Watching his coworkers turn on Samuel one after another, Harvey straightened his back with a swagger.
"President Fox, we may be a private bank, but our deposit business alone brings in two hundred and thirty million a year. Even that can't survive someone as greedy as Samuel Butler."
"Letting a parasite like him eat away at the bank from the inside? Better to fire him and bring me on instead."
"Six thousand a month, and I'll develop new business, keep the clients happy, and do it all aboveboard. None of that sneaky, light-fingered stuff."
"Don't you dare spew that nonsense! Samuel and I aren't like that. He's—"
"Enough!"
Moira stepped forward to explain, but before she could finish, Frances Fox cut her off with a sharp word.
The woman who had stayed silent through all of it looked at me and let out a faint sigh.
"Samuel, hand off your work to someone else."
She was throwing me out.
I smiled and stood up without hesitation.
Honestly, Frances doing this didn't surprise me at all.
She'd sat there without a word while Harvey wove his lies and slander against me.
Wasn't that just her way of agreeing? Of giving her stamp of approval?
"Fine. I'll go pack up."
When I reached the door, my coworkers instinctively cleared a path, recoiling from me like I was contagious.
I didn't have much to pack.
Harvey wasn't wrong. My days here were spent drinking coffee and scrolling on my phone.
But what he didn't know was that, back when I first came to work at this bank, it was Frances who'd begged me to take the job.
Calmly, I rinsed out my coffee cup, boxed up the coffee machine into a cardboard carton, then yanked the charging cable from my desk and stuffed it into my bag.
That was everything I owned here.
Harvey didn't knock. He came swaggering straight into my office.
The look on his face was pure small-man triumph.
"Did nobody teach you to knock before walking into someone else's office?"
I was taping up the box and didn't even bother to look up.
Harvey snapped back, "You've got no right to lecture me. You got swept out the door of this bank. What've you got to be smug about?"
"This office is mine now!"
He dropped into my chair, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
"You sure skimmed plenty. This chair's worth more than the one in the president's office. Looks like real leather, handmade too."
His remark actually reminded me. That chair was one I'd paid for out of my own pocket.
"Get up."
"I'm not getting up. You raked in that much money, and the president didn't even ship you off to do prison time. Lucky you. And now you want to walk off with the office furniture too?"
I stared at his arrogant, clueless face and said coldly,
"I paid for that myself!"
Since he wouldn't get up, I grabbed his tie on the spot and gave it a quiet, deliberate tug.
That scared him, and he shot up, glaring.
But his mouth still wouldn't quit.
"Your money's all stolen from the bank anyway. I've never seen a useless coward as shameless as you!"
I'd lost count of how many times he'd called me greedy today. However good my temper was, I'd finally had enough.
"Greedy?"
"Harvey, from your very first day as an intern, the bank told you plainly. There was no hiring need, and no opening for a permanent position."
"You smeared me to drive me out so you could stay. Am I really the greedy one here?"
With that, I gathered up my things and brushed past Harvey's shoulder.
But the next second, he seized me by the collar and dragged me back.
He blocked my way.
"Leave the money behind, then take your junk and get lost!"
I stared straight into his eyes.
"That gift card is in the president's office. I never took it."
Harvey let out a cold sneer.
"What I mean is, every gift card and every gift you've taken since the moment you walked into this bank, you're paying back every last cent!"
