My parents asked me to oversee my childhood friend Leo’s company, so I took a role as his finance manager. But right after he left on a business trip, new intern Jessica Shaw burst into my office, demanding I process her expense report. I stared at her stack of luxury boutique receipts. “Jessica,” I said confusedly, “I only reimburse company expenses—these are personal (handbags, clothes). Not my call.” She threw her iced latte at me. “I’m the boss’s fiancée! Company money’s mine!” she shrieked. “Don’t deny my receipts ‘cause you grew up with him!” I held back anger, pulled out the employee handbook. “I can’t,” I repeated. “Funds need official approval.” She called Leo, voice sickeningly sweet: “Honey, do I need your friend’s okay to buy things? Is she being tough ‘cause you two have something going on?” I heard Leo’s flustered denial. Soon after, he posted in the company group: “Jessica Shaw is my fiancée—second boss, answers only to me.” He tagged me: “Finance isn’t a nanny. I’m not interested—stay out. It’s my money, let her spend. Quit if you don’t like it!” I signed off on all her receipts silently. A week later, Leo returned and gaped at the ten-foot-long company debt printout. 1 Jessica burst back into my office while I was still cleaning up the sticky latte mess from my documents. She slammed her phone down on my desk. “Can you read, nanny?” she sneered, her eyes filled with contempt. I slowly looked down at the screen. In the group chat, Leo was still on a roll. He’d tagged everyone. “I’m out of the office. From now on, Jessica is in charge. What she says, goes. If you have a problem with that, you can leave.” My phone rang. It was Leo. “Jessica just told me everything,” he yelled, his voice dripping with impatience. “She’s an employee. Why didn’t you approve her reimbursements? Why are you deliberately targeting her?” I opened my mouth to explain, but he cut me off. “Let me give you a warning. Know your place. To put it nicely, you’re the finance manager. To put it bluntly, you’re my dog. And Jessica is your mistress.” A loud giggle erupted from Jessica’s side of the room. She leaned toward my phone, her voice a sickly sweet coo. “Leo, honey, you’re still…” “Are you sure you want me to reimburse Jessica’s expenses?” I interrupted, my voice cold. I calmly opened my phone’s voice recorder. “Stop wasting my time! Just approve it, now!” A small, tight smile touched my lips. “Alright.” I hung up and, without a moment’s hesitation, signed the expense form. “The money will be in your account within five minutes.” Jessica looked triumphant. She picked up a stack of receipts and patted me on the cheek with them. “I’ll let it slide this time,” she said, her voice dripping with condescension. “But next time, watch your tone when you speak to me, you pathetic mutt.” I caught her wrist. A sharp twist, and Jessica’s face contorted in pain. “Jessica,” I said, my voice dangerously low, “you are not worthy of speaking to me like that.” After all, my family had put up most of the capital to start this company. We held the majority of the shares. Leo might be the CEO, but I was the one holding the purse strings. I flung her hand away. Caught off guard, she stumbled and fell to the floor. Her eyes widened, and she let out a piercing shriek. “You dare to hit me!” At that moment, a notification chimed from her phone—the money had arrived. She shot a venomous glare at me, scrambled to her feet, and stormed out, but not before shouting, “Just you wait! I’ll destroy you!” I had the next quarter’s reports to worry about, so I paid her no mind. Half an hour later, Lily, a colleague I was friendly with, rushed into my office. “Chloe, it’s bad! You’ve been… you’ve been exposed.” Her face was pale. “The group chat is blowing up!” A knot of dread tightened in my stomach. In the three years I’d worked here, no one besides Leo knew I was the sole heiress to the Gordon fortune. Had they found out? Lily held her phone out to me, her voice a whisper. “Chloe, I don’t believe any of it. I know you’re not that kind of person.” She patted my shoulder reassuringly. “You would never be a mistress, right?” Her words hit me like a splash of ice water. “A mistress? Whose mistress am I supposed to be?” I grabbed the phone and saw that Jessica had created a new group chat—one that included everyone in the company but me—and had filled it with photos of me. 2 “Let me educate you all,” Jessica had written. “This coat Chloe is wearing? It’s Burberry. Sells for over five thousand dollars.” “This bag? It’s Louis Vuitton. You can’t get it for under fifteen grand.” “And the shoes, the sunglasses, even the hair clip… her whole outfit is worth nearly fifty thousand dollars.” She posted another photo. “I’m sure you all recognize this car brand. I won’t say more, but you tell me: how does a finance manager afford all this?” The chat, which had been quiet, erupted. Many were already sucking up to Jessica after Leo’s announcement. Now, they were fabricating stories out of thin air. “I think I saw her get into a car with a much older man last week.” “Tsk, tsk. I always knew there was something off about her.” “If Jessica hadn’t pointed this out, we would’ve all been fooled.” Emboldened by the support, Jessica grew even more audacious. “I’m telling you all this because I need you to stand up for what’s right,” she wrote. “Chloe is constantly sending messages to your boss behind my back. She even told him to come to her house late at night.” She posted a screenshot. It