It was nothing more than a tiny scratch, yet Robert looked devastated over it. "Ellie, are you okay? I'm taking you to the hospital right now!"

With that, he grabbed Ellie by the hand and hurried out.

Watching his frantic retreat, I found the whole thing utterly pathetic. In all our years together, he had never treated me like that.

Back when I had a 104-degree fever, I had to drag myself to the hospital alone. Yet when Ellie had a paper cut, Robert looked as if his world were crumbling.

The affection radiating between them was practically blinding.

I had been so blind in my last life. It was staring me right in the face, yet I let them play me for a fool until it killed me.

Once they were gone, I stepped out of the office.

Immediately, my coworkers all looked at me like I was some kind of joke as the snide remarks began.

"Look at Melanie. Guess Robert chewed her out again."

"Seriously, she needs to stop throwing herself at Mr. Schmidt. Talk about zero self-awareness. How can she even compare to Ms. Gordon?"

"Exactly! Ms. Gordon and Mr. Schmidt are the real couple here. Melanie is just a parasite. Keep clinging like that, and she'll end up with absolutely nothing."

The laughter echoed down the hallway.

This wasn't the first time they had mocked me like this.

Robert and I had been married for seven years, but he refused to take our relationship public, claiming he wanted to avoid workplace gossip.

To keep up appearances, we never commuted together, and he treated me with harsh severity during office hours.

Naturally, the staff assumed I was on his bad side, so they constantly bullied me to score points with him.

Robert had watched it all happen with cold indifference. He even told me to look at the bigger picture and stop causing trouble.

In my last life, I swallowed my pride just to make things easier on him.

But I wasn't going to be anyone's doormat this time around.

I let out a chuckle and fired right back. "You guys can barely hit your KPI. Where do you get off judging me? Maybe focus on keeping your jobs before worrying about mine."

Leaving them red-faced and sputtering, I turned on my heel and walked back to my desk.

The moment I sat down, my phone rang. It was Robert, his voice clipped and cold. "Melanie, Ellie hurt her hand and needs to rest. She shouldn't be overexerting herself. You'll be taking over the rest of her workload today."

Then, Ellie's voice piped up in the background, thick with faux reluctance. "Robert, is that really okay? I'd hate to be a burden to Melanie."

Robert scoffed. "What's wrong with it? Coworkers are supposed to help each other out. Besides, you're giving her a learning opportunity. She should be thanking you."

Before I could refuse, he hung up and sent over a proposal Ellie had only written the title for.

This was exactly how it went in my last life. I did all the grunt work and took all the blame when things went sideways, while Ellie walked away with all the credit and the bonuses.

This time around, they weren't making a sucker out of me again.

Still, I wasn't about to let Ellie off that easily.

I accepted the file, did a quick copy-paste job from a random website, and shot the completed proposal right back to Robert.

With that out of the way, I pulled out my phone and messaged a contact. "Hello, I'd like to file a patent application."

The agent responded almost instantly.

In all fairness, the company's rapid growth was entirely due to the patents I held.

After I died, Robert used my patents to climb to the very top.

This time, I was going to lock down those rights first. Once the patents were secured in my name, every single product his company manufactured would be a direct infringement.

Since Robert liked to pretend he was broke, I'd make it a reality.

After sending the message, I was just about to rest when a few coworkers marched over, dumped a stack of unfinished work onto my desk, and spoke as if it were my civic duty.

"Melanie, write up this proposal for me."

"Melanie, go print these files."

Someone else ordered me to go downstairs and grab him a cup of coffee.

Because Robert treated me like garbage, they had all learned to follow his lead.

When I didn't immediately jump to it, one colleague whispered, "Melanie seemed pretty pissed earlier. Do you think she'll actually help us?"

Another scoffed. "What are you worried about? She's all talk. You know what she's like."

In my last life, I had complained plenty of times about them dumping their workloads on me. But every time, Robert told me to be the bigger person, and every time, I brainwashed myself into accepting it.

After all, it was my company too. I didn't want to watch the business I had poured years of sweat into go down the drain.

But over time, they realized I never bit back. Backed by Robert, they handled me however they pleased.

Did they really think I was a pushover?

I let out a cold laugh and swept the files straight into the trash can. "Are you all paralyzed? If your limbs work perfectly fine, do your own damn work. If you can't handle basic tasks, hand in your resignation. And from now on, stop leaving your garbage on my desk."

The office went dead silent. Everyone stared at me like they were seeing a ghost.

As the tension hung heavy in the air, Robert came back with Ellie clinging to his arm.

Before anyone could say a word, he slammed his phone onto my desk and asked coldly, "Melanie Reid, what the hell is this junk? Ellie just got ripped apart by the shareholders because of you!"

