believed I was the ultimate loser who threw away his career.

Holding my cardboard box, I glanced up at the security camera in the ceiling corner.

Every single word, every threat, and every smirk had been captured in crystal-clear audio and video.

Before leaving, I had already uploaded all backed-up evidence to an encrypted cloud server.

I walked out of the corporate building with a clean slate.

The afternoon sun felt warm on my face.

I took a deep, refreshing breath, feeling an immense weight lifted off my shoulders.

That crushing thirty-million-dollar nightmare from my past life was officially none of my damn business.