Chapter 1

Right before clocking out, I scrolled through our firm’s anonymous forum and spotted a trending post:

"Exposing Nora Vance from the Dispute Resolution Department: a total male-pandering snake!"

"The way she talks to Managing Partner Vance is nauseatingly sweet. I thought some high-end club madame had walked into the office!"

"She treats other women like rabid dogs. For a trashy girl who slept her way to the top, Mrs. Vance needs to come tear her apart ASAP!"

I froze. In the entire Dispute Resolution Department, I was the only one named Vance.

All because this afternoon, I rejected our female intern’s five-thousand-dollar expense report.

The print shop on her fake receipt happened to be a company I had personally demolished in court just a year ago.

I never expected she’d turn around and spread slut-shaming rumors about me on the firm’s intranet.

What she probably didn't know was that I was the benefactor who had pulled her out of a crushing payday loan trap.

And what she definitely didn't know was that Managing Partner Vance… was my actual dad!

Without a second's hesitation, my fingers flew across the keyboard to take screenshots.

"Male-pandering," "slept her way up"—I captured every vile phrase along with the view counts.

I had been wondering what case study to use for training the incoming class of summer associates. A real-life defamation lesson had just landed right on my desk, still piping hot.

After saving the screenshots, I opened the firm’s internal messaging app and typed "Chloe Lin" into the search bar.

Her profile picture showed her cradling her cheeks with both hands, flashing a sweet, innocent smile.

"Chloe, I saw the post on the anonymous board. You have two choices right now."

"One, delete the post immediately and issue a public apology under your real name."

"Two, I take this fraudulent receipt and the screenshots directly to the Bar Association."

The status flickered with "Typing..." for a long time.

A few minutes later, a message popped up:

"Ms. Vance, I honestly don't know what you're talking about... What post? I've been buried in contract revisions all day. Could there be some kind of misunderstanding?"

She attached a gif of a kitten crying big, fat cartoon tears.

I sneered. If I offer you a way out and you refuse to take it, don't blame me when I pull the rug out from under you.

I opened my email to draft a formal complaint. Suddenly, there was a knock at my office door.

It was Fiona, my associate assistant of one year.

She walked in holding two cups of coffee, wearing an "I get it" smile, and kicked the door shut behind her.

"Nora," she said, setting a cup on my desk and taking a seat across from me.

"That post on the board is getting out of hand." She lowered her voice. "Word has already spread to the rival firm down the street. Someone over there was just fishing for gossip from me."

I picked up the coffee, my eyes locked on her.

"Look, it's just five thousand dollars. She's a broke college kid fresh out in the real world. Rejecting her reimbursement to her face like that... it was really humiliating for her!"

Broke? Humiliating? I set the coffee cup back down.

Chloe came from a notorious low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. Her family was indeed struggling.

But she hadn't been on the verge of rejection during interviews because she was poor. It was because aggressive debt collectors were blowing up her phone during her callbacks.

I was the one who saw her stellar resume, felt a pang of sympathy when she broke down in tears saying she wanted to change her destiny, and softened up.

I didn't just bend the rules to give her an offer; I anonymously paid off her predatory, compounding payday loans.

And that act of kindness had become the very fuel for her brazen smear campaign against me.

Seeing my silence, Fiona assumed I was swaying.

"Take some advice from someone who's been around. Just sign off on the reimbursement slip. Then buy Chloe an iced latte, smooth things over, and have her take down the post."

I almost laughed out loud. I laid out the entire story of how Chloe had forged a receipt.

Fiona’s smile froze, but she scrambled to recover.

"Oh, come on, she's just young and naive! What does a kid know about corporate fraud?"

"If you corner her over this, what if she panics and does something rash..."

I was the one being slandered with disgusting rumors. I was the one betrayed.

And in the end, I was supposed to be responsible if she jumped off a roof?

I stood up, ready to kick her out of my office, when my phone chimed.

A push notification from the firm’s anonymous forum popped up. That trending thread had just been bumped to the top.

"Lawyer Vance just called me in for intimidation! She threatened to ruin my entire career using her connections if I don't delete my post!"