Chapter 2

I stared at Ryan, my chest rising and falling violently.

My fury nearly burst out of my body.

I had never imagined that someone could be this shameless and vile.

“What? Not happy about it?”

Ryan admired my furious expression as if he were enjoying a spectacular performance.

“Ethan, do you know why you lost? Because you took yourself too seriously.”

“You think landing one major contract makes you impressive? Let me tell you something. In the real world, what matters is this.”

He tapped his temple.

“Your brain! Your ability to read the room! A fool like you, who only knows how to work with his head down, deserves to be eliminated!”

He bent over and accurately picked up a document from the items scattered across the floor.

It was the final proposal I had prepared for the multimillion-dollar contract, still covered with the marks of my countless revisions.

He waved the proposal in front of me.

“You just got lucky. You were a blind cat that happened to find a dead mouse. You stumbled across a major client. If I had handled it, I could’ve closed the deal too. Why did you need six months?”

“Still, I suppose I should thank you. After all, you made a little ‘contribution’ to this $300,000 year-end bonus. Ha-ha-ha.”

My face instantly turned ashen, and it felt as if my blood had frozen in my veins.

For the past six months, I had gritted my teeth and given everything I had, revising the proposal again and again and visiting the client in person time after time. In the end, I had miraculously secured the multimillion-dollar contract for the company.

Before I developed that client, Victor Grant had never believed I could succeed. When he assigned the tasks, he threw the hardest client at me, while giving Ryan the easy job of maintaining a few old accounts.

And now Ryan was actually calling me a lucky fool who had stumbled onto a deal.

The challenge I had poured my heart and soul into, practically living at the office to overcome, had ultimately become a stepping stone for him to claim credit and demand rewards.

The $300,000 bonus I had waited so long for, the bonus that should have belonged to me, was now clutched in his hand like a trophy and had become a weapon he could use to humiliate me.

Ryan loosened his grip on the proposal and let the document containing so much of my blood, sweat, and tears drift back to the floor.

He even deliberately stepped on it, leaving a clear shoe print.

“You...!”

My eyes bulged with rage as I charged forward and grabbed him by the collar.

The coworkers around us gasped.

Tom and Chris immediately stepped forward to pull me away.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Ryan stopped them. He looked at my enraged, twisted face and not only showed no fear, but smiled even more happily.

“Let him hit me. Right here!”

He pointed to his cheek.

“Let everyone see that our former sales manager isn’t just incompetent. He has terrible manners too. Go ahead, Ethan. Hit me if you dare!”

The hand clutching his collar trembled violently.

My reason told me that throwing the punch would feel great, but the consequences were more than I could bear right now.

Victor and Ryan were desperate for me to lose control so they could pin an even more serious offense on me.

I clenched my teeth, worked up a mouthful of phlegm, and spat it all over his face.

This time, Ryan was the one who exploded. He screamed, “You’re asking to die!”

I gave him a cold smile. “If you’ve got the guts, hit me. The second you make the first move, I’ll grab the fruit knife on the table and stab you to death. I’ve already lost everything anyway. Someone with nothing to lose has nothing to fear. Want to bet on it?”

Ryan froze when he heard that. His expression turned ugly, but he didn’t dare hit me.

“Coward,” I sneered.

Ryan’s face darkened as he grabbed some tissues and wiped his face. He looked around the silent office and then resumed his victorious air.

“Fine. I’m a generous man, so I won’t stoop to the level of a loser like you. Since we used to be coworkers, I’ll point you toward one last opportunity.”

He paused and spoke in a tone of charity. “The company happens to need someone to clean the restrooms. It’s tiring and dirty, but at least it’s a job. What do you say? Should I ask Victor to take pity on you and give you a way to make a living?”

A wave of overwhelming humiliation swept over me.

He wanted me to clean the restrooms?

That was a hundred times more vicious than simply firing me!