She Shamed Me Nursing, I Ruined Her Reputation

"Whoa, hold on! You're actually breastfeeding at the company's annual party?" My baby was allergic to formula, so I had to feed him breast milk exclusively. But the company's lactation room had been hogged by other people forever. I'd just found an empty storage room to nurse in when Naomi Prescott barged the door open with a whole crowd behind her, snatching at my clothes. The second she yanked the jacket covering my baby aside, peals of mocking laughter from the onlookers stabbed right through me like a thousand tiny knives. Naomi leaned in close to my ear and snickered, "Aw, Charlotte, we're all coworkers, no need to get so huffy, yeah?" The entire office was waiting for me to c***k and make a fool of myself, but I stayed eerily calm. 'In my past life, I'd been so crushed by this exact shame that I jumped off the roof of this very building. This time around, I was ready.' When she reached for me again, I caught her hand, and ripped open the collar of her button-down shirt in one sharp motion. "You got that right, we're all coworkers. Why don't you nurse him for me, huh?" Smack! Before she could react, I smacked her hard across the face. She froze, hand flying to her stinging cheek. All the snickering around us is cut off dead instantly. She wrenched her hand free from my grip, stumbling back a step, her eyes welling up with tears immediately. "Y-you just hit me? I was only joking..." "Joking?" I stared at her, voice even and steady. "Then I'm joking too. What's the problem?" She bit her lip, voice wobbly. "We're all coworkers, and the annual gala is supposed to be fun. Why are you getting so upset over nothing. We pull silly pranks like this all the time, don't we? Why are you so sensitive all of a sudden?" Over at the main table, Tyler Edward, a male coworker who had a crush on Naomi forever, shot to his feet. "Charlotte, she didn't mean anything by it. We're all coworkers here, don't make this more awkward than it has to be." As soon as he spoke up, the other guys who had been snickering at me a minute ago jumped in to back him up. "Yeah, she probably saw you struggling to adjust your clothes and wanted to help, right? C'mon, Charlotte, don't make a big deal out of it. We'll all pretend we didn't see anything." I scanned every one of their fake, holier-than-thou faces. Not a single one of them had said a word when I was the one being humiliated. Now they were all of a sudden tripping over themselves to play white knight. I let out a cold huff and turned back to Naomi. "What you just did counts as s****l harassment. I recorded the whole thing." Her pupils shrank to pinpricks. "You recorded this? You were actually filming me?!" "Yep." I pulled my phone out of my pocket. "Got every second of it, from the second you walked over and grabbed my clothes." The whole room fell dead quiet for a couple of thick, tense seconds. A few female coworkers exchanged glances, and someone murmured, "She really went too far this time..." "You can't just yank someone's clothes like that, right? "Especially in front of everyone..." At that, all the color drained from Naomi's face. She twisted the hem of her shirt in a white-knuckle grip, her voice shaking so hard the words warbled. "Fine, I'll apologize, okay? I was just messing with you..." I fixed her with a steady stare. "An apology needs to be sincere." Her lips trembled. With every eye in the room fixed on her, she forced the words out, reluctant as could be. "I shouldn't have pulled your clothes... I'm sorry..." I tucked my phone back into my pocket, straightened my clothes, picked up my baby, and stood up. Before I left, I swept my gaze across the whole room. "If there's a next time, I won't settle for just an apology." Once I stepped outside the banquet hall, the sharp, icy night air hit me. I hugged my baby tighter to my chest, tucking their blanket a little closer, my fingertips still trembling slightly. I knew this was nowhere near a win. I had humiliated her in front of everyone today, and she was never going to let this slide. Half an hour later, my phone buzzed. My best friend Riley Lerick sent me a screenshot, along with a text. Riley: Charlotte, check the company internal forum right now! A hot trending post popped up in the anonymous section of the screenshot, with the title: Postpartum Female Executive Slaps Coworker at Annual Gala, Who Does She Think She Is, a Queen?