Chapter 2
903 Words
"Are you crazy?!"
Seeing the snowflake-like pieces of paper scattered all over the floor, Jack finally tore off his hypocritical disguise. He slammed the table hard, the veins on his forehead bulging, his breathing heavy.
That was a multi-million-dollar letter of intent.
"Since this is how you treat the firm's important documents!" Jack gritted his teeth, shouting with a founder's arrogance. "From now on, suspend all of Selina's financial reimbursement and case file access privileges! Lock down her internal system completely!"
"Amy," he turned to the manipulative girl who was still in shock, "you are in full charge of recovering these public funds. Not a single cent can be missing!"
"No problem, Jack." Amy snapped back to reality, her voice betraying unconcealed excitement. "I will keep an eye on her until the firm's interests are restored."
"Also," Jack turned his dead stare back to me, holding out his hand, his tone carrying a self-righteous shamelessness, "hand over the contact books of those major clients you have. The firm's client resources must be uniformly and properly kept by the firm. We cannot lose our source of cases because of your personal issues."
I quietly watched his true colors show.
How interesting.
If he wanted to freeload off the corporate resources I had built bridges and laid the groundwork for, he could have just said so. Why bother using a fig leaf like "uniformly and properly kept"? He probably genuinely believed that those billionaires at the top of the state's pyramid of power favored his slick, powdered face, rather than the introductions made by me, Selina.
"You want the contact book, huh?"
I unzipped my bag, took out the pure black sheepskin contact book, and threw it directly at his face like a piece of trash.
With a light "smack," the contact book rolled off his suit and onto the floor.
"Take it." I looked at him, my mouth pulling into a cold arc. "I hope they pick up your calls."
I ignored Jack's livid face, pushed open the conference room door, and walked straight back to my senior partner office, the one with the best natural light in the entire firm.
As soon as I sat down in the genuine leather swivel chair, my phone buzzed violently.
In the firm's internal group chat of over a hundred people, an official document popped up.
[Notice on the Suspension of Attorney Selina's Duties and the Recovery of Public Funds]
The group chat was dead silent for three seconds.
Immediately after, a wall away in the main office area, undisguised discussions erupted.
"I knew it! How else could she afford those Hermes bags she carries every day? Turns out she's pretending to be a socialite using our hard-earned money."
"Hilarious. I've been at the firm for half a year and I've never seen her go to court or write a single document. A useless flower vase who only knows how to suck blood should have been kicked out a long time ago."
"Amy is amazing. Barely out of her probation period and she dares to confront a parasite like this head-on."
These voices passed clearly through the glass wall into my ears. The assistant lawyer shouting the loudest was the same one who had tearfully borrowed two thousand dollars from me last month because she couldn't pay her rent.
I didn't even have the desire to get angry. I casually grabbed a cardboard box and expressionlessly began tossing my personal belongings from the desk into it.
*Bang—*
The office door was kicked open.
Amy, accompanied by a young girl from the finance department, swaggered in, clicking her pointy high heels.
She slammed a highly detailed bill onto my desk and looked down at me, lifting her chin.
"This is the bill Finance just calculated. Principal and interest included, it's three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in total."
Amy crossed her arms, adopting the arrogant posture of a victor. "Jack said he's only giving you five days. If this money isn't wired into the firm's corporate account within five days, we will report you directly to the State Bar Association with your real name!"
She leaned down, hands resting on the edge of the desk, and maliciously provoked me in that two-faced tone that only the two of us could hear:
"Selina, not only will you go bankrupt, but I will also make you lose your law license forever and be completely ruined in the entire legal world!"
I stopped packing, my gaze passing over her to glance at the demand note marked "350,000."
Seeing me stay silent, Amy thought I was scared.
She kept her hands on the desk, her greedy eyes fixed on the custom hand-made Italian leather swivel chair beneath me.
"What, do you need me to call security to ask you to give up your seat?" She sneered.
I didn't get angry.
I quietly watched her impatient, greedy appearance. Then, I pulled a pure black titanium card out of my bag and tossed it right onto that three hundred and fifty thousand dollar demand note.
"The amount printed on the bill is the original price, right?"
I leaned back in the chair, looking at Amy's confused eyes, and let out a light laugh.
"Before going to the Bar Association to report me, do you want to guess how much of a discount you get when paying the bill with this black card?"
- Writer
