On Women's Day, every female employee at the company received flowers.

Every employee except me.

I was about to head over to HR to ask about it when I caught the whispers drifting out of the break room.

"Cora Maxwell is a technical supervisor, at least. Singling her out this obviously... isn't that a bit much?"

"Well, she's the one who keeps showing up at the CEO's office and pissing off Mr. Delgado's girlfriend. That's why they took the money for her bouquet and used it to order that massive arrangement for Winona. It was the only way to calm her down!"

"Mr. Delgado's already going out of his way to avoid her, and that old hag still throws herself at him like a homewrecker. Absolutely shameless!"

I froze.

I thought of the bouquet that Winona Parsons, the intern, had received that morning. The one so enormous it had the entire office buzzing.

Ever since Philip Delgado started this company, he hadn't given me flowers once. Not today. Not ever.

Even on our anniversary, he couldn't spare the time to sit down for a meal with me.

The last time we'd been intimate, he'd rushed through it like a chore, then spent the rest of the night complaining about how the company's new technology was impossible to crack and how the Butler family was going to beat them to market.

I'd felt sorry for him. Starting a business was brutal. So I turned down the Butlers' generous offer, brought my cutting-edge expertise to his company instead, and ground myself into a machine that ran on overtime and nothing else. I'd even agreed to keep our marriage a secret, just so office politics wouldn't complicate things for him.

And what did it get me?

Coworkers spreading vicious rumors while he stood by in deliberate silence, distancing himself from me. Meanwhile, he showered the intern with favoritism he didn't even bother to hide.

I looked down at the flash drive in my hand, loaded with the latest technical updates.

I took a deep breath, picked up my phone, and called Craig Butler.

"I accept your partnership terms. A technology equity stake."

Silence on the other end. A few seconds passed before Craig Butler, the man the industry called the "Cold-Blooded Godfather of Tech," spoke. Even he couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Cora, I promise you, I will make this the best decision you've ever made. The Eastern Pacific bid is tomorrow. With your technology, we've got this locked down."

I'd barely finished the call when the phone was snatched from my hand.

I turned around and met Philip Delgado's ice-cold stare. Behind him stood a cluster of employees, watching with barely concealed glee.

He didn't even glance at the screen before ending the call. His tone was flat and dismissive.

"It's just a bouquet of flowers. You're a technical supervisor. Do you really need to march over to HR and make a scene? If word gets out, people will think Winona was bullying you. How does that make her look?"

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

I hadn't even made it to HR, and already he was worried about Winona Parsons.

For a whole year, my coworkers had branded me the delusional older woman trying to destroy his relationship with his "girlfriend." Rumors flew. Lies piled up. And he acted like he was deaf, never once stepping in.

Now that the boss was visibly angry, the others took their cue and piled on.

"Supervisor Maxwell's the type of older woman who's probably never gotten flowers in her life. No wonder she's so worked up about it."

"How shameless can a mistress be? Mr. Delgado's clearly keeping his distance and won't give you flowers, and you still have to throw yourself at him!"

"Women's Day is for women. Winona and the rest of us are young and beautiful enough to deserve the perks. You're just some washed-up side piece who thinks she's entitled to everything!"

Every word was a knife. And Philip's face didn't so much as flicker.

It hit me all at once. Maybe they were saying exactly what he wanted to say. That was why he stood there so calmly.

I was trembling with rage. I fixed my gaze, cold and steady, on the man I'd been married to for seven years.

"I'm a female employee of this company. Advocating for a benefit I'm entitled to. What exactly is the problem?"

When he saw the redness rimming my eyes, something shifted in Philip's expression. A flicker of something almost human. He let out a quiet sigh.

"If you really want—"

Winona burst in clutching the enormous bouquet, eyes brimming with tears, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Supervisor Maxwell, this is all my fault! I'm just an intern. I don't deserve something like this! If you want the flowers, they're yours. Just please, please stop using your position to intimidate me. I'm so scared!"

