I was having lunch in the cafeteria when my pregnant coworker, Cindy Jenkins, reached across with her fork and speared the fried chicken drumstick right off my plate.

She did not say a word until she had finished every last bite, then casually remarked, "I'm six months pregnant now, which is when I need the most nutrition. Plus, I'm carrying a boy, the only grandson in my husband's family. Do you all understand how important this baby is?"

I stared at her, dumbfounded. "What's that got to do with me? It's not like I'm the father."

She completely ignored me and said, "I'm just letting you all know. From now on, you're taking turns giving me your chicken drumsticks."

The other coworkers at the table quickly looked down and focused on their food, nobody daring to say anything. Only me, the one person who never backed down, kept staring straight at her.

Cindy slammed her fork onto her tray. "What are you looking at? Your drumsticks are mine from now on, got it?"

This was not the first time Cindy Jenkins had barked orders at the rest of us. I had only been at the company for two months, yet I had already seen all kinds of outrageous demands she made while using her pregnancy as an excuse.

She had Mike Miller from Finance drive 25 extra miles every day to chauffeur her to and from work, just because she was afraid riding the bus would harm her precious baby.

Not only that, but she also made Chloe Williams from Purchasing buy her a fresh bouquet every single day, and it had to have dew on the petals. She claimed the scent of fresh flowers helped with fetal movement.

She even had Stephanie Parker from the cubicle next to mine, who majored in foreign languages, sing foreign songs to her belly. She called it 'starting language lessons before the baby was even born.'

It was just a pregnancy, but I could not shake the feeling that Cindy acted like it made her royalty, bossing people around like it was the most natural thing in the world. At this moment, she was setting her sights on our meals.

Watching her strutting around like she owned the place, I had no intention of being polite anymore.

"I honestly don't get it. Are you acting like this because your husband can't afford to buy you a chicken drumstick? If you're having financial difficulties at home, you can apply for extra subsidies through the company's employee assistance program."

I knew it was not great to make assumptions about someone's financial situation, but I could not think of any other reason Cindy was acting this way.

Hearing my question, Cindy shot up from her seat, slamming the table, her finger shaking as she pointed it at my nose. "What are you trying to say? Are you trying to say my husband is poor?!"

"Oh no, Cindy, don't get upset! Think of the baby!" Chloe immediately stood up to steady her, shooting me desperate looks.

"Theodore, apologize to Cindy right now! There's no way she can't afford a chicken drumstick!"

"Oh man, I misunderstood. I'm really sorry, Cindy."

Knowing the truth now, I felt a bit embarrassed for misjudging her.

After hearing my apology, Cindy snorted coldly. "That's more like it!"

"Cindy, since you've got money, how about you transfer the money for the drumstick then? It's from the cafeteria counter, two bucks."

Since she was not broke, surely she could afford to pay me back.

Cindy's fork, which had been reaching for my plate again, froze midair, and her face instantly turned bright red.

The next second, she flung her sauce-covered fork right at my face. "Fine! Theodore Lloyd, you want to play games with me?! You're just an intern. You'd better watch yourself! I'll make your life hell if it's the last thing I do!"

After hurling that threat at me, Cindy stormed out of the cafeteria in a rage.

Stephanie, sitting next to me, looked worried as she helped wipe my face. "Good grief, you're in for it now! Your life here is going to be rough! But that was awesome! That's the first time I've ever seen Cindy get put in her place!"

From what she said, I could hear how much everyone resented Cindy. Before this, I had thought they helped her willingly, but it seemed that was not the case at all.

I asked, "Why does everyone just do whatever she says?"

Stephanie sighed. "Theodore, you came later, so you aren't aware of most things. Mr. Lionel Jenkins, the head of our department, is her uncle. Those of us without connections don't dare cross her."

Chloe's serious tone made me frown. "Our company has that kind of nepotism culture?"

"Of course! How else do you think someone who fails her performance reviews every single month manages to keep her job? It's all because Mr. Jenkins pulls strings for her!"

Mike, who had been silently shoveling food this whole time, spoke up in a bitter tone. Those extra 25 miles every day had him seething with resentment.

At the mention of Mr. Jenkins, everyone looked at me with sympathy.

Stephanie patted my shoulder. "Just wait... Mr. Jenkins is definitely going to call you in for a talk today!"

I waited all afternoon without receiving any summons to the office for a 'chat.' However, that was because all the company leadership had been called into a board meeting.

Near the end of the workday, Stephanie glanced over at Cindy's cubicle. "You lucked out! Let's bail right when we clock out and not give her a chance to corner you."

Her relieved expression on my behalf made me laugh. "Stephanie, you're way too worried. I'll be fine. I didn't break any company policies, so Mr. Jenkins can't exactly punish me just because I asked Cindy to pay me back for a drumstick, right?

Even though I said that, I still left the office right on time. It was not because I was afraid Cindy would actually do something to me, but because I had made an appointment to pick up my wife's prenatal checkup results from the hospital.

After getting the test results, I could not help but touch the ultrasound printout in my pocket. Before I could even enjoy the moment for a second, my wife's call came through.

"Honey, how did my checkup go? Is our baby okay?" Sarah Taylor's anxious voice made me feel wrapped in overwhelming happiness.

Even though I knew she could not see me, I nodded anyway. "The doctor said you and the baby are both perfectly healthy."

"That's wonderful! Once I finish up this work in a few days, I'll stay home and focus on the pregnancy."

Ever since we saw those two lines on the pregnancy test last week, we had been anxiously waiting for today's results. However, life had other plans. Yesterday, she had been suddenly assigned to a business trip.

"I'll take good care of myself and the baby. Thanks for doing this, honey. I'll be back in two days."

