The Fraud Who Stole My Billion-Dollar Deal

1: 1

Our department landed a billion-dollar deal, and the company handed out a special bonus: three hundred thousand for every one of us.

But Virginia Shepherd, the coworker who loved playing the saint, turned hers down in front of everyone.

"Three months of grinding to close a billion-dollar order is just what employees are supposed to do. If you ask me, we shouldn't take the three hundred thousand. Getting to put a project like this on our résumés is already a gift. We should be thanking the company for the chance!"

Every face in the department went dark. Carina James, our supervisor, clenched her back teeth so hard it showed.

Whatever warmth had been in Mr. Pruitt's eyes was gone now, wiped clean.

I stood in my usual corner of the crowd and said nothing.

Then, without warning, Mr. Pruitt picked up the mic and announced,

"Since Virginia insists on refusing the company's bonus, we'll split her three hundred thousand among the rest of you."

……

The conference room went dead quiet for three seconds, then blew up.

"Split... split Virginia's three hundred thousand?"

Craig Lawrence got there first, his voice cracking on the words.

Carina didn't say anything, but her jaw unclenched, and the corners of her mouth kept twitching up no matter how she tried to fight it.

Standing at the side of the stage, Virginia still held that elegant line in her spine, but her pupils shrank hard.

She'd expected Mr. Pruitt to coax her, to praise her, to do what the old VP always did.

To remember her "noble spirit," to hold her up so the whole company would learn from her example,

so she could go on living cleaner and purer in the glow of everyone's admiration.

But this time, there was nothing.

Mr. Pruitt had come in from the outside not long ago, and he wasn't buying any of it.

Her face stiffened. She picked up a mic and added, uneasy,

"Mr. Pruitt, don't get me wrong. I just think the greatest reward from three months of hard work is how much we've grown. Three hundred thousand gets spent and it's gone, but a project like this on your résumé is capital for life."

That one line, "capital for life,"

pinned everyone else into the position of being crude for taking the money.

I really couldn't stand it anymore, so I offered a helpful reminder.

"Virginia, your father came by the office yesterday. He said your mother's hospital fees are due again. The doctor said it's a hundred thousand, which is no small amount."

A crack split across Virginia's face, but she forced herself to sound composed.

"Flora, thank you for the kind reminder. My family may not have much, but I can't take from the company against my conscience. As for my mother's surgery costs, I can put in extra hours on projects and earn commission. I believe that with my own effort, I'll come up with that hundred thousand."

The conference hall buzzed with murmurs, everyone trading glances.

Some looked impressed, some were just there for the show, and some had seen it all before.

Only Mr. Pruitt kept his head down, saying nothing.

Virginia bit her lip and pressed on, like she'd made up her mind.

"Mr. Pruitt, how about I donate my three hundred thousand to the company, as a team-outing fund for all the employees this year? They work hard too."

She wanted to use the word "donate" to save face, to show her loyalty by saving the company money.

But the moment she said it, Mr. Pruitt's eyes went colder still.

His voice wasn't loud, but every word landed like a nail.

"Team outings come out of a separate budget. Your money goes onto everyone's cards, nowhere else. Finance, split it now."

The words had barely landed before the company's finance staff bent over their computer.

Three seconds later, the phone in my pocket buzzed.

Three hundred sixty thousand. Not a dollar short.

I looked down at the string of numbers and couldn't keep the corners of my mouth down.

My mother had been diagnosed with a thyroid nodule last month, and the doctor recommended she go to Los Angeles for further testing.

I'd never dared to take time off, because time off meant a hit to my performance pay,

and a hit to my performance pay meant I'd never save enough to take her to Los Angeles.

Text alerts went off around the room one after another, like a rolling wave of applause.

Virginia's shoulders sank an inch, but she still forced herself to hold the pose.

"Mr. Pruitt, I really don't care about the bonus. To me, the experience of the project and what it does for my career are worth far more than any paycheck in front of me."

"I just genuinely think this is unfair. On this billion-dollar deal, Flora Dickerson did nothing but odds and ends the whole way through, with no real contribution at all. If she gets rewarded for doing nothing, walking off with three hundred thousand, then word gets out and it's not just a joke for our department. Clients will say the company can't tell good work from bad and hires the wrong people. It'll destroy our professional reputation!"