Office Insider

Every month, I secretly paid Mary’s health insurance. My husband teased me for having too much money and a bleeding heart. I never explained. Mary was a chatterbox but incredibly observant. I knew she had a bad hip and struggled with bills, so I covered her premiums. What he didn’t realize was that Mary had access to every office, boardroom, and hallway. She saw people, heard whispers, and knew secrets better than HR. Over eight years, she’d come to see me as family. Last week, she slipped into my office, shut the door, and whispered, “Victoria, please don’t be mad. It’s about the new intern, Lexi. She and Mr. Foster sneak off to the breakroom. Yesterday, her blouse was unbuttoned and he had red lipstick on his collar.” Seeing her hesitate, I poured her water and told her to continue. She pulled out shredded paper taped together. “I fished this from Mr. Foster’s private trash.” It was a drafted Equity Transfer Agreement. 1 The name on the receiving end: Lexi. She was the underprivileged student I had personally sponsored three years ago. Lexi grew up in a dirt-poor rural town. Her father was paralyzed, and her mother was chronically ill. During her junior year of college, she couldn't afford tuition and was on the verge of dropping out. The university sent a list of students needing financial aid to my charitable foundation, and her tragic essay caught my eye. I paid her tuition. I covered her living expenses. When she graduated, she called me, crying tears of gratitude, saying she wanted to stay in Seattle to work hard and repay my kindness. My heart softened, and I pulled some strings to get her an internship at my husband's company. I still remember Richard wrapping his arms around my waist that night, kissing my cheek. "My wife has the biggest heart in the world. You don't see young kids with that kind of loyalty and gratitude anymore." I actually believed him. Looking at it now, I had invited a viper straight into my own home. Seeing all the color drain from my face, Mary reached into her pocket again and pulled out her phone. She tapped the screen and slid it across my desk. It was a video taken from the corner of the hallway, right outside the breakroom. Lexi and Richard walked out, one after the other. Lexi was fixing her messy hair. Richard casually reached out and squeezed her backside. The way they looked at each other, the practiced ease of their touches, it wasn't a one-time mistake. That fifteen-second clip took my twelve-year marriage, along with my self-righteous charity, and smashed it into pieces. I locked the phone screen and slid it back to her. "Mary, this dies with us. Do not say a word to anyone." Mary wiped a tear from her wrinkled cheek. "You've been an angel to me, Victoria. I couldn't just stand by and watch them do you dirty like this." When I got home that evening, the smell of roasted chicken filled the kitchen. Richard plated dinner and handed me a glass of wine, playing the perfect, attentive husband. "You look exhausted, honey. Long meetings today?" I stared at his face. Years ago, when his first startup went up in flames and left him drowning in debt, I drained my entire savings to bail him out. My father provided his first round of seed money to start this current company. During our toughest year, when the company was barely staying afloat, I was four months pregnant. I flew cross-country with him in the dead of winter to court investors. I sat at dinners, matching arrogant executives drink for drink just to secure the contracts we desperately needed. On the cab ride back to the hotel, the bleeding started. I lost the baby. The doctors told me the tissue scarring was severe, and my chances of conceiving again were practically zero. After years of agonizing IVF treatments, we finally got our miracle baby, our daughter Lily. Richard had dropped to his knees right there in the hospital room, crying like a child, swearing on his life that he would spend every breathing moment treating us like queens. A man's oath is truly the cheapest thing on earth. I took a sip of my wine. "How is Lexi doing at the office?" His hand paused halfway to his mouth. Not a muscle in his face twitched. "She's doing great. You know how rookies are. Give them a little room to run, and they surprise you." Right as the words left his mouth, his phone lit up on the kitchen island. A text notification popped up on the lock screen. It was a selfie of a woman wrapped in a towel, shoulders bare. [Rich, just got out of the shower. Thinking of you.] He snatched the phone so fast he nearly knocked over his water glass, slamming it face-down on the marble counter. He let out a nervous chuckle. "Stupid group chat spam." I forced the corners of my mouth into a smile. "Right." The guiltier the dog, the louder it barks. 