It was true that Lacey had already made a decision on her own.

Right after I was done speaking, she got up, pretending to head for the washroom. However, she made a quick detour and walked right into Elton's office.

She spent an even longer time inside his office than the other woman in my past life did.

When Lacey finally came back out, her face was flushed and rosy, and her hair and clothes were obviously a lot more disheveled than before.

While walking past my cubicle, her facial expression turned slightly awkward, and she purposely turned her head to the side because she was too embarrassed to face me.

We had spent seven years together, sitting for our SATs, our college admission exams, and even finally making it through college and graduating together.

I thought that I would have already known what kind of person she was by now. I had also thought that we would continue being each other's best friends until the end of our lives.

But I had simply been too naive. Seven years was way too short for me to thoroughly understand someone. Humans were just too complicated.

After that day, Lacey was promoted over us, and she was put in charge of me and three other employees who had also been in the same hiring batch as her.

This was Lacey's first taste of power. She became arrogant, and her ego also bloated almost at once.

One of the other employees placed under her supervision was named Casey Flemington. Casey used to be classmates with me and Lacey, and she was also always the top scorer in class back then.

Lacey hated her.

So, she began making things difficult for her on purpose.

Lacey often made Casey make numerous changes to proposal details, telling her again and again, and even making her work overtime at the company for the unnecessary changes.

"Weren't you the top of the class every time back in school? How did you turn out so terrible once you stepped into the working world?

"This is not what I wanted! Can't you have a better sense of judgment for yourself? Are you daft?

"Can't you just figure out on your own what I want? Must you always make me spell it out for you each time?"

Lacey, who had always hated being told what to do and driven into a corner, was now doing even worse things to her subordinates after being given some power.

Once Lacey was done making life difficult for Casey, she would then sigh deeply and hold her head in her hand while speaking in a disappointed voice, "Forget about it. I knew I couldn't place any hope on people like you who only know how to memorize lines from textbooks. You wouldn't have any sense. Just use the original version instead."

After putting in overtime work for three days and having all of her hard work rejected, Casey, though dense, finally realized that Lacey was simply toying with her.

She glared angrily at Lacey and asked, "Were you making a fool out of me this entire time?"

Lacey looked down on her with her arms folded on her chest, giving her a nonchalant look.

"I'm a very busy woman. I do not have the time to fool around with lowly people like you. You think too much of yourself!

"Just admit that you're no better than me instead of barking the entire time. This is not a school. Nobody is going to put up with your nonsense!"

It was true that nobody would put up with Casey's nonsense, but that also meant the same for Lacey.

Casey raised the stack of proposal documents she'd edited at least ten times and hit Lacey in the face with it as hard as she could. Then, she threw herself on Lacey, grabbed at her hair, and tried to claw at her face.

Lacey had been sitting the entire time, so she had already lost to Casey in terms of position. Moreover, Casey had struck her when she wasn't prepared for it, so Lacey had no way to defend herself.

After tearing and clawing at each other for five more minutes, when Lacey's voice was close to being hoarse after so much screaming, the security guards finally managed to rush in and rescue her.

Lacey was a disheveled mess. She hid behind the security guard and waved a finger in Casey's face angrily.

"How dare you do this to me? You bitch! How dare you hit me? I'm going to fire you!"

Lacey's voice wasn't the quietest. Everyone in the office could hear her words.

Also, everyone knew how Lacey had managed to get to her position today. It was just that they unanimously and coincidentally decided not to say a word about it.

But now, seeing that Lacey had inflated her ego so much to that point that she thought she could fire Casey, the other employees had finally had enough.

Murmurs arose in the office.

"She's just a cheap thing who slept her way to the top. Did she really think she'd have the power to fire anyone? Who does she think she is?"

"Yeah. She's just a lapdog who thinks she's all that because she has a backer. She thinks she can just bark at just anybody now."

The murmurs weren't soft, and Lacey heard every word of it.

She immediately turned her head to where the murmurs and gossip came from.

"Who… Who dares to slander me? Stand up and face me! You're all nothing but useless trash who only know how to wag your tongues like they'd make any difference. I'm firing all of you today!"

