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My $200K Bonus Was Canceled Over an Office Romance
NovelShort
Completed
I closed an $18 million deal, and the bonus was $200K. But when the bonuses were handed out, the company gave mine to the new girl, Chloe Vance. The reason: I'd violated the no-office-romance policy. Except when Malcolm Harding and I started dating, the company never once stopped us. I went to the manager. He gave me one light, dismissive glance.
Chapters (4)
第1章
I closed an $18 million deal, and the bonus was $200K.
But when it came time to hand out bonuses, the company gave mine to Chloe Vance, a new hire.
The reason: I had violated the no-office-romance policy.
Yet back when Malcolm and I started dating, the company never stopped us.
I went to the manager, who gave me a light, dismissive glance.
"Effie, aren't you and Malcolm getting engaged soon? A woman should put family first, after all. From now on, all your projects go to Chloe."
HR then sent out a notice that Chloe would be taking over as project manager.
I stared at my phone screen, my fingertips ice cold.
I wrote the sales plan. I ran the product training.
Three whole months, countless all-nighters, and I'm the one who landed this deal.
Chloe didn't even know who the client contact was, yet she walked off with my $200K bonus for nothing.
I wouldn't accept it. I went back again and again.
I even filed for labor arbitration.
My boyfriend, Malcolm, not only refused to back me, he did everything he could to stop me.
"It's just $200K. Chloe's more capable than you, she handles things more shrewdly than you, the bonus should go to her. Can you please stop being so extreme and narrow-minded?"
"Besides, the reason from up top is perfectly reasonable. After you're married, you're supposed to put family first. If you insist on being this selfish, then let's just break up!"
I laughed out of pure anger.
Had he forgotten? If I hadn't pulled in clients and chased down deals for him, he'd have been fired three years ago. The one who should be putting family first isn't me. "Fine. Let's break up."
Now let's see what excuse the company uses to dock my $200K bonus.
01
The bonus-cancellation notice hit the group chat, and the whole company was stunned.
That line—Effie Henson violated the company's no-office-romance policy; her $200K project bonus is canceled. The bonus passes automatically to the project's second lead, Chloe Vance—sat there in the company-wide group chat like a joke.
The office went silent for two seconds.
Some people quietly looked up at me. Others didn't bother lowering their voices.
"Since when does the company have that rule?"
"Wasn't she the one who closed that deal single-handedly? A $200K bonus, just canceled, like that?"
"Chloe Vance, that new girl who's only been here two months? Lucky her, $200K for free."
My fingers froze on the screen. I didn't even have the nerve to open the notice and read the details.
That $18 million deal—I sat on it for three months.
The sales plan was revised eighteen times. Product training ran seven full rounds.
Even the cleaning lady at the client's office knew me by then.
And in the end, it all came down to one laughable rule.
A $200K bonus, handed to a newcomer who didn't even know which way the client's front door faced.
I looked up, toward Malcolm, my boyfriend, three desks away.
He was holding a coffee, turned toward Chloe, saying something.
Relaxed, his eyes glowing with a kind of proud, reflected glory.
When his gaze met mine, he went calm again, as if watching a show that had nothing to do with him.
He was the B-Team project manager, and Chloe was his junior from school.
When Chloe came in as an intern, he steered her to our team, said she was his best junior, told me to mentor her well.
I taught her carefully for two months. I never expected she'd end up snatching my bonus.
Celia, one of my teammates, came over, indignant on my behalf.
"Effie, this rule is aimed straight at you. Malcolm took a $50K bonus just last month—why wasn't this rule mentioned then?"
I knew that project. A loyal client of mine had referred it to him. I'd followed it start to finish and closed it in under a month.
"Effie, go to the manager. That's a $200K bonus. You slaved away for three months—why should Chloe get it for free?"
I shut off my phone screen and set it face down.
I turned to her and asked, "Do you know where I can download the original company policy manual?"
Celia's fighting spirit flared up.
"You can download the company policies from the intranet portal. I'll get it for you."
She printed it out, and I went through it line by line.
There was no explicit ban on office romances—just a vague note that "employees should avoid letting personal relationships affect the fairness of their work."
And nothing at all about canceling a bonus over it.
I stood up, holding the printed pages.
Chloe walked over.
Part showing off, part sympathy—but the hint of schadenfreude she couldn't quite hide.
"Effie, that $200K bonus is all your hard work. I don't deserve it. I really should give it back to you."
I set down what I was holding and looked up at her.
I thought back to when she first arrived—proper, careful, trailing behind me.