was a message from me to Leo, sent at 1 AM. It read: “Come to my house. Now.” The context was that my father had found a major issue in a contract and had summoned Leo for an emergency meeting. But without that context, it was damning. With this “proof,” the floodgates opened. “Doesn’t she know Leo and Jessica are getting married soon?” “Oh, I know her type. I used to be a bitch just like her, always trying to steal other women’s men…” Lily snatched the phone back, her hands trembling. “Chloe, this is all fake, right?” I gave her a grateful nod. “It is. It’s a long story, but thank you for telling me.” I motioned to her phone. “Can I take a picture of this?” “A picture?” I smiled. “Yes. I’m going to the police. This is slander.” Without another word, Lily handed the phone back. “Good, Chloe! You should!” I quickly documented the evidence and sent it to my family’s lawyer. Then I turned back to Lily. “Don’t worry. I’m not the person they’re describing.” When I first saw the messages, I was hurt, confused, and furious. My first instinct was to storm out and confront Jessica. But I knew that would only make things worse and wouldn’t clear my name. The lawyer replied almost immediately. “This constitutes defamation, Miss Gordon. Shall I draft the lawsuit now?” “Please do,” I replied. “Send it to me when it’s done. I’ll give all the materials to the police at once.” Just as I hit send, my office door swung open. Jessica sauntered in, hands on her hips, and plopped into the chair opposite me. “Well, well, the great finance manager. You look a little bored.” I didn’t bother to look up. Unfazed, she played a voice message from Leo. “If you want to go shopping, just go. You can’t carry everything yourself, so just grab someone to help you. Or just take Chloe. She’s not busy.” When the message ended, Jessica watched me with a mocking grin. I maintained my smile, tidied my desk, and stood up. “Let’s go, Jessica. I’ll take you on a little shopping spree.” 3 My compliance seemed to surprise her. She stared at me for a few seconds before sneering, “That’s more like it. It’s good for you to know your place.” I ignored her, acting as her dutiful chauffeur. At the mall, she marched straight into a high-end designer store. “Let me see this one.” She tried on five different handbags, preening in the mirror before turning to me. “Chloe, do you think this one suits me?” “Buy it,” I said flatly. She didn’t need my encouragement. With a wave of her hand, she told the sales associate to ring up all five. At the counter, she gestured for me to pay. I almost laughed. “You’re buying things, and you want me to pay?” She shot me a disdainful look. “With what? Your money?” She waggled her fingers impatiently. “I want the company card. Give it to me. Hurry up!” I feigned shock. “The company card?” I started to protest, but she cut me off with a warning glare. “Don’t forget who you are! Just because you’re holding our money for a while doesn’t make it yours. Did you already forget the lesson my fiancé taught you?” I pressed my lips together and dutifully pulled out the corporate card. “You’re right. If Leo said you can spend whatever you want, who am I to interfere?” With the card in hand, Jessica’s behavior grew even more outrageous. She swept into the next store and pointed at an entire display of handbags. “I’ll take all of them.” In a single afternoon, she charged nearly two hundred thousand dollars. As the clock neared 5:30, I reminded her that it was time to head back. “Oh, we’re not going back,” she said with a smirk. “The department is having a dinner tonight. We couldn’t possibly go without you.” On cue, a few of our colleagues appeared. “Jessica, we’re here!” “Are you sure about a seafood feast? Won’t that be too expensive?” They all fawned over Jessica, pointedly ignoring me. To my surprise, Brenda, a manager I’d always had a decent relationship with, singled me out. “Chloe, I understand wanting to marry rich, but a woman has to have some self-respect, doesn’t she? To throw yourself at someone else’s man like that…?” “Brenda, that’s enough!” Jessica interrupted with a laugh, then handed her one of the new handbags. “You’re a veteran of this company, one of our most valuable assets. Think of this as a bonus.” Everyone stared, their eyes wide with shock. Brenda was ecstatic. “Jessica, are you serious? A bag this expensive… for me?” Once she confirmed it was real, the floodgates opened. Everyone started taking shots at me. I said nothing, just quietly started a video recording on my phone, capturing every ugly expression, every malicious word. After a while, Jessica silenced them. She pointed to a high-end seafood buffet across the way. “We’re eating there tonight! My treat!” She shot me a gloating look. “And Chloe, you have to come!” I tried to refuse, but Brenda, eager to score more points with Jessica, grabbed my arm. “She’s the boss’s fiancée,” she whispered. “You’d better play along if you know what’s good for you.” They dragged me to the restaurant entrance. Jessica pointed to our group. “A table for five, please.” Then she gestured at me. “This woman is just here to carry my bags. She won’t be eating. Can she still come in?” 4 The hostess looked confused. Everyone else was looking at me with undisguised contempt. