Chapter 3Insult Me, Lose Your Job

Back at the office, I spent two hours analyzing Aurelia's main competitors and their product offerings. Once I had a solid strategy mapped out, I knocked on the door of our VP, Mr. Harrison.

I walked him through the entire incident with meticulous detail, presenting my proposal to transition to a new vendor. I also pointed out several red flags I had noticed in Aurelia's operations.

In the past, we had overlooked their minor slip-ups for the sake of convenience and long-term stability. But if they were willing to assign a completely incompetent, disrespectful idiot to handle a multi-million dollar account, it proved their internal management was decaying.

Mr. Harrison leaned back in his chair, weighed the risks, and nodded. "You have my full support on this, Karen. Take the lead and handle it."

I felt a wave of relief. With the green light from the top, I was free to play hardball.

Meanwhile, Joshua Reynolds kept blowing up my phone. His voicemails were a broken record of excuses, promises of structural changes, and begging for a lunch meeting.

I ignored them all. My time was far too valuable to waste on his empty promises.

By the next day, I had blocked his number entirely, leaving the executives at Aurelia Media to sweat in their own juices.

The following morning, I walked into the office to find Penny rushing toward my desk, waving her phone furiously.

"Karen! Look at this! That absolute bastard Rick is smearing you on social media!"

I took her phone. Rick had posted a series of updates on his public feed, accompanied by insulting caricatures of old, hideous witches:

"Are vendors not human anymore? Are clients supposed to be gods? Some power-tripping, bitter bitch is trying to ruin my life just because she can't get a man! Unbelievable!"

"Talk about mentally unstable. Imagine getting someone fired over a harmless joke. Get some therapy, lady!"

"Women dress up and wear makeup for men anyway. Why is she so pressed? Can't even handle a compliment!"

"She's clearly projecting her own insecurities because she's old and ugly. One comment and she loses her mind."

"If she didn't have that title, nobody would even look at her twice. Desperate old maid."

In the comment section, a friend had asked what happened. Rick had replied:

"Just some power-tripping client who got her feelings hurt because I didn't flirt back. She's ancient, ugly, and totally unhinged. I wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole!"

"Haha, I sell my services, not my body."

So this was the "sincere reflection and deep regret" Joshua had promised me.

I let out a cold laugh. "Penny, take screenshots of everything and send them to my email. I have a little gift for Joshua."

I forwarded the screenshots straight to Joshua's personal inbox.

Within sixty seconds, my phone started ringing with Joshua's ID. I didn't even look at it.

After twenty missed calls, he finally gave up.

Over the next two days, as it became clear we were actively shopping for new vendors, panic rippled through Aurelia Media. Lumina Group was their largest client, accounting for over two-thirds of their annual revenue. Losing this contract would trigger a financial collapse.

When I checked Rick's social media again, his feed had been scrubbed clean.

Penny, who had a vast network of industry friends, came back with some juicy gossip. "Rick is completely ruined. The board at Aurelia absolutely destroyed him. Everyone in his office is blaming him for jeopardizing the contract. He's not getting any bonuses, and rumor has it they're drafting his termination papers as we speak."

I listened without saying much. When Rick was busy throwing insults, he probably never expected that the "witch" he mocked had the power to make his career vanish.