The employees broke into laughter as they shot her mocking glances.

"Hahaha! Oh, I'm so scared! Hurry up and fire me! I don't want to come to work anymore. Come on, hurry up!"

"She's just made a supervisor over four people, and she thinks she can fire the whole company now! I wonder how she's gonna behave if they put ten people under her? I wouldn't want to imagine that."

"Such a coward. Here, I'll imagine it for you. If she has ten people under her, she'll be over the moon!"

"Hahaha! She's not much to look at, but her imagination's quite something, isn't it?"

Lacey was just about to retort, but Elton rushed out of his office and gave her a tight slap.

Lacey didn't manage to fire the entire company. In fact, she didn't even manage to get Casey fired.

Conversely, she was properly taught a lesson by Elton for being too pompous and arrogant in front of everyone else at the company.

She was indignant and kept insisting that the employees were being stupid and mean to her, and that she had done nothing wrong.

Elton had specifically engaged in these secretive, clandestine relationships at work because he'd loved the thrill of it. But now, Lacey had completely exposed him in public, so he was very mad at her about it. In fact, he had a mind to replace her.

Lacey finally panicked. However, her way of trying to get back on Elton's good graces wasn't to reflect on her behavior and lie low about it, but rather, to come looking for me to try and seduce him together.

There was a bright grin on her face as she planned meticulously.

"Back when you were still working under him, didn't he suggest that he wanted you to be one of his mistresses too? I bet he'd been very displeased when you turned him down," she said.

"How about you come with me tonight and serve him as well? Then you can tell him that I was the one who brought you along. He'd be so happy that I wasn't useless anymore because I could do something he had never been able to do. He'd never replace me then!"

My face was purple with rage. I immediately slapped her across the face.

Lacey held a hand to her smarting cheek and stared at me in disbelief.

"What do you mean by this? You're not willing to help me?"

I chuckled out loud.

"Not everyone is as despicable as you. You can go ahead and do those kinds of shameful things by yourself!"

I turned to leave. Lacey grabbed me and said, "Stop pretending like you're any more innocent than me! I really don't understand why you're still working here instead of resigning!

"At least 40% of the company's profits all go to Elton! You know how capable he is and how high his position is in the company!

"The only reason why you're still here is because you've been thinking of ways to seduce him and flatter him, isn't it? Don't think that I'm not aware of that!"

I forcefully released myself from her iron grip and looked into her eyes. Then, I said mockingly, "Out of all the employees in the same batch as us, you're the one with the least capabilities. You don't know how to do anything other than make coffee and run errands.

"So, with how incapable you are, and how narrow your field of sight is, you can't think of anything else except resorting to despicable methods to get what you want.

"Just play your part and continue being a pretty face. One day, you'll be amazed by what you see."

In my past life, I had tried collecting evidence and reporting Elton to the authorities, but I'd failed.

Before Lacey shoved me off the roof, my boss, Ronald Stevenson, had already asked to see me in his office that day.

He showed me a few screenshots taken from the surveillance cameras and said, "I know that you're investigating Elton and planning to report him for misconduct. Let me tell you now that I already know about it, and there's no need for you to investigate any further."

I looked at Ronald in confusion.

Ronald didn't bother hiding the truth. He said, "I started this company to make money, not to judge people for their inappropriate behavior.

"And compared to his misconduct, the amount of money he brings in for the company is more than enough to make up for his shortcomings. That's all that I care about."

I knew that the department Elton headed was the company's main cash cow. However, it wasn't until then that I finally realized how important Elton's money-making ability was.

This time, the only reason why I still stayed in this company and didn't investigate Elton any further wasn't that I'd admitted defeat, but rather, I was planning to completely uproot Elton and get rid of him, once and for all.

In my past life, I had once handled a very important part of a potentially very lucrative project when I was still under his department. And after I transferred out, Elton didn't continue working with my ideas and flow, and the proposal eventually fell through.

This time, I was going to use the failing proposal to turn the tide in my favor.

Everyone who had wronged me thus far would have to watch me as I made my counterattack!