A few of her closest allies in the office stepped forward on cue, their voices dripping with false concern.

"Mr. Delgado, this morning the moment Winona received her flowers, Supervisor Maxwell ordered her to print hundreds of pages of complete gibberish within the hour. Winona stood by the printer until her back was about to break, and the printouts are obviously garbage nobody would ever read. If that's not textbook workplace bullying, what is?"

Philip glanced at the stack of half-printed documents on the desk, and whatever flicker of sympathy he'd had vanished in an instant. He yanked out a sheaf of pages, glared at the incomprehensible-looking content, and tore them to shreds in a fury, flinging the pieces all over me.

"And here I was, thinking about making it up to you. Delgado Corp has always prided itself on a culture of caring for its employees. A vicious woman like you, bullying your own subordinates — you're an absolute disgrace!"

Behind the shower of paper scraps, Winona and her little clique wore triumphant smiles.

But Philip didn't know that those pages contained the cutting-edge technical report I'd spent five sleepless nights completing. I'd had the intern print it that morning so I could deliver it to Eastwell Group — the biggest client in the industry — before the bid opening, and lock down the project before their decision-makers went into closed deliberations.

He grabbed another fistful of pages and slapped them hard across my face.

"Apologize to Winona. Now!"

The razor-thin edges of the A4 paper left streaks of blood across my cheek. The stinging pain was nothing compared to the desolation settling deep in my chest.

I bent down and gathered the documents I'd poured my heart into, my voice as cold as the hollow ache inside me.

"She spent the entire morning showing off her flowers instead of meeting my one-hour deadline for these files. If anyone owes an apology, it's her."

Philip's expression darkened further. He stepped forward and seized me by the collar.

"Cora Maxwell, when did you become this petty and vicious? You're clearly the one in the wrong. Are you really so eaten up with jealousy that you've lost all shame? Get on your knees and apologize to Winona, and I... might still let you stay on the team."

The pack of sycophants erupted.

"You homewrecking tramp — using your position to push people around, bullying the real girlfriend, and you have the nerve to demand an apology?"

"Wasting company resources on a stack of useless paper, disrupting everyone's work — why should a selfish piece of trash like you be a supervisor?"

"You've always known your own worth. You gave up your salary and benefits to throw yourself at Mr. Delgado for free. Today a bouquet of flowers finally made you drop the act, huh?"

A bitter laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

When Philip and I married, we had nothing. But he knew I loved flowers, and he used to pick wildflowers from the roadside to bring home to me. We were dirt poor back then, yet our hearts were full.

Then he insisted on starting a business. Every penny was stretched to its limit, and flowers were the last thing on his mind. I was already a well-known name in the industry — a technical expert with a reputation that preceded me — so I poured my money and my expertise into supporting his dream.

By last year the company had finally gained traction. He expanded the team, hired a batch of interns, and pushed to capture market share. I'd watched him struggle every step of the way. I knew how grueling the journey had been, so I joined Delgado Corp without a salary and gave up every perk and bonus to the new hires.

Even when the rumors about him and Winona reached my ears.

Even when I learned that Winona — a mere intern — was filing expense claims with no receipts and no spending cap.

Even when she'd been there barely a year, couldn't handle basic printing, yet received a sports car as her year-end bonus.

Philip said it was all "to show appreciation for the team and build morale," and I believed him.

But today — this one small gesture, flowers for Women's Day — I'd been so sure he'd remember what I loved. That he wouldn't leave me out.

I never imagined that all my years of silent sacrifice and unwavering support would earn me nothing but everyone's conviction that I didn't deserve a thing.

I pointed at the data on the scattered pages, my voice raw with anguish as I looked at Philip.

"This is the technical data I burned myself out to produce. If Winona had met my deadline this morning, this report alone could have secured the Eastwell bid ahead of schedule. Now it's all destroyed. So tell me — shouldn't she be the one walking out that door?"

