Carina Lewis, the head of the department, has been a friend of mine since college. While she successfully climbs up the corporate ladder, I'm stuck being the workhorse at the bottom of the totem pole.

When she's late for work, I sign in for her. When she messes up, I clean up for her.

I'm happy to play along with her, of course. It's not easy to find someone dumb enough to be the scapegoat.

One day, a billionaire investor shows up at the company's doorstep, and the senior executives instruct me to take care of him during his visit.

This evening, when the rest of the office is empty, Carina takes my hand and tells me earnestly, "Bailey, investors like him are ruthless. You won't even know what's coming for you. An innocent woman like you won't be able to handle him. Let me, your best friend, test the waters with him first. Once everything is settled, I'll make you a manager."

I nod sweetly in response.

Hours later, I scurry over to the presidential suite at the hotel, where the billionaire investor is staying, and kick down the door.

"Open up, Dal!"

It's one thing for Carina to constantly take advantage of me, but how dare she dream of becoming my sister-in-law to steal half of my family's assets?

That deluded pipe dream of hers will even make the marble statues in my family's garden roll their eyes.

Dalton Scott, the billionaire investor that Carina Lewis spoke of, was lounging in the hotel room with a glass of red wine in hand.

Startled by the sound of me kicking the door open, he nearly spilled the wine onto the carpet. When he saw it was me, however, he set the glass down on the bar in annoyance.

"Bailey Scott! What the hell are you doing barging in here in the middle of the night? Is this how you treat the company's biggest investor?" Dalton snapped.

I locked the door behind me before collapsing onto the couch. After grabbing a cherry from the fruit basket on the table and popping it into my mouth, I said, "Cut the crap. A woman's going to knock on your door in a minute.

"It's Carina Lewis, my so-called bestie from college. She's currently a head of department at my company. I'm guessing she's getting herself all dressed for battle right now, and you're her conquest."

Dalton's brows knitted together in disdain.

"What's wrong with people at your company? I'm here to evaluate a business deal, not find myself a bed companion."

Smirking, I spat out the cherry pit into the trash can before answering, "Now, now, the woman's got ambition. She's hoping to become Mrs. Billionaire Investor, of course. Her goal is to sleep her way into a marriage with you and to get half of your fortune.

"So, Mr. Billionaire Investor, why don't you play along with me and put on a show for her?"

Dalton raised a brow. He was about to speak when someone tapped shyly on the door, and a coy voice rang out.

"Excuse me, is Mr. Scott here?"

The sweet, sugary voice that called out in greeting was wildly different from my own swift kicking in of the door.

I shot up from the couch and pointed toward the walk-in closet, mouthing to Dalton, "I'll hide. You get the door."

Dalton rolled his eyes, tugged at the collar of his bathrobe, and went over to open the door.

The moment it opened, the thick smell of perfume wafted in.

Carina stood there in a silk slip dress with a deep V-neck and a flimsy coat draped over her shoulders. She leaned against the doorframe, her gaze seductive and her voice so cloying it made my skin crawl.

"I'm so sorry to disturb you at this hour of the night, Mr. Scott. I'm Carina Lewis, the head of the project management department at Lumina Corporation. I'm here about the investment deal. I have some private insights I'd like to share with you. Perhaps we could have an in-depth exchange about it?"

Watching her stunt from the inside of the closet, I almost gagged.

Dalton leaned against the door, making no move to let her in. His eyes swept over her from head to toe. "Some private insights, you say? How private?"

Thinking she had shot, Carina immediately took a step forward, her hip swaying with the move. She was practically pressed up against Dalton as she murmured, "Well… It's something that only the two of us can find out in person."

As she spoke, she deliberately tugged at the collar of her dress, revealing even more of her skin.

Dalton let out an abrupt snort before responding icily, "Ms. Lewis, yeah? Lumina Corporation's financial reports look like some fool smashed their head against their keyboard. But instead of pulling an all-nighter to fix your numbers, you've got time to come here and ply your wiles in front of me?"

