After I secure a hundred-million-dollar business deal for the company, I receive a commission worth a million dollars.

When I'm off to ask for maternity leave, the intern, Violet Lintell, shoots a nasty glance at my belly.

"You really are a capable one, aren't you? Many of us have participated in the project, and yet all of our commissions aren't as lucrative as yours even when added together."

I can tell that she's being passive-aggressive right now, so I respond to her as patiently as I can.

"President Kinsley won't skim everyone out on their commissions. I'm just receiving my own commission based on the salary standards."

I never know that Violet gets massively triggered by my response instead. She jumps to her feet and points at me instantly.

"Everyone can tell that President Kinsley shows extra concern toward you and your unborn baby! You slept with him in exchange for this project, didn't you?

"You're just taking advantage of the fact that you're pregnant with President Kinsley's child, aren't you? Even if you are pregnant with his child, you're nothing but a despicable mistress!"

I'm perplexed, to say the least.

Does Violet seriously think that I've sold my body just to steal my colleagues' resources from them?

But the thing is, President Kinsley, who—according to Violet—is showing extra concern toward me, is actually my mother!

How the heck am I even pregnant with my own mom's child, to begin with?

"You're going off on maternity leave right after stealing our contribution bonus? Do you have no shame?"

Violet Lintell glared at me viciously with a self-righteous expression.

Our colleagues stood behind her. Even though they remained silent, the way they looked at me was no less hostile. Since she was unafraid of someone with more authority, they were treating her as their spokesperson.

I dropped my gaze and laughed softly.

For the sake of this project, I had personally flown all the way to North Melarda despite being six months pregnant, and I had finally succeeded in snagging it only after significant effort.

I didn't deny that they had helped me by contributing to some details from here in the country, but it wasn't like they hadn't gotten any bonus from it. They were just upset because I had gotten the lion's share.

Lifting my head to gaze at the furious Violet, I calmly replied, "Have you even met President Kinsley before for you to say that I crawled into his bed? And how are you going to prove that my baby is his?"

Since she thought the president was male, I would play along for now.

Violet paused for a second, but she swiftly bolstered herself and retorted, "Of course, I've seen him! Several months ago, I saw with my own eyes as you and President Kinsley booked a hotel room together.

"If your baby isn't his, then I really need to tell him what a slut you are and reveal your true colors! How dare you use that baby to trick him into giving you the project!"

I couldn't stop the laugh that escaped my lips.

The President Kinsley Violet spoke of—our company's president—was actually my mother. However, she rarely came to the company, so only the executives had seen her and knew her true gender.

Violent hadn't even bothered finding out our president's gender before she started to accuse me of such ridiculous things.

Our colleagues were in an uproar after she finished her tirade.

"Violet, did you really see her go to a hotel with President Kinsley?"

"Seriously? I've been working here for years, but even I haven't seen President Kinsley before. Who would've thought Elena would so easily latch onto him?"

Fueled by their comments, Violent even took out her phone to show us some photos.

"I even took some photos at the time! Look! The suit that man is wearing is clearly an expensive, tailored piece. Who else could it be but President Kinsley?"

I swept a quick glance over the photo.

Wasn't that my husband? However, since only his back could be seen in the photo, it was hard to tell his age.

"Sorry to break it to you, but that's my husband, not President Kinsley."

Infuriated, Violet slammed her phone face-down on the table before crossing her arms and sneering, "Who the hell would go stay at a hotel with their husband for no reason? Besides, if your husband can afford such an expensive suit, why would you need to work to earn money while pregnant?"

I could only shake my head, utterly speechless.

If it weren't for the fact that I didn't trust anyone else with such a huge project, I would've gone off on maternity leave long ago.

As for me booking a night at the hotel with my husband, that was simply something to spice up our marital life. How was that any of her business?

I couldn't be bothered to waste my breath on someone like her, so I turned to say to the HR staff, "Please approve my request for maternity leave. I would like to go home and rest now."

The HR staff nodded dazedly, but just as he was about to approve my request, Violet snatched up his mouse and flung it away.

"You think you can go on a long leave after you've taken away all our bonus? No chance in hell! Not unless you return all that money to us!"

The mouse Violet tossed aside flew straight toward my abdomen.

Thankfully, my hand instinctively moved to protect my belly while the other swatted the mouse aside.

Anger blazed in me. I knew that Violet had done that on purpose to provoke me.

Clenching my hands into fists, I roared, "What the hell is wrong with you, Violet Lintell? According to our pay structure, this is exactly the commission I'm entitled to! If you have any problems with that, bring it to President Kinsley!"

The mention of President Kinsley instantly had Violet's hackles rising.

"How dare you bring up President Kinsley? You're nothing but a shameless mistress, yet you seem to think you're his wife just because you're carrying his baby! If I were to tell his real wife about you seducing him, even President Kinsley won't be able to save you! You and that bastard of yours are doomed!"

I was shaking with rage, but just as I was about to retort, my abdomen began cramping badly. My stress had to be affecting the baby.

Cold sweat broke out on my back, and I didn't have the energy to continue this argument with Violet. Cradling my bump carefully, I turned to leave.

However, I had barely taken two steps when Violet seized my wrist and yanked me back.

"You're leaving even though you haven't been permitted to take leave yet? Where do you think this is, your house?"

I struggled to wrest my hand out of her grip.

"Let me go! Since HR won't approve my leave, I'll just go to President Kinsley for approval!"

