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?"

At the desk, Lionel was still holding his phone. Cindy had probably just messaged him.

"If a senior employee assigns you these tasks, she definitely has her reasons. As a newcomer, what's wrong with doing a little extra work? Can't even handle that much?"

"No, I can handle hard work. I just don't want to be targeted for no good reason."

The moment I finished speaking, a loud bang made me jump.

Lionel and Cindy really were family, because they slammed the desk and stood up in exactly the same way.

"What are you trying to say? You think that Cindy is deliberately making things difficult for you over a drumstick? You're way too narrow-minded. I need to seriously reconsider whether you're right for our company."

I had not expected him to threaten my permanent position, so I sighed helplessly. "Mr. Stone, I just think that since the company has cleaning staff, there's really no need to assign an extra person to do these things. Plus, I still have data organization and quarterly reports to work on–"

Lionel impatiently cut me off, "If you can't finish your work, that's a competency issue! You know full well your workload is heavy, yet you have time to come here and complain about your coworker?

"I'm warning you: there will be executives from headquarters coming to inspect at this week's quarterly presentation. If you screw up, forget about getting hired permanently–just pack your bags and get out!"

I clenched my teeth, but in the end I said nothing. I lowered my head and went back to the office.

Cindy was sitting there with her feet up, munching on snacks. The second she saw my frustrated expression, she grinned.

"Oh my, why so down? Let me guess... Your little complaint didn't work out?"

Stephanie was afraid I would go and argue with Cindy again, so she pulled me to my desk in a hushed voice.

"Don't go over there, Theodore! She's gloating! Let's just ignore her!"

I nodded gratefully. In truth, I had not planned on dealing with Cindy anyway. I would rather spend that time focusing on work.

According to Lionel, the presentation was the day after tomorrow, which meant I had to have all the reports ready by tomorrow.

Coming in early and staying late meant I was basically working overtime anyway. The only problem was that Cindy left her mess everywhere these past two days, wasting a lot of my time cleaning up.

In her eyes, my willingness to clean was a sign of surrender to her "authority."

"See that? You're still too green to mess with me!"

My eyes never left the screen, and only after I had finished revising the report according to my supervisor's notes did I shift my gaze to her.

"You might be mistaken, Cindy. I'm cleaning your workspace because I'm a neat freak and can't stand filthy habits. I'd suggest you pay more attention to personal hygiene. After all, the office doesn't belong to just you."

With that, I shut down my computer. I ignored Cindy's shrieking and cursing behind me, grabbed my bag, and left.

My work was done, so why would I stay late with her?

But when I opened my computer the next day, I froze in shock. The folder that had contained my reports was now completely empty.

Stephanie saw me go stiff and asked with concern, "What's wrong, Theodore? Are you feeling sick?"

"My reports..."

Before I could finish, Lionel's voice came from outside the office door.

"Well, we were all wondering which executive would be visiting today, but I didn't expect you to come personally..."

Cindy looked like she had been waiting for this moment, putting on an exaggerated expression right as they pushed the door open.

"Theodore! Did you lose the quarterly reports?! Oh my goodness! How could you make such a mistake?"

Cindy's shrill voice echoed through the entire office.

Due to her outburst, everyone turned to look at me.

Lionel had just walked in, and his eyes widened with rage. He stormed straight over to my desk.

"Theodore, is what Cindy is saying true? How could you make such a mistake? Pack your things and get out right now!"

"I..."

I had just opened my mouth to explain when Cindy cut in.

"What?! Some people pretend to stay late every day and act hardworking. And the result? Can't even turn in a single report! Did you lose it, or did you just never do it at all?"

Though it was phrased as a question, she did not give me time to answer and pulled a flash drive out of her pocket.

"Good thing I could tell you were unreliable, so I prepared the presentation in advance! Ms. Taylor, please don't worry. Even though pregnancy has been so hard on me, I always take my work seriously. Today's presentation will absolutely satisfy you!"

Cindy dramatically touched her belly, trying to emphasize her effort and sacrifice.

However, the chairperson at the door was not looking at her. Instead, she gazed at me with an almost amused expression.

"Mr. Lloyd, is everything she's saying true?"