2 First thing the next morning, Mary slipped into my office under the guise of emptying the trash. She locked the door behind her. Her eyes were red and swollen. Seeing my pale face, her expression twisted with pure pity. "Victoria, I stayed late last night," she whispered, her voice trembling as she leaned over my desk. "I heard Mr. Foster pacing in the stairwell on his phone." She took a shaky breath. "He said he's going to use the shareholder meeting next Wednesday to pin the entire thirty-million-dollar deficit from the Southside project on you. He's planning to force you to resign in front of the whole board." Tears spilled over her lashes, and her rough, calloused hands reached out to grab mine. "You look so tired, sweetheart. Please don't let this ruin your health. I look at you, and I see my own daughter. You have a heart of gold. How did you end up with a monster like him?" A lump formed in my throat. I squeezed her hands back firmly. "Don't worry, Mary. I am not going to sit back and let them slaughter me." Next Wednesday. I had a few days. It was more than enough time for me to silently transfer the company's actual core assets and intellectual property. Once you rip the bandage off a rotting wound, the infection underneath can't stay hidden for long. On Saturday morning, Richard claimed he had an emergency site visit at our regional branch and rushed out the door before breakfast. Mary called me an hour later. "Lexi didn't show up to work today," she reported. "I was cleaning the pantry and heard some of the girls gossiping. They said Lexi is pregnant." I told Mary to keep her ears open and hung up. Before I could even process the news, my front door clicked open. My mother-in-law, Eleanor, had let herself in with her spare key. She walked into the living room, her face immediately scrunching up in disgust. My sweet Lily was sitting on the plush rug, building a massive spaceship out of Legos. Eleanor didn't even offer her a polite hello. "What is a little girl doing playing with boy's toys? You're raising her with zero manners," Eleanor sneered. Lily flinched, dropping a plastic brick, and scrambled to hide behind my legs. I swallowed the fire burning in my chest and shielded my daughter. "Eleanor, what a surprise. Richard isn't home." "I'm not here for him. I'm here for you." Eleanor marched over and claimed the center of the designer sofa. She crossed her arms, her chin tilted up in absolute arrogance. "Lexi called me yesterday." My hand froze on the pitcher of water I was holding. Lexi? First-name basis already. How cozy. Eleanor's eyes gleamed with a sickening, triumphant joy. "She is eight weeks along. I had a private specialist look at the ultrasounds. It is a boy. A confirmed male heir. Richard is a very successful man now, Victoria. You can't honestly expect him to die without a son to carry on the family legacy, can you?" The living room fell into a deathly, suffocating silence. Lily looked up at me, her big brown eyes welling with tears. "Mommy, does Daddy not want us anymore?" My heart felt like it was being run through a meat grinder. "Go to your room, sweetie. Mommy needs to have a grown-up talk with Grandma." I watched the nanny hurry Lily down the hall. The second the door clicked shut, the polite, accommodating daughter-in-law mask melted right off my face. I stared dead-eyed at the pompous old woman on my couch. "Eleanor, your son is committing adultery, and you came to my house to brag about it?" "So what if he is? Men have needs, and successful men have options!" Eleanor slammed her hand on the coffee table, entirely unapologetic. "You can't give him a son. Are you going to block someone else from doing it? If you have half a brain, you'll let Lexi have this baby and step aside gracefully. Do that, and you get to keep living like a rich housewife. Fight us, and I'll make sure my son throws you out on the street with absolutely nothing!" I looked at her, truly amazed by her delusion. It was like watching a clown perform at a circus. "Eleanor, is the dementia kicking in early? Have you completely forgotten who the majority shareholder of this company actually is?" Eleanor laughed, a harsh, grating sound, looking at me like I was the punchline of a joke. "Victoria, you really think you're untouchable, don't you? The entire company