"Just focus on work. I'm only picking up a report. It's not like I'm the one who's pregnant, so how hard could it be?"

After hanging up, I could not help but think of Cindy. Even though we were both soon-to-be parents, I really could not relate to her behavior at all.

The moment I got home, my phone buzzed several times in a row, and I opened it to find I had been added to a new group chat.

[Theodore Lloyd, you've been with the company for two months now, and you're about to be up for permanent hire. I've arranged for an excellent veteran employee to mentor you, so you need to learn from her properly, understand?]

[Mr. Jenkins, don't worry! I'll definitely mentor Theodore well!]

[I have complete faith in you.]

Watching Cindy make her confident messages in the chat, I felt a wave of unease and immediately screenshotted it to send to Stephanie.

[Stephanie, our company doesn't actually have a mentorship tradition, does it?]

[Never has! Cindy's performance score last month was even lower than yours. What could she possibly teach you?]

[This is definitely just an excuse Mr. Jenkins cooked up so she can get back at you!]

Before I could reply, Cindy's call came through, and she immediately launched into a seething interrogation.

"Theodore, what's your problem? Didn't you see Mr. Jenkins' message in the group? Why didn't you respond?! You have no sense of workplace manners at all. Looks like I really do need to teach you a thing or two!"

It had only been a minute since the message, and I had never realized I had the obligation to instantly reply to work messages after hours. Nonetheless, since she was technically my "supervisor" now, I still needed to show basic respect.

"Sorry, Cindy. I just got back from the hospital and haven't had a chance to check my phone."

"Oh, the hospital... Are you trying to say I'm overworking you? Young people these days are always using health as an excuse. I'm this far along in my pregnancy, and I'm still working hard at my job every single day!" Cindy's passive-aggressive tone was practically dripping through the phone.

I twitched my lips. If anything, she worked hard at mooching off her coworkers. Of course, I could not actually say it out loud.

"You've misunderstood. I didn't mean it like that."

Cindy barked, "Enough! I'm not going to waste my breath. Get back to the office right now!"

Hearing that, I instinctively checked the time. "Cindy, it's already nine at night. Is there some emergency that can't wait until tomorrow?"

"Of course there is! I wouldn't be calling you if it wasn't urgent! Get over here right now!"

Cindy's tone got me worried, too. I thought there might be a problem with the project data. Without taking time to ask for details, I grabbed the bag I had just set down and rushed out the door.

When I got to the office, it was completely dark. I stared at the empty office in confusion and called her back."Cindy, I'm at the office. Why isn't anyone here?"

"Oh, just go in and check my computer."

I followed her instructions and walked over to her cubicle. "Your computer is off. Do you need me to update some data?"

"As long as it's off, that's fine. I was just worried I forgot to shut down my computer, so I had you come back to check."

I instantly see red. I had to take several deep breaths to swallow the curse words on the tip of my tongue.

"Cindy, if you're not sure about something like this, you can come back and check yourself."

"Young man, don't you know I'm pregnant? Isn't it your job to help me with these little things? Besides, I'm teaching you a lesson: you can't leave your computer on when you clock out. You need to conserve company electricity, understand?"

"Thanks for the reminder, Cindy."

I did not want to talk to her anymore and just wanted to hang up as quickly as possible, but I did not expect that response would set Cindy off again.

"A senior employee teaches you something, and instead of being grateful, you give me attitude? Who do you think you're talking to?! And today too, eating your chicken drumstick was me doing you a favor. I let you provide nutrition for my precious baby, think of it as good karma! And you? You don't know how to be grateful at all, and you even wanted me to pay you back!"

So, she deliberately made me come all the way back to the office for nothing tonight because of the lunchtime drumstick. It was so absurd that I did not want to put up with it anymore, but I still managed to control myself and reason with her politely.

"Cindy, the child isn't mine, so logically speaking, I have no obligation to provide nutrition for him. Asking you to pay me back was perfectly reasonable, but if you don't want to, that's fine. It's only two bucks, so I'll just treat it as my treat. Still, I hope things like tonight won't happen again, or I'll report you to the company for abusing your authority for personal revenge."

I did not give her a chance to respond and hung up straight away. Before putting down my phone, I checked to see if she had sent me any more messages.

Cindy had not sent anything else. I thought she had taken my words to heart and that the matter was over.

However, when I got to the office the next day, she threw a binder at me in front of all our coworkers.

"What kind of work attitude is this?! How dare you make me wait for you? I guess you don't want to get hired as a permanent worker, do you?!"

Luckily, I reacted quickly and blocked it with my hand, or the sharp corner of the binder would have hit me right in the face. Even so, the sharp plastic edge still scraped a bloody mark across the back of my hand.

I winced in pain and glanced at the wall clock.

"It's five minutes before nine. I'm not late, am I? And I didn't receive any notice from any supervisor requiring me to come in early."

"You need a notice for something like that? As an intern, you should arrive thirty minutes early to clean everyone's workspace! I can see that with no one managing you these past two months, you've really gotten full of yourself!"

Cindy held her lower back and snorted. "Starting tonight, you can't leave until you've checked all the power outlets after work, and in the morning, you must finish all the cleaning before we arrive! What's wrong with a young guy doing some work?"

"May I ask which supervisor assigned me this task?"

"Mr. Jenkins put me in charge of you, which means he gave me the authority to assign you tasks! If you're not happy with my arrangements, feel free to complain to him about me. You're pretty good at reporting people, aren't you? Go ahead and report me!"

After hearing her words, I nodded and went straight upstairs to knock on Lionel's office door. "Mr. Jenkins, I'd like to ask if the company has a policy requiring interns to handle cleaning and check power outlets?"