He Gave My Bonus To Intern, I Revenged

Chapter 1

On commission payout day, I stared at my dead silent bank account and collapsed into my chair, utterly deflated.

I'd pulled several all-nighters crafting the proposal that made this project happen. Now that the project had officially wrapped up, every single person on the team got their cut.

Everyone except me.

The office buzzed with excitement as colleagues chattered about what they'd splurge on.

Then, a sickly sweet, grating voice sliced through the chatter.

"I can't believe I got a commission either! Brett, you're way too good to me!"

It was Chloe Miller. The intern whose numbers had always been dead last.

Brett Evans ruffled her hair.

"Alright, do a solid job on the next project, and your cut will be even fatter," he said.

I was about to march straight to accounting when I turned and saw Margie from finance already standing beside me.

"Lily, are you having some kind of problem with your team lead?"

I blinked, confused. "No, why?"

Margie hesitated before spilling. "The list for your team was already finalized, but two days before the payout, your team lead came back to finance and said there'd been a mistake. He claimed you didn't contribute anything to the project, so you didn't deserve a cut. He gave your entire commission to that intern."

I stared at her, the words hitting me like a sledgehammer to the skull.

Brett and I were a secret thing. Back when we decided to get together, he was already running Sales Team One at Apex Consulting.

He swore he didn't want me tangled up in nasty gossip, so only a handful of our closest friends knew the truth about us.

What had once felt like sweet consideration now twisted into a blade, stabbing deep into my chest.

I forced a brittle smile and shook my head at Margie.

"Probably nothing. I'll ask him about it when I get a chance. Oh, by the way, Margie, can you still track down the original list, before he changed it, and all those revision request forms?"

She nodded, promising to send them my way once she'd dug them up.

The moment she disappeared, I sat frozen at my desk, fingers and toes ice-cold, eyes glued to the screen.

A message from Brett popped up in the corner.

Brett: Lily, let's do the celebration dinner at The Magnolia Grill? You love their seafood, right?

Watching him keep up the act, a bitter laugh escaped my lips.

Lily: Celebration dinner? Celebrate you slipping my commission to Chloe?

The second I hit send, I blocked him without a second thought.

Right then, my phone on the desk shrieked. It was Brett.

I glanced at the caller ID, jabbing decline, and blacklisted his number too.

Money meant more to me than life itself.

A boyfriend? He didn't even come close.

That whole afternoon, I unloaded all my frustration on my bestie, Amy. To lift my spirits, she'd booked us a table at The Capital Grille and insisted on treating me to dinner.

And of all places, we walked smack into Brett and the whole Team One crew.

Amy ground her teeth and said, "You've got to be kidding me. Does this guy just pop up everywhere we go?"

I caught the way Brett stepped in to shield Chloe from a round of drinks, and a wave of disgust roiled up from the pit of my stomach.

"Come on, let's just get the food packed and eat at your place."

The words hadn't even settled when Chloe's eyes landed on us from across the room.

"Oh my, isn't that Lily?" Chloe sneered loudly. "What are you doing at the celebration dinner? You didn't contribute squat to this project. You've got no right to be here."

Amy looped her arm through mine and rolled her eyes, and said, "Who are you to say who's worthy? You're nothing but a credit-stealing thief. And after snatching someone else's commission, you still have the nerve to strut around like a peacock? Your skin's thicker than a rhino's hide."

Chloe's face went pale as a ghost. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she shrank behind Brett, her voice wobbling with a sob.

"Manager, I didn't mean it... I just thought..."

Brett shielded her behind him and fixed me with a look of pure disapproval.

"Lily, I divided the commissions based on everyone's actual contributions to the project. You can't dismiss Chloe's hard work just because she's an intern. And there'll be more projects ahead. There's no need for you and your friend to get so aggressive."

I stared at him, and a short laugh burst out of me.

"Brett Evans, you're saying I made no contribution? Then do you dare swear that I didn't organize all those documents? Do you dare swear that I didn't make the PowerPoint and the project proposal? Do you dare swear that if you've told even one lie, you'll never achieve success for the rest of your life?!"