Warm Pages

I was born with the Midas touch—anyone who spends note on me ends up doubling their return. The happier I am, the more they earn. Only my boss, Ethan Vance, knows this. He values me a lot, even had me take my whole family on a company-paid trip. One rule: live it up, spend freely, and submit everything—no limit. This time, I spent 500,000 in one week. With my boss blowing up my phone, I rushed back to the office with a stack of receipts. But the accountant he assigned was gone. His fiancée suddenly showed up. She threw the receipts at me. "Why should your whole family's expenses be paid by the company?!" "Get out—and pay back every cent you took from the company!" "Or I'll make sure you end up in prison!" I laughed. "Fine. I'll pay it back. Every single charge." Let's see how long the company lasts once I start paying it back. I was born with a Midas touch. The more note someone spent on me, the more wealth they would pull in. Even better, my returns multiplied based on how happy I was. The only person who knew this secret was my boss, Ethan Vance. On my very first overseas trip, I ran up a 30,000 corporate expense report. That exact same week, our company's livestream raked in a staggering 3 mi11...ion. Within a single year, our bootstrapped startup exploded, hitting a massive 150 mi11...ion annual valuation. Last month, I took a two-week personal leave to visit my family out of state. During those fifteen days, the company didn't make a single dime. Terrified, Ethan personally drove out to pick me up, bringing my entire family along for an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation. His only condition was for us to eat the best food, stay at the finest resorts, and file the expense reports as quickly as possible. There was no budget ceiling. This time, I managed to spend 500,000 in just one week. Following a barrage of desperate, non-stop calls from Ethan, I headed straight to the office clutching a thick stack of invoices. But when I arrived, the dedicated accountant Ethan had assigned to me was nowhere to be found. He had been fired. Victoria Sterling, Ethan's fiancée, had suddenly parachuted in to take over. Before I could even speak, she slammed the 500,000 stack of invoices right into my face. "Why the he11 is this company paying for your entire family's luxury lifestyle?" she shrieked. "Before you drag your pathetic ass out of this building, you're going to pay back every single cent you stole from us!" "If you don't, I'll make sure you rot in a federal prison for grand larceny!" I actually smiled. "Sure," I replied smoothly, "I'll pay it back, line by line, according to the exact reimbursement records." I just wondered how many lines I would have to refund before the company went completely restart. ****** "Ms. Sterling, I need my corporate reimbursements processed immediately," I said, handing over the thick folder of receipts along with the company-issued credit card. "Also, please expedite the 500,000 advance back onto this card as soon as possible. Thank you so much." I offered her my most polite, professional smile, figuring that keeping things civil would prevent a scene. While I was away on leave, a company-wide memo had already gone out announcing her arrival. Victoria had formally stepped in as the executive vice CEO. Ethan, meanwhile, was preparing to head overseas to scout out a massive new global supply chain tech hub. Victoria's face remained utterly dark, her icy glare slicing through me like a scalpel. "Are you out of your mind, Chloe Hayes?" she sneered. "You expect this company to cover personal vacations for your whole family? Have you no shame at all?" Assuming she was Ethan's fiancée, I thought she would have known about the mutually beneficial arrangement between us. "Ms. Sterling, all of my personal expenditures have always been run through corporate reimbursement," I explained politely, keeping my composure. "Mr. Vance authorized this himself." Victoria stared at me for a few tense seconds before completely losing her temper. She snatched the neatly organized folder of invoices and threw them directly at my face. "Chloe! How can anyone be so utterly shameless?" she screamed. "The company hasn't seen a dime of revenue for nearly a month, and you have the nerve to ask for half a mi11...ion ?" The sharp edges of the paper stung, leaving my skin red and burning. "Ms. Sterling, as I said, these expenses were explicitly pre-approved by the CEO," I insisted, feeling a surge of frustration. "Please don't make this difficult. Just call Ethan, and he'll clarify everything." Victoria slammed her hand onto the desk, her voice rising to a piercing shriek. "Are you mentally unstable?" "You're draining our corporate accounts for your personal amusement, and you want me to call Ethan to validate it?" "Are you stupid, or do you think I am?" I had always been physically delicate, and her