Carina's smile froze. She didn't expect Dalton to be so blunt. "You've misunderstood, Mr. Scott. I'm actually—"

"Get lost," Dalton commanded without wasting any more of his words.

Carina's face went ghostly pale, her eyes reddening instantly. "How can you humiliate me like this, Mr. Scott? I'm just trying to do what's best for the company and—"

Dalton slammed the door shut in her face, causing her nose to almost get clamped in the process.

I stepped out of the walk-in closet and gave Dalton a thumbs-up. "Nice showing, Mr. Scott."

Dalton brushed off the part of his robe Carina had almost touched, his expression disdainful.

"You let someone like that lead a department at your company? Sooner or later, it's going to go under."

Snorting, I replied, "It won't be for much longer. Once I get my hands on the evidence I'm waiting for, I won't have to deal with these clowns anymore. I bet she's going to take her anger out on me tomorrow. Just wait and see. You'll get to enjoy the show, too."

My phone buzzed in my pocket. Sure enough, it was a message from Carina.

"That investor is impossible to deal with, Bee! He's got such a nasty temper. I'm such a good friend, aren't I? I went through hell just for you, you know. You have to finish up the data for the core project for me tomorrow. Otherwise, I won't be able to keep my footing at the company."

As I stared at the words on the screen, my lips curled into a smile.

…

Early the next morning, the moment I walked into the office, a stack of documents came flying straight at me.

Carina stood in front of my desk in sky-high stilettos. With one hand on her hip, she jabbed a finger at me and tore into me.

"Bailey! Don't think sharing a last name with the investor somehow makes you special. I told you to prepare the investor information package, but this is the garbage you gave me? And you even had the nerve to show up late today! Thanks to you, I got an earful from our CEO, Mr. Hammond!"

All around us, my coworkers turned to watch, clearly enjoying the spectacle.

I glanced at my phone—I'd come in to work right on time—then looked down at the documents scattered on the floor.

I wasn't the one who prepared them. Carina had compiled a bunch of data from God-knew-where herself.

She'd gotten shut down at the presidential suite of the hotel last night and was here to make herself feel better by venting her fury on me today.

I crouched down, picking up the documents one by one, head lowered as I said, "I'm sorry, Ms. Lewis. I'll redo them right away."

Carina scoffed, her voice jumping an octave. "You're redoing them, huh? You think you can afford to waste Mr. Scott's time like that? A useless piece of trash like you would've been fired long ago if I hadn't been looking out for you out of consideration for our friendship back in college!"

A few of the coworkers who usually sucked up to Carina the most immediately chimed in.

"Exactly! Ms. Lewis treats you so well, and you don't even appreciate it."

"All you do is coast along every day. You can't even make a decent presentation deck."

"I bet she's just jealous that Ms. Lewis is young and accomplished, so she's deliberately trying to cause trouble for Ms. Lewis."

Their mockery didn't stir anything in me. I simply found it amusing.

Carina poked me in the shoulder with her long, sharp nails and declared, "Before you leave work today, you need to give me the final quotation proposal for the project.

"Also, run down to the cafe and get me an iced latte. I want the ice to fill exactly three-quarters of the cup—no more, no less."

I nodded dutifully and went off. When I reached the elevator, I took out my phone and sent a message to Dalton's assistant, Ian Davis. "Have you done what I asked for? Make sure you keep a close eye on everything."

After returning from the coffee run, I sat at my desk and fired up my computer to start working on the proposal Carina asked for.

The project in question was the company's trump card this year. It was also the biggest leverage in the hands of Carina and the CEO of Lumina Corporation, John Hammond.

The two of them thought they'd done a good job hiding all of their secret machinations. They had no clue that I'd completed ample preparations way before that.

At 5:00 pm, I emailed the completed document to Carina. Less than ten minutes later, she summoned me to her office.

She was lounging in her executive chair, staring at the data on her screen, greed flickering in her eyes.

