First day back in the office. I was face down at my desk during lunch when the desk next to mine started rattling under a series of hard knocks.

I looked up. It was the firm's new architect, Flora Reeves.

"Lunch time ended five minutes ago. You're still asleep at your desk? Don't bother coming in tomorrow. You're fired!"

I told her I had just come back from a client meeting. I had been pulling all-nighters on the project for a week.

She looked at me like I was something on her shoe. "All you do is take clients out, drink with them, and scribble a few sketches.

"You don't even punch in. You're barely in the office. What gives you the right to nap at your desk during work hours?"

I almost laughed in her face!

I was the firm's chief architect. The bulk of the projects on Walsh & Co.'s books had my name on them.

The firm's success was, frankly, carried by me.

She saw me out of the office most days. She did not see me in another city, on another job site, talking down another client.

And in our industry, most of those clients had hired Walsh & Co. because of my name and reputation.

I kept my composure. "You're not in HR. On what authority are you firing me?"

She said, "On the authority that my husband is the president of this company."

I went still.

When did my boyfriend get married?

"I'm giving you exactly ten minutes. Pack your things and get the hell out of here!"

Flora Reeves's voice was sharp and pleased with itself.

I remained unfazed. "If you claim to be the boss's wife, show me some proof. Empty words mean nothing."

I was sure she was bluffing.

To my surprise, she actually pulled up a few photos on her phone and shoved the screen in my face.

In the pictures, my boyfriend, Louis Walsh, had his arm wrapped intimately around her waist. He was smiling tenderly, kissing her hair, his eyes brimming with absolute adoration.

"See that? Louis is my husband. We've been married for ages. What's left not to believe? If you know what's good for you, get out!"

My breathing hitched. I stared fixedly at those sickeningly intimate photos.

"That's impossible. He's been my boyfriend for ten years."

Flora burst into a fit of mocking laughter. "Look at your pathetic, shabby self. You actually delusionally think you could be his girlfriend? Keep dreaming!"

Drawn by the commotion, colleagues gathered around, their whispers rising and falling in waves.

"Who is that? I've never even seen her before."

"I think she's the lead architect who handled a few big projects a while back. No wonder she's got the nerve to go head-to-head with Flora."

"What lead architect? She probably just drank with clients and slept her way into those contracts. How does she have the gall to call herself the boss's girlfriend?"

"The boss and Flora have been practically glued to each other lately. They officially announced their relationship to the whole company last week. Who knows where she was, and now she's trying to play the homewrecker?"

"She's probably just so used to being a side piece she's developed delusions. Hahaha!"

The whispers pierced my ears like needles. My mind went entirely blank.

While I was away working, Louis actually made it official with Flora behind my back?

Seeing the crowd taking her side, Flora's gaze grew even more triumphant.

"Hear that? If you know what's good for you, pack your trash and leave! From today onward, the design department is under my control.

"My husband would never look twice at someone like you. Stop with your wishful thinking and quit trying to ruin our relationship!"

I let out a humorless laugh, practically trembling with rage.

"Even if most of you rarely see me, you should know what I've done for this company.

"I've worked here for ten solid years. I've secured countless core projects and brought in massive results for this firm. The senior staff here know exactly what I've accomplished.

"What gives you the right to fire me with a single sentence?"

Though I kept a low profile, the veterans in the room had all heard my name. For a brief moment, the sheer force of my words stunned the room into silence.

But Flora remained unrelenting. She stepped forward and violently swept everything off my desk, sending it all crashing to the floor.

"Stop boasting! So what if you've been here ten years? Let me tell you something: if you have no value, I don't care how much seniority you have, you get tossed out!

"You only got those projects by drinking and sleeping around! If we gave those clients to anyone else here, they could close the deals just the same!"

At this, murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd.

"Yeah, Flora is right! With the kind of client list you're hoarding, a dog could close those deals!"

"Without those contacts, you're nothing! Just get out and let the rest of us take over those clients!"

Staring at the mess on the floor, I instinctively reached down to pick up a critical project file.

Flora's heel slammed down on it. She snatched up the document without even glancing at it and ripped it to shreds.

That was the final proposal! The one I had spent an entire month negotiating, pulling all-nighters to revise dozens of times before the client finally approved it.

"You're already out the door, why do you care about this waste paper? Get lost and go process your resignation!"

The anger boiled over. I raised my hand and slapped her across the face with everything I had.

Flora clutched her cheek in utter shock. Just as she lunged to strike back, a sharp, authoritative voice barked from the office entrance.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Louis walked in.

The moment I saw him, my eyes lit up.

Just as I was about to hurry over to him, Flora beat me to it. She threw herself into his arms, her eyes slightly red as she whined like a spoiled child.

