My green-eyed coworker, driven by jealousy over my spectacular work performance, decided to sabotage me. Sneakily, she spiked my drink, unaware of the life-long infertility it would cause. Afterwards, she just casually dropped, "Not having a kid makes life easier, you know? No thank you and just straight-up blaming me. What an ungrateful bitch!”

I exposed her little scheme for what it was. But then she threw acid on my face. "Since I can’t live well, you might as well die with me," she said.

There I was, scarred for life, my career in shambles, wrestling with crippling depression. Yet, as if granted a chance at redemption, I found myself thrust back to the fateful day she tainted my drink.

Part 1

At noon, me and my colleagues all went down to grab lunch. Sasha texted me, saying the birthday gift she bought for me had arrived two days ago and asked me to pick it up from Crossroads Central, right across from our office.

But the gift was just a cover. She was actually poisoning my cup.

“The water just boiled. I poured it for you,” she said when I was back, trying to make sure I didn't notice anything unusual. She even went around adding water to everyone’s cups to make it look normal.

I used to have a good relationship with her and never imagined she’d do something so awful. In my previous life, her frequent poisoning had wrecked my body—pus in my uterus, unable to have kids, my hands and feet rotting, gaining weight and eventually unable to stand. In the end, she poured concentrated sulfuric acid on me.

But this time, I wasn’t going to let it happen.

After Sasha finished talking, she casually went back to her seat. I picked up my cup, added coffee and milk and walked over to her with a smile.

“Sasha, seemed like you finished your coffee. Let’s split this one.”

She looked shocked when she saw me coming with the poisoned cup.

“No... no...”

Before she could finish, I poured half the coffee into her cup and took a sip from mine. “Sasha, I really love the picture album you got me. Let’s have dinner tonight, my treat.”

I made her drink a few sips and she panicked, smashing the cup and spilling liquid everywhere. She looked at me in horror, then rushed to the bathroom to vomit.

Watching her flee, I sneered and spat out the liquid from my mouth onto her seat.

Part 2

It seemed Sasha hadn't managed to vomit everything out. She didn't even have time to request a day off and hurried to the hospital for gastric lavage in a taxi. Our colleagues were concerned and visited her.

Sasha, with a straight face, just explained, "Maybe I ate something bad. I've been feeling nauseous."

"Wow," I said with a knowing tone beside her. "You sure you're not pregnant? By the way, Sasha, you're not married yet, are you?" I tilted my head, blinking at her, then glanced at a certain male colleague across the room.

Our company frowned upon office romances, but Sasha was secretly dating our boss, Yves Simpson, who already had a girlfriend. Did she think I didn’t know?

“What are you talking about?” Her face turned bright red. “Stop spreading rumors about me.” She pretended to be innocent, stammering, “I don’t even have a boyfriend. There’s no way I could be pregnant.”

Despite everything, Sasha didn't give up and kept trying to poison my cup. She thought there were no cameras near my spot. Little did she know, I had already set up a hidden high-definition video recorder on a nearby shelf, capturing her every move.

I watched Sasha's antics while sipping on bottled water I bought daily. Once it was out of my sight, I wouldn't touch it again. During our Monday meeting, Sasha didn’t complete her task, so I called her out on it. Her boyfriend got mad and publicly accused me of being unkind. No surprise there, she picked a boyfriend who knew how to stir things up. By the afternoon, the whole office was buzzing about the fake sisterhood between Sasha and me.

“She learned a lot from Sasha, but after stealing her knowledge, she acts like she doesn’t know her anymore.”

“Once promoted, she thinks she’s superior. People in power are like that.”

“But Sasha’s work just isn’t up to par. In the workplace, you shouldn’t mix work ability with personal relationships.”

“This isn’t about work ability,” Sasha whispered to them, sounding hurt. “Do you know the relationship between the General Manager and Cassandra? How do you think she got hired?”

Part 3

Soon, word spread that I was promoted to junior assistant to the general manager. This was because I had to report on a large project multiple times, which meant frequent trips to the general manager's office. As people saw me going in and out of his office, their looks became more and more contemptuous.

"Oh, she's got connections!"

"Wonder how much she had to 'pay' for that salary."

"Better not say anything. If she gets mad, she might get us kicked out."

I dealt with these insults quietly. When the general manager asked how I was doing, I just said, "It's fine, Mr. Jones. No worries."

I'd never been one to silently take crap and I definitely didn’t like to rely on others to fight my battles. If someone messed around with me, I would only feel better when I hit back hard.

At the latest quarterly work report meeting, I called out Sasha and her team, professionally critiquing their performance. I highlighted their poor work efficiency, high return rates and negative customer feedback.

I took the final assessment form and called in one of her team members to fire her.

“What? Why me?” she blurted out.

She'd been with the company for six years and had a decent salary. Finding another job with the same pay would be tough.

“Ms. Murphy, my assessment isn’t the worst, right? Why not dismiss Sasha instead of me?”

Performance-wise, Sasha was indeed at the bottom, but she had Yves backing her up. Those who got the axe had no such protection.

“The company’s performance evaluation isn’t just about numbers. You've been gossiping during work hours and your work quality has seriously declined. This violates company policy.”

She realized right away that this was a personal vendetta. But even if it was blatant revenge, it was based on solid reasons and evidence. She couldn’t find a flaw in my argument.

Flushing with anger, she said, “This is not fair!”

She knew Sasha was the cause of the gossip and everyone had recently learned that Yves was Sasha’s backer. Sasha was just jealous because my backer was more powerful and this poor woman ended up as collateral damage.

"What are you looking at me for? Don’t you know your level?" Sasha, who had been friendly with her before, now wore a contemptuous expression. "Pack up your things and leave quickly! Don’t make a fool of yourself here! It’s not like I harmed you!"

The woman was lost of words, packing her things at her workstation while Sasha began gossiping about me with other colleagues. Unfortunately for her, everyone saw her true colors and ignored her.

"Cassandra, do you think stirring up trouble can make you stand out in the company?" Sasha shouted, waving her fists, dropping the pretense entirely. "I will tell Mr. Jones you have another man! If he knew you are cheating, he won’t spare you!"

"Oh, really?" I smiled lightly, noticing the woman behind her suddenly holding the packed box and smashing it onto Sasha's head.

"Bitch! It's all your fault! Why pretend to be pure and innocent?" she shouted. "You have an affair with Mr. Simpson! What a pathetic side chick! I’ll tell his girlfriend right now!"