"Sure. Transfer it now, then."
The guilt she'd put on froze on her face.
Two seconds later, the deference was gone completely.
"Effie, you're such a joker. I earned that bonus on my own merit."
"What merit, exactly?"
I took a step forward, closing in on her.
"Do you know who the client contact is? Have you written a single proposal? Have you done any training? Do you even know which way the client's front door faces?"
My tone was unhurried, but every word was like a scalpel, peeling away her disguise with precision.
She backed up two steps, her heel knocking against the chair beside her with a sharp crack.
The colleagues around us turned to look, and Malcolm looked over too, his brows creasing.
He got up and came over.
Chloe's arrogant expression was instantly replaced by wounded innocence.
"Effie, it's all company policy. Please don't make this hard on me…"
When Malcolm reached us, all he caught was that last line—don't make this hard on me.
He casually slipped a hand around Chloe's waist, his eyes on me full of reproach.
"Effie, the bonus was the company's decision. It has nothing to do with Chloe. Don't take it out on her."
He hadn't come over because I, his actual girlfriend, had been wronged.
He'd come to back up his little junior.
The stares around us shifted from scrutiny to entertainment, and even the typing stopped.
I picked up the pages and pushed past him.
"You're right. It's a company matter. I'll take it to the company."
He grabbed my hand, his brows knotting tighter.
"Effie, the company already sent the notice. It's an irreversible fact. Stop the pointless struggling. This bonus is Chloe's for sure."
I pulled my hand free, my feet never slowing.
"For sure or not—that depends on whether she's got the luck for it."
第2章
I pushed open the door to the manager's office. Zion sat behind his desk, an unopened bottle of water resting on it.
He didn't look surprised, as if he'd been expecting me.
"Have a seat."
He tipped his chin up, wearing the kind of look that said he was doing my boyfriend a favor.
He seemed to have forgotten that when Malcolm first arrived, I was the one who trained him.
I sat down, and he pushed the bottle of water toward me.
"Have some water. Cool off."
I didn't move.
In the past, whenever I came to his office, he would always make me a cup of tea himself and hand it over.
Now, things had changed.
The bonus was gone, and the tea had been swapped out for bottled water.
I didn't bother with small talk. I set the printed materials down on his desk.
"Mr. Whitney, there is no explicit rule in the company's policies prohibiting office romances, and no clause allowing a bonus to be canceled. I'm requesting that ownership of my bonus be restored to me."
Zion glanced at the papers, as if he'd already guessed what they were, and put his finger on one of the lines.
"Effie, there's no explicit rule in the policy, but this clause—'Employees should avoid letting personal relationships affect the impartiality of their work'—means exactly that."
"Don't worry, the company would never cancel your bonus without cause. There are always grounds for it."
I leaned back in my chair and looked at him calmly.
"Mr. Whitney, as far as I know, Malcolm and I aren't the only office couple here, are we?"
"There's Jordan in administration and Reginald in finance, Alma in HR and Aiden in R&D, plus the married ones—were their bonuses canceled too?"
He paused, then started to explain.
"You can't compare it like that. They're all in administrative departments, not involved in core business, no conflict of interest. It's not like you and Malcolm, who are both in sales and have to avoid any appearance of impropriety."
He looked at me with a rehearsed smile.
"You don't need to question the company's decisions. The company doesn't treat any employee differently."
"What about Malcolm?"
I looked at him.
"He took a fifty-thousand-dollar bonus last month. Why didn't he have to avoid the appearance of impropriety?"
Zion's smile froze, and the fingers resting on the desk curled slightly.
"Malcolm is a key member of the team—"
"And what am I?"
I leaned forward.
"In my five years here, the biggest project, worth thirty million dollars, was one I negotiated. The toughest clients were ones I won over. The most remote markets were ones I opened up."
"I single-handedly carried seventy percent of the whole company's KPI, and you're telling me I'm not a key player?"
Zion's face tightened. The composure from before was gone, and he started to change the subject.
"Effie, don't take this so seriously. When you get married, you'll take maternity leave, parental leave—at least three years with no output. Those hidden costs are a waste for the company. Of course the company is going to favor male employees who can create value steadily over the long term."
"Are you saying I have no value?"
I turned the words over slowly, and they struck me as nothing but ironic.
"I bring in twenty million dollars a year for the company. I train the new hires, I cut logistics costs. None of that counts as value?"
Zion's expression shifted, and his fingers clenched into a fist.
"Effie Henson, are you dredging up old accounts with me?"
