"Hold on, hold on, I'm on it."
"Just stay calm."
Right now, Lucinda was going out of her mind.
Last night she'd already messaged all the company drivers.
From now on, the fleet under the company's name was hers to manage.
Including the drivers.
She'd assumed the drivers would keep shuttling employees to and from work on schedule, the way they always had.
But when she woke up this morning, she found out otherwise.
The messages she'd sent.
Not one reply!
And the drivers had vanished as if the earth had swallowed them.
No answers to texts, no answers to calls.
And so it went.
The entire staff showed up late.
Some lived too far out, missed their trains, and just called in sick.
Which was when the strangest thing happened.
For an entire morning.
The office held only the boss and his secretary.
Not a single employee in sight.
The work they'd planned to finish, the negotiation times set with clients.
All scrapped because the staff came in late.
By afternoon.
The employees trickled in one by one.
But having been stood up, those clients pulled out of their deals.
Furious, Jacob docked the bonuses he'd set aside for them to finish the project.
Seeing the anger and resentment aimed straight at her in everyone's eyes.
Lucinda rushed to explain: "It's not my fault."
"Somebody sabotaged this."
"Otherwise there's no way every driver disappears at the exact same time."
And just then.
I strolled in with a coffee in hand, taking my time.
The moment Lucinda saw me.
She jabbed a finger at me, furious: "It's her. It has to be her. She used to manage the company fleet, and she's the one who hired all those drivers."
"She can't stand that the company decided to push her out."
"So she made the drivers disappear on purpose."
"She's the reason you were all late."
"And the reason you lost your bonuses."
"She's the one behind all of it!"
Lucinda's little move—pinning it on someone else—worked fast.
The employees, stung by their losses, glared at me with pure fury.
Some demanded to know why I'd done it.
Some called me petty.
One even lost it completely and hurled a pen off the desk at me.
"My mother's waiting on that bonus for her surgery."
"And now the bonus is gone."
The pen struck my forehead, and blood ran down my cheek.
Jacob, my boyfriend, watched it happen with his own eyes.
And said nothing, did nothing.
He even blamed me: "You let your temper get the better of you."
"The whole staff was late today."
"A few deals we could have closed."
"All blown."
I didn't bother with any of them. I only gave Jacob a cold look.
Then I took out my phone and snapped a photo of myself to keep as evidence.
"You're the one who caused everyone these losses."
"Their losses."
"You should be the one to cover them!"
Lucinda said coldly.
"Heh..."
I gave a cold little laugh, let my eyes sweep over them all, and asked: "I bought the cars. I hired the drivers. Their wages, the gas for the cars—all of it came out of my own pocket."
"I gave you free rides to work, and you wanted to throw me out."
"I let all the drivers go. What exactly is wrong with that?"