answers to Richard now. Without him, you are a nobody!" "Alright," I nodded, my voice dropping to a deadly calm. "Tell him to try me." 3 Monday morning. The moment I stepped off the elevator, Mary was buffing the floor in the corridor. She saw me and immediately power-walked over, keeping her voice to a harsh whisper. "Victoria, watch your back. Mr. Foster called the senior board members into his office first thing this morning. Lexi was in there too. They just wrapped up, whispering and looking real smug. They're setting a trap." I gave her a reassuring nod. "Let them dig the hole. The deeper they dig, the harder they fall." I walked into my private executive office and buzzed my secretary, telling her to send Lexi in immediately. Lexi walked through the door wearing a custom-tailored Chanel suit, a limited-edition Birkin bag draped over her forearm. If you didn't know her background, you'd think she was a trust-fund heiress, not a girl who was eating ramen for dinner three years ago. "You wanted to see me, Victoria?" Lexi stood there, trying to look timid, but her eyes were darting around the room, assessing her future territory. I didn't invite her to sit. I picked up a file folder and tossed a stack of printed real estate records onto the desk. It was the deed to a ten-million-dollar luxury penthouse in Bellevue. Lexi glanced down. All the color instantly drained from her face. "A fresh graduate, entirely debt-free, paying cash for a ten-million-dollar penthouse. Lexi, your earning potential is truly inspiring," I said, leaning back in my leather chair, a cold smile playing on my lips. Her knees buckled. She knew I had found out everything. She dropped to her knees right there on the expensive carpet, the tears flowing like a broken faucet. "Victoria! Please, you have to understand, I didn't mean for this to happen!" She sobbed, playing the sickeningly sweet victim act to perfection. "I was just so grateful to Mr. Foster for mentoring me. I couldn't control my feelings! I never wanted to ruin your family. I just wanted to look up to him from the shadows." Listening to this textbook manipulative garbage made my stomach churn. "Lexi, drop the pathetic act." I stood up, walked around the desk, and used the tip of my stiletto to force her chin up. "You want to sleep with a married man? Fine, that just makes you trash. But your fatal mistake was coming after my money. I paid for the degree you hold. The clothes on your back, the bag on your arm, and even that little bargaining chip growing in your stomach, it was all bought with my money." She froze, her eyes wide with sheer terror. She clearly hadn't expected me to know about the pregnancy. Just then, my office door violently swung open. Richard stormed in, his face red with fury. He rushed over and pulled Lexi off the floor, shielding her behind his back. "Victoria! Have you lost your mind? Throwing your weight around to bully a junior employee?!" I looked at the tragic star-crossed lovers and felt a hysterical urge to laugh. "This is the garbage you're falling on your sword for, Richard?" Richard took a deep breath. The mask was fully off now. He helped Lexi over to the sofa, then pulled a thick red folder from his briefcase and slapped it hard onto my desk. "Since we're laying all our cards on the table, I'll keep it brief. We are prepping for an IPO, and I've restructured the equity distribution." He looked at me with cold, uncompromising entitlement. "Lexi is carrying my child. She is giving my family a future. I am taking fifteen percent of the shares under your name and transferring them to her. Consider it a trust fund for the kid." I actually let out a laugh. Taking my equity to fund his illegitimate child. He really thought I was a spineless pushover. "And if I refuse to sign?" Richard smirked, his voice dripping with venom. "You've been out of the daily operations for years. The clients, the supply chains, the board, they all belong to me. If you don't sign, I have a hundred ways to bleed this company dry and turn your shares into worthless toilet paper. Be smart about this, Victoria. Let's keep it civil." I stared into his eyes for a long, heavy moment. Slowly, the corners of my mouth curled up. "Alright," I said, closing the red folder. "Since this is for the good of the company, let's do it right. We'll sign the transfer officially this Wednesday at the all-hands shareholder meeting, right in front of the entire executive board." Richard blinked, stunned by my easy surrender. Then, a sickening, victorious grin spread across his face.