sudden outburst made my chest tighten with anxiety. Leaning against the edge of the desk, I struggled to catch my breath. "Ms. Sterling, it's the truth. Just call him to verify it. He explicitly ordered me to submit these as soon as I got back." Seeing that I was still using Ethan's name to push back, Victoria's face turned white with rage. "Chloe, I am Ethan's fiancée and the future First Lady of this company!" "As long as I'm running this place, don't you dare think you can siphon another dime out of our accounts!" With that, she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out into the main bullpen. The atmosphere in the open office was incredibly oppressive. Because the company hadn't brought in any revenue for weeks, performance bonuses had been completely frozen, and the sales team's base salaries were about to be slashed. "Listen up, everyone!" Victoria shouted, capturing the attention of the entire floor. "I know everyone has been under an immense amount of pressure lately." "The company's numbers are down, and your bonuses are on the line, but I am not going to abandon you." "Chloe Hayes is a parasite. Over the past year, she has used fraudulent expense reports to steal mi11...ions from this firm!" Hearing her blatant lies, my blood began to boil. "That's a lie! I didn't steal anything!" I snapped. "Every single reimbursement was personally signed off by Mr. Vance. It's completely legitimate!" Victoria let out a cold scoff, looking at me as if I were a complete fool. "Since Ethan left the operations in my hands, I am going to make sure the staff is taken care of," she announced to the room. "I will personally claw back every cent she took, and a significant portion of those funds will be redistributed directly to you as bonuses!" The employees' eyes immediately lit up, and within seconds, the crowd turned on me. "Ms. Sterling, I've been sick of Chloe for months!" the sales director chimed in, eager to please the new boss. "She's supposed to be in sales just like the rest of us, but despite holding a manager title, she hasn't met a single client or closed a single deal all year!" The rest of the sales department quickly joined the chorus of complaints. "Exactly! The monthly quotas are brutal, and our pay gets docked if we miss them. Why does she get a free pass?" "She doesn't even have a performance metric! Someone like her should have been fired ages ago. She's just a corporate parasite!" In an instant, everyone in the department took turns kicking me while I was down, treating me like some sort of criminal. The suffocating weight of their words made it even harder to breathe. "How can you all say this? You weren't like this before!" I said, my voice shaking with indignation. "Ethan gave me an unlimited corporate account, and I used it to help all of you out. How can you turn on me now?" "When your department budgets ran over, I let you put those charges under my name so you wouldn't get penalized. Did you forget about that?" The sheer ingratitude cut deep. I had regularly bought them Starbucks lattes and covered catering for their afternoon meetings using my approved funds. The sales director's face darkened instantly. "Don't flatter yourself, Chloe," he spat. "You think a few cheap coffees can buy our integrity? Ms. Sterling just proved you've been bleeding this company dry for mi11...ions!" Clutching my chest, I closed my eyes and forced myself to take a deep breath. Yes, I had spent mi11...ions of the company's note, but my lucky charm status had brought back dozens of times that amount in pure profit. There was no point trying to explain the [email protected] reality to these people; they wouldn't understand it anyway. Once Ethan got back, everything would be sorted out. Opening my eyes, I forced myself to calm down. "I'm not going to argue with any of you. It's a waste of time." "Ms. Sterling, just process the reimbursement and transfer the funds. If you delay any longer, Ethan is going to be furious." Victoria's eyes widened in sheer disbelief and anger. "Are you deaf? You actually have the audacity to demand more note?" She paused for a moment, her expression twisting into something deeply venomous and jealous. "You keep throwing Ethan's name in my face. Are you just his glorified office side chick?" Before I could answer, she shoved me hard. My lower back slammed violently against the sharp corner of a nearby desk, causing a sharp gasp of pain to escape my lips. Seeing me stumble and collapse, the surrounding coworkers instantly scattered, backing away to form a ten-foot ring around me. "You gold-digging! You won't spend another dime of my fiancé's note!" Victoria shrieked. She grabbed a heavy stack of documents from a desk and hurled them straight at me. The sales team watched the papers scatter over me, completely unmoved. "Exactly! Ms. Sterling is Mr. Vance's fiancé and the rightful owner of this