"I'm not dredging up old accounts. I'm just reasonably taking back what I'm owed."
He was silent for a few seconds, then his tone softened.
"Effie, Malcolm is your boyfriend. I hear the two of you are already talking marriage. Digging in like this puts Malcolm in a very difficult spot." "If you absolutely insist on getting the bonus back, then your relationship with Malcolm will have to change."
I looked at him. "You mean, from now on all my bonuses will be canceled to avoid the appearance of impropriety?"
He paused, not committing to it outright.
"In theory, that's the logic."
I fell silent.
The threat in his words was already plain enough.
The bonus or the boyfriend—I could only have one.
Seeing me go quiet, Zion assumed I'd caved, and his tone took on a note of big-brotherly concern.
"Effie, aren't you and Malcolm getting engaged? A woman should really put her family first. From now on, you can hand all your projects over to Chloe and set your mind on preparing for the wedding, on becoming a mother."
I suddenly laughed, a very faint laugh.
First cancel the bonus, then take the position.
Zion wasn't even bothering to hide his plan to push me out anymore.
I gathered up the documents and slowly stood.
"Mr. Whitney, I can give up the position. But the money, I won't."
I turned and walked toward the door, and his voice came from behind me, low and heavy.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I laid my hand on the handle without looking back.
"It means I'm going to appeal."
And with that, I pushed open the door and strode out.
第3章
After leaving Zion's office, I went straight to HR to pull my employment contract.
Alma looked at me, torn.
"Effie, if you request your contract now, Mr. Whitney will definitely ask about it. Please don't put me in a tough spot."
"I'm not putting you in a tough spot. By the rules, the employment contract is made in triplicate, but the company never gave the employee their copy. I have the right to obtain it."
Her face crumpled, and her eyes went red.
"Effie, you came to get the contract just to see whether there's a clause banning office romances. I can tell you there isn't, but I really can't give it to you."
I nodded, took out my phone, and opened the voice recorder.
"Then I don't need to see it. Just say what you said again."
Alma's expression froze, comically ridiculous.
She bit her lip, got up helplessly, opened the filing cabinet, and pulled out my employment contract.
I made a copy on the spot and walked out of the HR office holding it.
As I came out, Zion's office door was half open, and he caught sight of me leaving with the contract.
His face changed. He grabbed the desk phone and dialed.
A moment later, the sound of Alma sobbing came from the HR office.
Back at my desk, probing looks came at me from all sides.
The whispering followed.
"So she didn't get it back. Look how dark her face is, like somebody owes her eight million."
"Not eight million, two hundred grand. That's enough to buy a car. How could her face not be dark?"
"You've got to have either money or love, right? A person can't always have smooth sailing—and here it comes."
"She just went to HR to demand the contract, and Alma got chewed out by Mr. Whitney. She couldn't protect her own bonus and dragged an innocent person into it. That's just too much."
Alma's crying still carried out of the office.
I didn't go comfort her; that was her job.
If we're talking innocent, no one is more innocent than me.
I had a relationship, and it cost me a $200K bonus, and got me branded with "dragging innocent people into it."
Half an hour later, HR posted a personnel notice in the company-wide group chat.
Due to Effie Henson's serious violation of company policy, Effie Henson is hereby removed from her position as A-Team Project Manager and reassigned as Project Specialist.
Chloe Vance will take over as A-Team Project Manager. The handover is to be completed before end of day today.
After two seconds of silence in the chat, Malcolm was the first to send congratulations.
A string of me-too congratulations followed.
I stared at the screen, my fingertips ice-cold.
Really funny.
My boyfriend, congratulating the woman who took my bonus and my position, right there in the group chat.
I sent a congratulations emoji in the chat too.
The group chat ended on that message.
Two minutes later, Chloe came over for the handover.
"Effie, Mr. Whitney told me to do the handover with you. Please organize all the client information and give it to me."
I didn't look at her.
"The client data is all in the system. Export it yourself."
She was caught short.
"I mean the clients' addresses, preferences, family relationships. Didn't you keep records of those?"
I finally shot her a glance.
"That's the clients' private information. It's not appropriate to disclose it."
Her face darkened a shade.
"This is company policy—"
"Company policy is all in the system. Private information isn't within the scope of the handover."
Her face darkened further.
"Then organize all the client proposals, transaction records, contract attachments, and quotes for me."
"They're all in the system. My new title is specialist, not your assistant."
Her face went from dark to pale, and her shoulders began to shake.
"Effie, how could you be like this…"
I knew Malcolm must have arrived.