Violet's grip was growing tighter and tighter, causing my skin to turn red and throb with pain.

When the others saw how heavy-handed Violet was being, they were a little worried and softly urged her to release me. They didn't want her to take things too far.

Yet, when Violet realized that I couldn't escape her, her lips curled into a smug smile. Raising her voice, she deliberately fanned the flames. "Hear that, everyone? This bitch sure is arrogant! She doesn't even care for the company rules! Are we really going to let her step all over us and steal our bonus?"

Her eyes locked onto mine as she went on forcefully, "Cough up that two million dollars for us to split between us, and I'll let you apply for your maternity leave!"

The instant everyone heard that Violet wanted me to cough up that money, all concerns about things escalating too far flew out the window. They surged forward and swiftly had me surrounded.

"Violet's right! That was a one-hundred-million-dollar order. Why do you get one million dollars while we only get about 20 to 30 thousand?"

"She called it! You're just using the pregnancy as an excuse to bully us and strip us of our commission!"

"Hand over that money, or you can forget about leaving!"

When I didn't budge, several of the more muscular male colleagues began to shove and pull at me.

Biting my lower lip tightly, I elbowed them away. "If anything happens to my baby, all of you will be held accountable!"

It hadn't been easy for me to close that deal, yet they wanted to snatch that money from me? No way in hell!

My actions shocked the male colleagues. Worried that they would accidentally harm my baby, they hastily backed away and left me a path to walk through.

"Do none of you have any balls?" Frowning deeply in displeasure, Violet squeezed her way through the crowd angrily. "The more you're like this, the more she'll just step all over you. Then you can forget about ever getting her to cough up that money."

Following that, she stepped into my path and slowly approached me, expression twisted into a dark scowl.

My heart started drumming rapidly as an uneasy feeling rose in me.

One of the male colleagues complained helplessly, "She's determined not to give us the money. What can we do?"

Violet laughed coldly. "When faced with someone as shameless as she is, she won't know to fear us unless we teach her a little lesson."

Before anyone else could react to that, a sharp, stinging pain exploded on my cheek.

Violet had raised her hand and slapped me.

Violet hadn't held back with that slap, and I staggered back several steps. My hands flew out behind me to brace against the edge of the table.

The agony coming from my abdomen intensified, and I couldn't even stand straight because of the pain.

Violet shook out her hand, wearing a vindicated expression.

"Look at how she can't even hold her head up anymore! People like her deserve to be hit. That'll knock out the arrogance right out of her."

My back was still bowed when I felt Violet grab me by the scruff of my neck.

Squeezing tightly, she said in a venomous tone, "Elena, we Gen Z employees are here to shake up the workplace. There's no way I'll put up with your crap."

I reached out to grab her sleeve, wanting to retaliate, but she quickly shoved my head down and bashed it against the table.

"Hurry up and cough up the money!"

Gritting my teeth, I adamantly refused to submit. "All you did was make a few presentation slides, yet you want to split my commission? You seriously don't know your place, huh?"

Immediately, Violet scowled. "Oh, so you think that you alone are the entire reason for the deal's success, huh? That we're in no way comparable to you?"

The rest of our colleagues were equally upset to hear that, and they glared at me furiously.

"Don't flatter yourself! For one person alone to get that much commission is just too unfair for the rest of us!"

As the crowd grew more agitated, I didn't bother being polite and retorted, "If this had been another company, you all certainly wouldn't have gotten as high a commission as you did here for the amount of work you did. The company is already being very generous."

I wasn't exaggerating. For the entire duration of the project, I had personally seen to every phase, as I had been worried about things going wrong. Even when I had this group of people help me deal with some random tasks, I still had to rectify and edit their work.

Nonetheless, on account of them being on the project team, I asked my mom to increase their commission share. This was the sort of benefit they couldn't possibly receive in any other company.

The moment I finished speaking, Violet was already egging the crowd on.

"Elena must have been badmouthing us to President Kinsley, and that's why he cut our commission! If we continue to let her trample all over us, she might just steal all our salaries for herself one day! What are you guys waiting for? Go on and teach her a lesson!"

"Violet… what if President Kinsley finds out?" someone asked hesitantly.

That earned him a vicious glare from Violet before she shrieked shrilly, "Don't worry about that bastard she's carrying! She was the one who picked on us first. If President Kinsley learns about this, we'll just have him choose between this bitch and the rest of us employees! Without us, how is his company supposed to function?"

"You're right! There's no way President Kinsley would ignore the bigger picture!"

Thoroughly consumed by their rage, the male colleagues cracked their knuckles menacingly.

"What are you trying to do!" I cried in alarm.

The next second, the group of men lunged toward me. One of them grabbed me by the hair, while another kicked the back of my knees.

Following that, countless punches and slaps rained down on me, sending waves of pain through my body.

I focused entirely on protecting my belly, the agony coursing through me making me gasp for breath.

Through my blurry vision, I could see Violet standing in front of me with a haughty expression.

In the chaos, one hard punch landed against my temples and thoroughly robbed me of any will to fight back.

If this went on, I would definitely be beaten to death right here.

No, I couldn't let anything happen to my baby!

In that moment, all thoughts of any commission were shoved to the very back of my mind.

Swamped by despair, I yelled as loud as I could, "Stop hitting me! Please, just stop hitting me! I'll give you the money to divide between yourselves, so please just stop! Don't harm my baby!"

Violet called them off before crouching in front of me with a wide smile.

"Here. Now send the money over!"