"Did you prepare this proposal all by yourself, Bee? Did you show it to anyone else?"

I replied, "Yeah, I did it myself. No one else has seen it, Ms. Lewis."

Out of nowhere, Carina broke into a smile. She got out of her chair and walked over to me, taking my hand in a show of familiar intimacy.

"See? I knew you had potential! But the higher-ups might not even bother reading the proposal if it came from you. Here's what I think we should do. Let's put my name on the proposal, and I'll take it to Mr. Scott myself.

"Once the deal is closed, I'll arrange a promotion for you and make you a manager," Carina declared.

Her expression made it seem like this was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. I couldn't help but feel pretty exasperated by that. Few in this world could be this brazen about stealing someone else's credit.

I hurriedly nodded, making myself seem flattered by her offer. "Thank you for looking out for me, Ms. Lewis."

The self-satisfied Carina patted my hand and said, "That's all. You can go now. Oh, the company is organizing a cocktail party to welcome Mr. Scott this evening. You should come as well."

That caught me off guard. "You want me to attend the party? But I don't have anything to wear to a cocktail party."

Carina eyed me scornfully. "Who said you'd be attending as a guest? You can help the catering crew with the serving. Remember not to embarrass me."

I lowered my head, my eyes flashing coldly.

She wanted me to be a server, huh?

So be it, then. We were going to see who would end up humiliated this evening.

…

The cocktail party was held at the city's top luxury hotel. Only the wealthy and powerful were in attendance.

Dressed in an ill-fitting, black-colored server's uniform, I moved through the crowd carrying a tray of drinks.

Not far away, Carina had her arm looped through John's as she pealed with laughter. The so-called couture gown she wore was actually just an outdated castoff she'd dug out from some random vintage shop.

John, who was already balding despite not even being in his 50s, kept his lustful gaze fixed on Carina. "I'm counting on you this evening, Carrie. As long as you bag Mr. Scott, once we offload that project, we'll be set for the rest of our lives!"

Carina leaned against his shoulder and laughed coquettishly.

"Don't worry, Mr. Hammond. You know what I'm capable of. Mr. Scott may have a nasty temper, but a man's a man. What man isn't happy to have some fun outside?"

I was passing right by them with the tray of drinks in hand when I caught the tail end of her deplorable words. I stumbled on purpose, and a glass of red wine tipped right onto Carina's secondhand couture gown.

Carina shrieked and shoved me away. "Are you blind! Do you know how expensive this gown is? You wouldn't even be able to pay me back if you auctioned yourself off!"

I hit the floor hard, scraping the palms of my hands. But I scrambled back up immediately to offer a flustered apology.

"I'm so sorry, Ms. Lewis! I didn't mean to do it… I just lost my balance…"

The surrounding guests gestured toward us and whispered among themselves.

Looking pretty livid, John grabbed my arm and snarled, "Do you know where we are right now, you clumsy buffoon? Get the hell out of here now!"

Carina stared at the wine stain on her gown, her body trembling with rage. She grabbed me by the collar and hissed through gritted teeth, "You did this on purpose, didn't you, Bailey? Admit it! You're just jealous I get to be the center of attention this evening, right?"

I fervently shook my head, tears pooling in my eyes. "That's not true, Carrie! We're best friends. Why would I do something like that to you?"

"Shut up! Who are you calling your best friend, huh? Who do you think you are?" Carina flung me aside before turning to John.

"Mr. Hammond, I know for a fact that Bailey Scott here is known for her sticky fingers at the office. I suspect she didn't come here to help at all—she came to steal!"

John instantly caught on and bellowed, "Security! Seize that thief!"

Several security guards rushed over immediately and grabbed me, pinning my arms in place on both sides.

As I struggled to break free, I shouted, "I didn't steal anything! How can you detain me like this?"

Snorting, Carina walked over and eyed me. "Why not? As the head of the project management department, I'm your boss, and you're just one of my workhorses. This isn't over yet, Bailey."

Just then, someone opened the ballroom doors.