Sure enough, Malcolm's voice came from behind her.
"Effie, Chloe isn't the one who demoted you, so why are you taking it out on her?"
"Chloe just got promoted and she's under a lot of pressure, and you're deliberately making things hard for her. How can you be so narrow-minded? Can't you stand to see someone do better than you? Do you have to embarrass her in front of everyone?"
How ironic of him to say that.
He came over just to humiliate me one more time, to make me understand, clearly, that I wasn't worthy.
I looked up at him.
"Malcolm, didn't that 'congratulations' of yours embarrass me?"
第4章
He froze, his lips pressed into a thin line.
"Don't tell me your 'congratulations' meant congratulations on getting me fired?"
His face paled.
The office was terribly quiet. I didn't have to look to know that Malcolm and I were the center of everyone's attention.
I looked at him, waiting for an explanation.
After five seconds of silence, he finally spoke, his voice a little dry.
"Effie, can you stop being so nitpicky? What's wrong with congratulating a coworker?"
"The one who got dismissed was your girlfriend."
He stalled, his expression turning ugly.
"So what do you want from me? It's already done. Do you want me to break down and cry? Or have the whole company mourn for you?"
"As your boyfriend, if I don't post it first, who else would dare? How is Chloe supposed to save face?"
I laughed, a laugh that felt foreign even to me.
"So her face gets to stand on top of my dignity?"
Malcolm's expression turned even uglier.
"Effie, you're being completely unreasonable. I already told you it's company policy. Do you really have to go after Chloe like this?"
"Malcolm, that's the fourth time you've called me by my full name."
He froze, his eyes flickering.
After we made things official, he called me "baby," "Effie sweetheart," and at his coldest, just "Effie."
Even when we fought, he never called me by my full name.
Chloe, like a child who'd done something wrong, carefully tugged at his sleeve.
"Malcolm, don't blame Effie. She lost her bonus and her job—it's understandable she's upset. It's my fault, I shouldn't have come to handle the handover, but Mr. Whitney insisted…"
Her eyes were rimmed red, and she spoke the most hurtful words in the softest tone.
Digging out my wounds to whip them, and rubbing in a handful of salt on top.
Malcolm's eyes filled with tenderness, and his gentle tone gave me goosebumps all over.
"Chloe, this isn't your fault. Don't take the blame on yourself. A handover is normal work. Even if she's in a bad mood, she has to cooperate."
"You're the project manager now. You have the authority to assign tasks to your subordinates."
A flash of smugness crossed Chloe's eyes, but her expression stayed timid.
"Is that okay? Won't Effie be angry?"
Malcolm patted her shoulder gently.
"Even if she's angry, she has to comply. You don't have to coddle her."
I was so disgusted I could throw up.
I really am a complete idiot. These two were this cozy with each other, and I didn't notice a thing.
What a lovesick fool.
I quickly printed out the appeal materials I'd written, picked up my employment contract, and stood up to leave.
Malcolm's expression changed.
"Effie, where are you going?"
I didn't spare him a glance, and I didn't stop walking.
"To get back what's mine."
He hurried after me and grabbed my wrist.
"You're going to labor arbitration?"
My voice went cold. "None of your business."
He gripped harder.
"You really have to take it this far? What good does it do you to file a complaint with the Department of Labor?"
I looked up at him. "The good is that I get my $200K back, so certain people don't get to sit around enjoying what isn't theirs."
Right on cue, Chloe flinched.
"Malcolm, if Effie blames me for taking the bonus, I'll just give it to her. Please, don't fight because of me."
Malcolm turned to comfort her. "You don't have to give it to her. It's what you deserve."
When he looked back at me, his face was livid, his fingers nearly digging into my flesh.
"Effie, look at Chloe—she knows how to see the big picture, unlike you, always nickel-and-diming."
"Let me tell you—if you go to arbitration and embarrass Chloe, then we're through!"
I looked up at him.
"Malcolm, do you dare say that again in front of the whole company?"
A flicker of hesitation crossed his eyes, and right then Chloe sobbed twice.
"Malcolm, if you break up with Effie for my sake, I'll feel so guilty."
Malcolm immediately gritted his teeth. "Fine, I'll say it. Effie, if you insist on being this selfish, then let's break up!"
That was exactly what I wanted.
I looked at him and burst out laughing.
"Fine. Then let's break up."
I shook him off and walked straight into Zion's office.
"Mr. Whitney, I've already broken up with Zion. My $200K bonus—give it back."
