Chapter 4The Price of Choosing Wrong

"Ms-Ms. Reid, there must be some misunderstanding." Lucas stammered, then suddenly pointed at me: "All these projects were handed over from Zachary. He's responsible too!"

"Zachary, don't think you can dump this mess on me just because you quit. Don't even try it!"

To prove his innocence, Lucas started playing the victim again, sniffling to Samantha:

"Ms. Reid, I only took over Zachary's projects. He must be framing me."

"Don't you trust me at all?"

Seeing his pitiful act, the suspicion in Samantha's eyes melted into tenderness.

She glanced at me with a frown, then said gently to Lucas:

"Alright, let's head back to the office and sort this out. Of course I believe you."

"If Zachary's behind this, I'll make sure he takes responsibility!"

Before leaving, Samantha gave me a long, hard look.

Lucas flashed a triumphant smirk as he left: "See that, Zachary? No matter what, Samantha will always believe me over you!"

I just stared at him like he was an idiot, walking past him to the elevator.

I couldn't believe I'd witnessed such a farce on my way to work.

That afternoon, I heard through the grapevine about what happened at Samantha's company. Since I had previously handled all the projects, the clients trusted me and hadn't questioned things too much.

But this time Lucas was in charge, and he'd made a ton of mistakes causing serious losses.

Now the client was threatening legal action after learning the project lead had been switched without notice. Samantha was scrambling to deal with the fallout.

"Ms. Reid, I had no idea such a small issue could have such serious consequences."

"I'm so sorry, I really am."

"What do we do now? Should I go apologize to the client? Ms. Reid, please don't ignore me. My heart is breaking."

A former coworker secretly recorded this conversation outside Samantha's office.

Upon confirming Lucas was truly responsible, and that he'd made basic, careless mistakes, Samantha exploded in anger!

For the first time, she threw the rejected proposal documents in Lucas's face in front of everyone.

Lucas was completely stunned.

He tried to cry and act pitiful again, but this time Samantha wasn't moved. She stormed back to her office.

Lucas chased after her, frantically apologizing.

But Samantha wasn't having any of it.

In the past, whenever I caught Lucas's mistakes and fixed them before any damage was done, Samantha always downplayed the issues and told me to be more lenient.

Now that it was costing real money, she was no longer telling others to be understanding. She was furious that Lucas couldn't handle even the simplest tasks.

"Lucas, when Zachary used to point out your work problems, I defended you. I never imagined you could be this incompetent!"

"I can't stand the sight of you right now. Get out!"

Lucas had never been scolded like this by Samantha before. His pride wounded, he ran out.

The recording ended there.

I sighed, thinking this was probably karma - you reap what you sow.

I thought the incident would be over after they paid damages, but that evening, I found Samantha waiting outside my door.