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but that’s not allowed.” That was all the opening Jessica needed. She smiled sweetly at me. “You heard her. You can’t come in. After all, someone like you can’t be trusted not to steal food.” They all burst into laughter. I just shrugged. “It’s fine. I’ll wait for you outside.” My lack of reaction seemed to infuriate her. She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. We don’t need you. You can go.” “Okay.” Without a backward glance, I left. On my way to the car, I sent the newly recorded video to my lawyer with a simple message: “Transcribe this for me.” Workplace bullying, defamation—it was all there, clear as day. Even if some of it wasn't criminal, it was certainly grounds for termination. When I got home that night, I checked the corporate account. The balance was almost zero. A sudden drop in liquid assets like that could cripple a company. But I wasn’t worried. This was Leo’s mess. I was going to make him swallow every last bitter bite of it. Over the next week, Jessica drained the account completely and even managed to rack up over six hundred thousand dollars in debt. She bought herself a fleet of new clothes, a mountain of handbags, and finally, a car identical to mine. And while she was on her shopping spree, I was meticulously collecting evidence. The day all the legal documents were ready, just as I was about to call the police, Jessica walked in, clinging to Leo’s arm. He had come straight from the airport, his luggage still in tow, and he was furious. “Chloe, everyone else might not know Jessica is my fiancée, but you do! Are you playing dumb with the rest of them?” he snarled. “And I know you have a crush on me, but I’m officially telling you: I’m not interested!” I felt a wave of disgust wash over me. “A crush on you?” “What else could it be? You think you hid it so well?” he said, full of self-assurance. “If you didn’t like me, why would you have come to work as the finance manager at my company?” I couldn’t help but let out a cold, humorless laugh. I was here for two reasons: one, because my family owned a majority stake, and two, because Leo’s own father didn’t trust him to run the company alone and had begged me to come. Jessica tugged on his arm, her lower lip trembling. “Honey, she won’t approve the expense for the car I want…” Leo glared at me. “Why won’t you reimburse Jessica’s car?” I looked at them, genuinely confused. “You have the card. What is there for me to reimburse?” Then it hit me. “Stop playing dumb!” Jessica shrieked. “When I tried to buy the car, the card was declined! You must have done something to it!” I understood now. She had hit the card’s credit limit. “There’s no money left on the card. That’s why it was declined.” “Impossible! There was over three hundred thousand dollars on it when I left!” Leo shot back, tapping impatiently on my desk. “Hand over the money. Now.” I spread my hands in a gesture of helplessness. “The money is gone. But I do have the statements, if you’d like to see them.” Leo was too caught up in his own confusion to notice the flicker of panic in Jessica’s eyes. “Give me the statements.” “It’s not a statement,” I corrected him patiently as I handed him the thick stack of papers. “It’s a list of debts.” “How is this possible?” His horrified scream nearly shattered the windows of my office. His face was chalk-white as he collapsed into a chair. “How could the company be this much in debt?” 5 Jessica was the first to react, pointing an accusing finger at me. “It was you!” she shrieked. “You’re the finance manager! You control the money! You must have spent it all!” Her words immediately swayed Leo. He looked at me with hatred in his eyes. “Where is it? Where did all the money go?” I leaned back in my chair nonchalantly. “Where did the money go? Jessica, you should know the answer to that better than anyone.” I played the video I had recorded at the restaurant. Jessica’s voice filled the room. “Don’t worry, everyone, eat up! It’s all on me! Seafood buffet tonight, and tomorrow, I’m taking you all to that rooftop restaurant downtown. It’s three hundred dollars a person!” A chorus of cheers followed. Leo’s face turned an ugly shade of gray. Jessica lunged for my phone. “That’s a lie! That video is fake!” She tried to delete it, but before she could, the office door opened and two police officers walked in. I glanced at my watch. It had only been fifteen minutes since I called them. Impressive. “Are you Chloe Gordon?” one of them asked me. I nodded. “We’re looking for a Jessica Shaw.” Jessica instantly shrank behind Leo. He, to his credit, stood his ground. “I’m her fiancé. What is this about?” “We received a complaint that she has been publicly slandering an individual and has embezzled company funds. We need to take her in for questioning. We need Ms. Shaw to cooperate.” The officer’s words finally seemed to break through Leo’s denial. He looked at Jessica in disbelief. “You embezzled company funds?” She shook her head stubbornly. “I only spent your money! How could I have embezzled anything? It was her! She’s trying to frame me!” All the blame was suddenly directed back at me. I just raised an eyebrow. “I’ve already provided the police with all the evidence. Do you really think they’ll believe a few fabricated lies? And Leo, you’ve seen the debt statements.” I twirled a pen between my fingers. “All of that spending was done by Jessica.” After a moment’s hesitation, Leo stepped in front of Jessica again. “This is my company! I am the boss, and I am not pressing charges!” The atmosphere in the room grew tense. A smug, triumphant smile spread across Jessica’s face.
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