I pointed straight at Winona, and her eyes darted before tears spilled down her cheeks in perfect, pitiful streams.

"Supervisor Maxwell, just because Mr. Delgado showed me some appreciation, you had to set up this vicious trap? No wonder you gave me an impossible deadline to print all those documents. You couldn't deliver the software Mr. Delgado needed, and you were afraid the bid would fall through tomorrow, so you wanted me to take the fall! You'd really go this far just to keep your claws in Mr. Delgado?"

The others piled on immediately.

"I heard Mr. Delgado's been fed up with the tech department for a whole year over that bottleneck they can't crack. This woman's slick, dragging Winona down to cover her own failures!"

"So it didn't even matter if the printouts were gibberish. She just needed to dump an impossible task on Winona so she'd have someone to blame!"

"Absolutely vile. No wonder she tried to sleep her way to the top. She knew all along she was incompetent!"

Philip's gaze cut like a blade. He shoved me hard, and I fell into the pile of scattered documents on the floor.

"You really went out of your way to set Winona up, didn't you? I was wondering why you volunteered to handle the technical side and then went radio silent for so long. Turns out you were too busy scheming against her! Apologize to Winona right now, or don't bother showing your face in this company again!"

What he'd conveniently forgotten was that back when the company was just starting out and couldn't afford to hire enough staff, I used to come in on my own time to fill every role imaginable, including printing hundreds of documents in an hour. That had always been the baseline he expected of me.

But when it was Winona, suddenly the same task became deliberate harassment.

A bitter smile twisted my lips. I got to my feet, brushed the scraps of paper off my clothes, unclipped my badge, and dropped it on the floor. Then I gathered my things.

"Save your threats. I quit."

I printed one more document, signed it, and held it out to him.

"Sign this. I'll send you a mailing address."

The moment Philip saw the words Divorce Agreement at the top, he froze. Almost instinctively, his hand shot out and grabbed my arm as I turned to leave.

Everyone else assumed I'd handed him a resignation letter. A few of them actually clapped.

Only Winona noticed him holding onto me. Her expression darkened in an instant, and she rushed over to pry his arm away.

"Mr. Delgado, are you trying to drag Supervisor Maxwell back to apologize to me? If she wants to resign as her way of making amends, I suppose I could accept that..."

That snapped Philip out of it. Image-conscious as always, he latched onto her words with a quick nod.

"Exactly. How could I let a viper like her just walk away?"

He yanked me back and pinned me against the wall, his hands pressing down on my shoulders.

"All I need is to win that bid tomorrow, and I'll be the man who made history in this industry! How dare you try to walk out on me now?"

The ferocity in his eyes, the desperate refusal to let go. I couldn't tell whether he wanted to keep me for the bid or for whatever remained of a love that the years had ground down to nothing.

But I'd long since lost any interest in deciphering his motives. I stared back at him, hollow and spent.

"If you think I'm incompetent, and you resent me for getting in the way of your love life, why stop me from leaving?"

Philip's face went rigid. He glanced over his shoulder at Winona and overcorrected immediately.

"This is about your dereliction of duty and your bullying of a colleague. Don't drag me into it!"

Then he leaned close to my ear, his voice a low, venomous hiss.

"Is this because I've been too busy with work these past few months and things cooled off in the bedroom? You're going to blow up our entire lives over a bouquet of flowers?"

I shook my head, speechless, and shoved him away hard. The cardboard box in my arms tipped, and its contents scattered across the floor.

Winona snatched up the most conspicuous item, a photo album. She flipped it open, and a cold smirk spread across her face.

"No wonder Supervisor Maxwell was in such a rush to leave Delgado Corp. She realized Mr. Delgado was a lost cause, so she moved on to her next target!"

The others glanced at the open pages and joined in with jeering laughter.

"She didn't even get flowers from him today, so she figured that ship had sailed and started lining up the next one. Shameless! Looks like she's been hopping on trains left and right to throw herself at some new man. Absolutely disgusting!"