Billionaires Can Be Played Too

Self Discovery

It was strange—some of her coworkers responded with such familiarity that you’d think they’d known her for years, even though she was still the “new girl” to most of them.

In a place like this, everyone pretended to be friends just to survive the day.

She was heading toward the passage that led to her desk when a voice stopped her cold.

“Hey, ma'am.”

Diane turned. Walking toward her was a woman who looked like she stepped out of a magazine.

She was fair-skinned with bouncy, perfectly curled hair that moved with every step. She carried herself with an air of absolute confidence, her smile appearing in small, controlled bursts as if she were charging for the privilege of seeing it.

“Lara, the boss’s fiancée, came looking for you earlier this morning,” the woman said. Her tone was playful, yet there was a sharp edge of seriousness beneath it. She spoke slowly, picking her words as if she were laying a trap.

“She said I should inform you to meet her in the upper room as soon as you arrive.”

The woman leaned in slightly, her eyes scanning Diane’s face for a reaction. “So, I advise you go up and see her right away.”

Without waiting for a response, the woman turned and walked back to her station, leaving Diane standing in the middle of the hallway, her mind racing.

Diane stood frozen for a moment. Lara? Why would the boss’s fiancée want to see her? Lara was usually distant, existing in a world of luxury that Diane only saw from afar.

“Was it because of yesterday’s drama?” Diane thought, her pulse quickening. She remembered the tension, the way Charles had cornered her, and the cold look Lara had given her from across the room.

The fear began to bubble up, but Diane pushed it down. She thought about the sunlight in her bedroom and the weight of the spray in her bag.

She couldn't afford to be the victim anymore. If she was going to survive this job and keep her independence, she had to set boundaries that no one—not Charles, not Ben, and certainly not Lara—could cross.

“In as much as I'm afraid of this whole situation, I have to stand up for myself,” she whispered to the empty hallway. “I will I'mcondone no nonsense from anybody. Not even Charles. Not today.”

With a deep breath, Diane squared her shoulders. She turned away from her desk and headed toward the stairs leading to the "upper room," the executive level where the air always felt a little thinner and the stakes felt much higher.

As she walked away, she didn't notice the woman from before.

The woman had returned to her desk, but she wasn't working. She was watching Diane through the glass partitions of her office zone, her expression unreadable.

Only after Diane disappeared up the stairs did the woman finally put her glasses back on, adjusting her posture and turning her attention back to her computer screen as if the interaction had never happened.

The stage was set. Diane was walking into a meeting that could either break her or finally give her the leverage she needed to fight back. She reached the door of the upper room, took one last steadying breath, and knocked.

“Whosoever is making that noise right there should sheepishly come in!” Lara called out. The word "sheepishly" stung; it was a deliberate attempt to make whoever was on the other side feel small before the conversation even began.

Diane took a breath, pushed the door open, and stepped inside. The office was sprawling and cold, filled with expensive furniture that seemed designed to intimidate. Lara was seated behind a wide mahogany desk, and she didn't even look up at first.

When she finally did, she leveled an awful, sweeping look at Diane—the kind of look that was meant to make a person feel untidy, unimportant, and entirely out of place.

“Good morning, ma'am,” Diane said, keeping her voice level despite the fluttering in her stomach.

Lara didn't return the greeting. Instead, she leaned back, her eyes narrowing with a sense of disgusted pride.

“Now listen, young lady. I want you to tell me the meaning of that act that occurred yesterday in Charles’s,oh, sorry, your boss and my fiance’s office.”

The way she claimed Charles was possessive and sharp.

Diane felt a flash of irritation. She wasn't a child, and she wasn't a home-wrecker. She was an employee trying to survive a toxic environment.

“Just as you said, ma’am,” Diane replied, her voice soft but carrying a new weight of confidence.

“He is my boss, and there is nothing more to that. Anything that happened yesterday was initiated by your so-called fiancé. If you don't mind, I would advise you to go to him and seek an explanation.”

Lara’s face shifted from smugness to genuine shock. She clearly wasn't used to people speaking back, especially not the staff. “I see.

You’ve got quite a mouth and a lot of guts, huh? Now, take this as a warning, or anything else you might think it is: for the sake of your own safety, leave Charles, my man, the hell alone.”

Lara stood up, her tall frame casting a shadow.

“Are you really that shameless? He is your boss, for crying out loud. Even if you are that desperate for a promotion or money, you shouldn't try to get it from him. He is my man, and he loves me very much, just so you know.”

As Lara spoke, looking satisfied with her own harsh words, Diane found her gaze drifting to the large wall mirror. She caught her own reflection—the way her hair fell perfectly, the clarity in her eyes, and the natural grace she carried.

A thought drifted through her mind, calming her.Am I not too pretty to be having this kind of conversation about a man I personally rejected years ago?

The irony of the situation almost made her want to smile. Lara was fighting for a prize that Diane had thrown away a long time ago.

“I’m not here for your man, Miss Lara,” Diane said, finally breaking her silence. “I am here to work. Your man is the problem here. Perhaps you should go talk some sense into him and leave me out of your drama.”

Diane turned to leave, but a sudden impulse made her stop at the door. She looked back over her shoulder, her expression calm.

“I turned him down years ago when we were in school. If I had wanted him, he would have been mine, and you wouldn't have even had the chance to call him 'your man.' But he wasn't what I wanted then, and I don't want anything intimate to do with him now. He is my boss, and that is exactly how I see him. Any other way he sees me is a problem the two of you need to sort out.”

Without waiting for the explosion she knew was coming, Diane walked out. She didn't stomp away in anger; she moved with a satisfied, steady gait.

She felt lighter, as if a layer of fear had finally peeled off.

Behind the closed door, Lara sat back down, her pale face flushed with a mixture of rage and insecurity. Lara was an impressive woman by any standard—tall, fair, and carrying herself with a regal air that made other women envious.

She was the picture of success. Her father had established a business for her that she had grown with impressive maturity, and despite being the youngest child, she commanded respect like a first-born.

But beneath the expensive clothes and the confident posture was a hollow space. Love had always been the one thing Lara couldn't manage. Her romantic history was a trail of unstable relationships and messy endings.

When she met Charles a few years ago, she decided he was the one. Even though he hadn't officially proposed, she had already claimed him in her mind.

To Lara, Charles wasn't just a partner; he was a trophy she had finally won.

And as Diane walked back to her desk, Lara stared at the door, her mind already spinning with ways to protect what she thought was hers—even if it meant destroying anyone who stood in her way.

A lucky day for the workers that Charles didn't come to office that whole day. Everyone was at suspense that he might bang in anytime but he didn't, days like this are not common,they might come once in months. The workers were genuinely happy as they did their work and left for the day.

Diane got home and the first call that burged her phone was a number saved with “best mom”. She looked down to her phone screen and saw the caller, her mum. She already knows it's about the contract.

She will pick anyway, one thing she doesn't like about her mom is her fearful mind, her mom advised her to get married to Chief Ben, and save herself and the family the whole stress and embarrassment that chief is already giving to them.

She has certainly made it clear to her mom that she will never on this planet earth, have anything to do with chief. “This contract is never working mum, Never” she would always say whenever her mom comes up with the “coward advice” as Diane will call it.