"Darling, Rachel is bullying me! She even hit me!"

Louis saw the red handprint on her cheek. His gaze instantly turned ice-cold, and he glared at me, his eyes blazing with fury.

"Rachel, are you crazy? Why did you hit her for no reason?"

I opened my mouth to defend myself. "She tried to fire me without any justification! And she tore up my—"

Slap!

Before I could even finish my sentence, Louis slapped me hard across the face.

"Shut up! If you didn't bully her, why would she target you? Don't make excuses!"

I clutched my cheek, in sheer disbelief.

In our ten years together, he had never once picked a fight with me or spoken a harsh word, let alone laid a hand on me.

"Louis, I am your girlfriend of ten years! I helped you build this from the ground up and worked myself to the bone for this firm for a decade. And you’re turning on me for some new woman?"

My voice couldn't stop trembling.

Ten years ago, his company was on the verge of bankruptcy. I was the one who stood by his side, fighting from the beginning to pull it back from the brink, growing it step by step into what it is today.

As a fairly well-known architect in the industry, numerous big firms had tried to poach me with massive salaries over the years, but I rejected them all. To rush projects and secure clients, I worked around the clock, traveling all over the country to visit job sites and negotiate details.

It was no exaggeration to say that without me, Walsh & Co. wouldn't exist today.

Louis, however, merely sneered, his face full of contempt.

"All you did was drink and chat with clients all day to pull in a few deals."

Saying this, he reached out and pulled Flora closer into his arms. His tone instantly became gentle.

"Unlike Flora. She relies purely on her own hard skills to carve out a place in the design world. How could someone like you possibly compare to her?"

Hearing him say that, it suddenly struck me that the name 'Flora' sounded awfully familiar.

There was an architect in our industry who had been blacklisted by multiple firms for plagiarism. If I recalled correctly, she shared that exact name.

Watching the two of them act so intimately, I clenched my fists tight, my voice trembling.

"So... while I was away, you’ve been cheating on me all along?"

"Cheating?"

Louis acted as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

He pulled a paper from his coat pocket and slapped it onto the desk in front of me with a loud smack.

It was unmistakably a marriage license.

Stamped right there on the license were their names.

"Open your eyes and look closely! Flora and I got married a long time ago!

"What business is it of yours if I'm intimate with my own wife in the office?

"Besides, when did I ever say we were boyfriend and girlfriend?"

The crowd around us instantly exploded, their whispers turning into loud mockery.

"Exactly! The boss and Flora made it official to the company ages ago. They're inseparable and so in love, it's incredibly sweet!"

"How can someone be so shameless, practically begging to be the other woman?"

"They have such a deep bond, there's no way a piece of trash like her could get between them."

"I've barely even seen her around the office. How does she have the nerve to call herself the boss's girlfriend? And claim he's cheating? Is that even possible?"

I stared at the marriage license, biting my lip until it turned white.

The date on it was from seven years ago.

So, this was the reason he had refused to go public with our relationship all these years.

All that talk about waiting for the firm to stabilize, waiting for the right time, waiting until he could give me a secure life before going public—it was all a lie.

Without even knowing it, I had been the other woman.

I forced a bitter smile and looked them both straight in the eye.

"Fine. Okay. I'll leave you two to it."

With that, I bent down, gathered my personal belongings from the floor, and prepared to leave.

"Hold on."

Louis suddenly called out, stopping me.

He held out his hand to me, his tone condescending.

"Hand over all the client files you have, as well as that multi-billion-dollar project you're currently working on.

"These are company secrets. If you take them with you, it's illegal."

I replied coldly, "All the files are on my computer. As for that collaborative project..."

I looked down at the shredded documents on the floor and pointed at Flora.

"She just tore it all to pieces."

Hearing this, Flora immediately averted her eyes and leaned coyly into Louis's embrace, pouting.

"It doesn't matter, darling. They're just some blueprints. I can easily draft seven or eight new versions, and I promise they'll be better than anything this woman drew."

Louis's expression finally softened at that, and he announced to the room.

"Don't worry, everyone. When this project is completed, everyone will get a share of the bonus!"

The office instantly erupted into cheers.

I merely finished silently packing my things, turned around, and walked away.

What they didn't know was that the document Flora had destroyed was the final proposal I had spent an entire month negotiating with a major client.

That client was incredibly deep-pocketed, but ruthlessly nitpicky about the details.

Besides me, very few people could manage to balance all his demands.

It took me a full month to finally produce a result that satisfied him, and he had given it his full approval.

But that proposal had just been shredded.

I couldn't wait to see how they would explain this to him later.