Leon poured me a cup with a sincere expression, but alarm bells were ringing in my head.
If I remembered correctly, everything had started going wrong in my previous life right after I drank his coffee. The more times I drank the coffee he served me, the worse my luck became.
Initially, I had thought I was just unlucky or cursed. I had even gone to churches to pray for peace and protection.
Looking back on it now, that must have been when he had bound me to the exchange system.
So, his repeated attempts to bring me coffee afterward weren't out of respect—he was strengthening the exchange.
Now that the suspicion had taken root, there was no way I would drink it. "Since your mother left these beans, you should keep them for yourself. It would be a waste to give them to me."
The second I refused, tears welled up in Leon's eyes. He was on the verge of tears as he turned toward and asked weakly, "Gemma, does Mr. Brown think my coffee beans aren't good enough for him…"
As soon as Gemma heard that, she shot me a vicious glare and kicked the back of my knee. Caught off guard, my knees hit the floor with a loud thud, drawing everyone's attention in the office.
"Dalton! How could you be so ungrateful? Not only are you refusing to thank Leo, but you're even looking down on the coffee he's serving you?" she snapped.
With one hand, she grabbed the teapot beside her, and with the other, she seized me by the hair, shoving the spout into my mouth.
I choked and coughed violently, but she forced the entire pot of scalding coffee down my throat. In the end, she let go of me when there wasn't a single drop left in the pot.
"You've already been dismissed, Dalton. Leo is the general manager now. If you dare disrespect him again, don't expect me to go easy on you!"
Her voice, which used to be gentle and tender, had turned incredibly cold at that moment. My heart twisted in agony as I looked up at her, only to see her gazing with total admiration at Leon, who was looking immensely smug as he began to talk at length about his next investment plan.
Meanwhile, the shareholders who had just been cursing me out had already gathered around him, showering him with praises and sycophantic smiles.
"I have to give it to you, Mr. Hart. You're so young, yet you're already a master at investing, unlike a certain someone, who only knows how to lose money."
"Exactly! He who is a failure should leave rather than hang around the company and be an eyesore every day. We'll be counting on you from now on, Mr. Hart…"
Amid the rising chorus of people stepping on me to lift him up, I dragged myself to my feet and staggered toward the restroom.
In my previous life, Leon had only made me drink it cup by cup. This time, however, Gemma had forced an entire pot down my throat. Hence, I needed to find a way to throw it up as fast as I could.
Fortunately, there was hand soap in the restroom of the office building. I mixed a basin of soapy water and gulped it down.
Moments later, my stomach churned violently. I vomited for two full minutes, and it wasn't until acid reflux kicked in and I threw up gastric juice that I finally felt at ease.
However, right after that, everything went black. My limbs gave out, and I collapsed on the restroom floor.
…
When I came to, I was in the hospital. My friend, Shaun Guerrero, who had been watching over me by my bed, frowned the moment he saw I was awake.
"I told you Gemma's ruthless, but you refused to believe me. If I hadn't happened to come looking for you this time, you might've died in that restroom, and no one would've known."
Looking back on everything that had happened, I let out a bitter chuckle. "Sometimes, people just won't turn back until they've hit the wall."
"Enough of that. What on earth happened? You've been acting really strange these last two days…"
It turned out that a video of me singing folk songs during the Q&A session had been surreptitiously filmed and posted online. Shaun had come across it while scrolling through his social media feed and, sensing that something was wrong, came looking for me.
That was how he discovered I had passed out in the restroom.
Ever since I had devoted myself to work, Shaun was the only real friend I had left. After thinking it over, I decided to tell him a simplified version of everything that had happened.