I glanced down at the screen. A group chat was open.

Robert had shared Ellie's proposal.

Thanks to my track record of always delivering, he trusted me so much that he sent it out without even reviewing it. He also went on and on praising Ellie in the group chat and took the chance to suggest promoting her.

Instead, the shareholders had absolutely roasted him.

"You want to promote her over a piece of absolute garbage like this? Are you messing with us, Mr. Schmidt?"

Only then did Robert realize something was wrong. He tried to delete the proposal, but the time limit had passed.

Ellie's eyes brimmed with tears. She pointed a finger at me while sobbing. "Melanie, if you didn't want to help, you could have just said so. There was no need to stab me in the back like this.

"Robert, I'll just do it myself next time. I don't care if it ruins my hand. Anything is better than being backstabbed by Melanie."

Robert slammed his hand on the desk. "Melanie, you've gone too far! Apologize to Ellie right now!"

I didn't even bother looking up. "Why should I?"

His temper flared. "You promised to handle Ellie's work, but you deliberately sabotaged her instead. You don't think you owe her an apology?"

I scoffed and shot right back. "First of all, I never promised anything. You forced that file on me. Second, even if I did agree to help her, I never said I'd do a good job. So how exactly did I break my word?"

Robert's and Ellie's faces turned ashen. They wanted to argue, but they couldn't find a single flaw in my logic.

Ellie squeezed out two pathetic tears, whimpering. "Melanie, I had no idea you hated me this much. If there's no room for me here, I'll just resign!"

She made a dramatic show of turning to leave, but Robert caught her by the arm.

The rest of the office rushed to chime in, seizing the opportunity to throw me under the bus for my behavior earlier.

One of the coworkers said, "Mr. Schmidt, Melanie is totally out of control! Not only did she bully Ms. Gordon, but earlier, when we asked for a quick hand, she threw a massive tantrum and tossed our files in the trash!"

Robert's temper flared again at that. "Melanie, apologize to Ellie and everyone else right now, or you can consider yourself fired!"

Everyone was convinced I would never dream of leaving the company. They held their chins high, waiting for me to apologize.

Right then, my phone buzzed with a notification. "Ms. Reid, your patent application has been approved."

I looked up at Robert, completely unfazed. "Do whatever you want."

Now that the patents were officially mine, I could report Robert for infringement whenever I pleased. The company was going down regardless, so there was no point in my staying.

For a moment, everyone was stunned.

Ellie seized the moment to stoke the fire. "Robert, look at her! You can't just let this slide!"

The coworkers chimed in to agree.

Just when I thought Robert would take the opportunity to punish me, he took a deep breath and said in a calmer tone, "Melanie, I'm docking half a month's pay as a warning, and we'll leave it at that. Follow me into the office."

Ellie stood frozen, unable to believe Robert was actually letting me off the hook.

I was just as surprised. Robert had always favored Ellie, so why was he letting me off so easily? Had he changed?

But I quickly realized I had been overthinking it.

In the office, Robert took my hand and asked in a serious tone, "Melanie, are you throwing a tantrum because I brought up the divorce? I'm doing this to protect you. Why can't you see that I have your best interests at heart?

"I promise you, if the company manages to survive this crisis, we will get remarried immediately."

I sneered internally. Robert could lie with a straight face like an absolute professional.

But he was right about one thing—the company was indeed about to go under. I just hoped he'd still be smiling when it happened.

Seeing the faint smile on my face, Robert assumed he had convinced me. He pulled a thick stack of documents from his drawer, sliding them toward me with that same faux-caring look.

"This is a project transfer agreement. I need you to hand your current accounts over to Ellie. Don't worry, I'll compensate you fairly for it. I just hate seeing you work yourself ragged. I want Ellie to take some of the pressure off so you can finally get some rest.

"Once things settle down, we can start trying for a baby. It'll make you happy too, right?"

So that was why he had defended me out there—he wanted my projects.

Fortunately for him, I was already stressing over how to ditch these ticking time bombs. Getting them off my hands while getting paid for it was a win-win.

I nodded and signed the paperwork without hesitation.

Highly satisfied, Robert transferred the payout to my account and asked me to send Ellie in on my way out.

As we crossed paths at the door, she shot me a triumphant look.

I ignored her, walked down to the stairwell, and popped in my headphones.

What neither of them knew was that I had left my spare phone recording under the desk.

The moment the audio connected, their voices came through loud and clear.

"Robert, why did you side with that old hag out there?"

"Babe, I was just setting things up for you. Look, all of Melanie's projects belong to you now! Besides, the divorce papers are already signed. If it makes you feel better, we can register our marriage later. Then I'll buy you that necklace you wanted, okay?"