Chapter 5

Sarah cornered me in the breakroom.

She was holding a mug of coffee, leaning against the doorframe, looking me up and down.

"Well, well. Manager Chloe, drinking coffee all by yourself?"

I ignored her and kept filling my cup.

She stepped closer, lowering her voice.

"I looked up that iPad last night. It's worth over two grand. Plus the cash prize, I walked away with three thousand dollars.

So, thanks. If you hadn't tried to stop me, Victoria probably wouldn't have pushed so hard to give me the award."

I screwed the cap onto my bottle. "It has nothing to do with me."

She laughed mockingly. "The more you tried to stop it, the more Victoria wanted to help me.

Aren't you just an idiot? You tried to fight me, and look what happened."

I looked at her like she was a clown. "Are you done?"

She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a whisper.

"Do you know why your life is such a mess?

You're in your thirties, single, with no boyfriend, and absolutely miserable.

You're rigid at work and lonely in life.

You're just jealous. Jealous that I have a genius daughter, and jealous that my review scores were better than yours."

I let out a cold laugh. "Sarah, your daughter has leukemia, and you're using her illness to scam money out of the company. You don't deserve to be a mother."

Her face twisted, her smug expression vanishing instantly.

"What did you say?"

"I said, you traded your kid's illness for cash, and you're actually proud of it.

If you really cared about your daughter, you wouldn't be showing off a stolen painting."

Her face went bright red, her lips trembling. "How dare you say it's stolen! Do you have proof?"

I grabbed my cup and walked past her. "Watch your back."

She chased after me, screaming, "Chloe! Stop right there!"

I kept walking.

She began to scream at the top of her lungs in the middle of the hallway.

"Everyone, come look at this!

Chloe is so jealous of my daughter's talent that she tried to block her painting, and now she's accusing me of plagiarism!

She even demanded I give her half of the prize money! When I said no, she threatened me!"

The colleagues in the hallway stopped and turned.

Sarah’s eyes welled with tears instantly.

"Do you know how hard it is to be a single mom?

My baby is going through chemo, and she actually demanded a cut of the money, saying 'everyone gets a share'..."

Whispers broke out.

"Oh my god, is Chloe really like that?"

"I heard she tried to block the painting earlier..."

"Maybe being single for too long made her mental."

I turned around and looked at her.

Sarah was crying hysterically now.

"Chloe, I know you're single and childless, and your life is bitter! But you can't bully us like this!

My daughter's painting is the only thing keeping me going... and you say she copied it... are you trying to drive me to suicide?"

The surrounding stares felt like daggers—filled with pity for her, disgust for me, and excitement for the drama.

I watched her finish her performance, then said calmly, "Since I'm such a horrible person, I'll just resign."

Sarah froze. She didn't expect me to say that.

The onlookers shook their heads, enjoying the show.

I walked away with my cup.

The next morning, I had just finished typing up my resignation letter when someone came looking for me.

Five minutes later, a young woman with a ponytail walked into my office.

She wore a backpack and held an iPad, her expression grim.

"Hi, I'm Emma."

She pushed her iPad screen in front of my face. "This painting, displayed under the name of Lily Zhang, is my artwork from three years ago."

I stood up and smiled.

Without a second of hesitation, I said, "Let me take you to the CEO."

We walked to Mr. Carter’s office. The door was half-open.

Inside, Richard's laughter drifted out: "We should give Victoria the Manager of the Year award for this gala..."

I knocked on the door.

"Come in."

I pushed the door open and let Emma in first.

"Mr. Carter, this is the original artist of the painting "My Little Kitten". She's here to claim copyright infringement."