business," someone shouted from the back. "The company's cash belongs to her. You're just a shameless homewrecker!" Suddenly, a loud, sharp voice pierced through the commotion from the main entrance. "Who's the homewrecker trying to ruin my daughter's life? Show yourself before I tear you apart!" Victoria's eyes welled with tears the moment she saw the woman arrive. "Mom! It's her! She's the side chick Ethan has been keeping right under our noses!" "She's stolen over five mi11...ion from the company in less than a year!" "Ethan and I are supposed to be getting married. How could he do this to me?" I sat on the floor, gasping for air as a dull ache spread through my chest. "I'm not his side chick! I would never destroy anyone's relationship!" Eleanor Sterling marched over, her face twisted in pure rage. Without a word, she snatched a hot black coffee off a nearby desk and threw it directly into my face. The scalding liquid splashed over my skin, sending a jolt of shock through me. "My daughter and Ethan were college sweethearts. They've been together for eight long years!" Eleanor barked, glaring down at me. "Now that my future son-in-law has finally built a successful business, I won't let some cheap gold digger swoop in and steal the rewards!" With her mother backing her up, Victoria grew even more aggressive. "A splash of coffee is mercy compared to what you deserve," Victoria snarled. "Get on your knees, apologize to me, and return every single you stole, or I swear I'll have the police arrest you today!" Turning back toward the accounting office, she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Tracey! Stop wasting time and get out here right now!" "Bring me every single one of Chloe's expense reports from the past year!" Tracey, the accountant, shuffled out of the office, looking visibly conflicted and hesitant. "Ms. Sterling, maybe we should hold off on this until Mr. Vance returns," he murmured nervously. "Chloe's compensation structure is... highly unusual." As the head of acc...0unts since the startup's inception, Tracey knew the details of my monthly rewards, bonuses, and corporate reimbursements better than anyone. He understood exactly where every came from and went. Before Victoria could even snap back, Eleanor stepped into the accountant's face. "You're just a low-level bookkeeper! My daughter runs this place now. You do exactly what she tells you to do!" "Keep hesitating, and you can pack up your desk and be out the door by noon!" The sheer volume of her voice made the older accountant flinch. "Right away, Ms. Sterling," he muttered, quickly retreating. A few minutes later, he returned wheeling a large storage box filled to the brim with my invoices and receipts. Victoria grabbed a random handful and began tossing them into the air. "Look at all these luxury charges!" she shouted. "I've never met anyone as completely shameless as you, Chloe." "What even is this? Horseback riding lessons? Premium golf club memberships? Five-star spa resorts?" "A week-long getaway to the French Riviera? An Aspen ski trip?" As she read the line items aloud, her expression turned entirely pale with envy. The surrounding coworkers couldn't hide the raw jealousy gleaming in their eyes. "I knew it! You're definitely sleeping with the boss!" one of the sales managers yelled. "We've been busting our asses, working eighty-hour weeks and destroying our health for clients, while you've been traveling the world on our hard-earned revenue!" Driven by collective spite, several employees grabbed their remaining drinks and emptied them over my head. "Keep your cheap office favors to yourself!" "Working in the same room as you makes me sick!" The toxic insults and shouting blurred together, ringing loudly in my ears as my heart hammered violently against my ribs. "I quit!" I yelled, pulling myself up from the floor. "Even if Ethan gets down on his hands and knees and begs me to stay, I am done with this place!" "You're all a bunch of absolute fools. You have absolutely no idea how any of this works!" I turned to walk away, but Victoria stepped forward and slammed her hand onto my shoulder, locking me in place. "You don't get to just walk out! Nobody wants you here anyway." "But before you leave this building, you will refund every single processed through these reports." "If you don't execute the wire transfers right now, I'm calling the police to have you locked up for corporate fraud!" Her sudden shove sent me stumbling backward, landing right back into the puddle of coffee on the carpet. I had officially reached my absolute limit. I had never been subjected to this level of humiliation in my entire life. "Fine! I'll pay it back!" I shouted, staring up at her. "But you'd better be ready to watch Ethan's entire empire crumble into dust before he leaves you on the street!" "You and your mother can go beg for scraps on the corner for all I care!"