"When you handed over those boxes, the way your hand tilted—every single person in this room saw exactly what you did."

His expression froze for a heartbeat before that practiced warmth slid back into place.

"Ivy, it's just a phone. I'll buy you ten. Twenty. There's no need to make a scene with a new secretary. People will say I'm playing favorites. They'll say you're throwing your weight around."

Playing favorites. Throwing my weight around.

My whole body trembled. Five years of swallowed grievances and buried rage erupted all at once.

I yanked out my phone, pulled up the year-end bonus notification I'd just received, and shoved the screen in his face.

"Mr. Gilbert, if the raffle was luck, then what about this? Is my bonus luck too?"

The number glared back at us:

$2.50.

The room exploded.

"Two dollars and fifty cents? She's the Vice President—the second-in-command—and her bonus is $2.50?"

"That's insane. I'm just a regular employee and I got five thousand!"

"You don't know? I heard Tania's been here three months and got twenty thousand!"

Twenty thousand.

My head snapped toward Neal. My pupils contracted.

Five years. I had given this company five years of my life, clawing my way up alongside him from the startup days. I'd closed more than half the deals that built this place. As Vice President, my year-end bonus was two dollars and fifty cents.

A secretary who'd been here ninety days walked away with twenty thousand.

The irony was suffocating.

Panic flickered across Neal's eyes—just for an instant—before he shoved my phone away and barked at the watching crowd:

"Tania just joined the company and already closed a ten-million-dollar deal—a tremendous contribution! She absolutely deserves that twenty-thousand-dollar bonus!

"As for Ivy, our so-called Vice President, she's been showing up late and leaving early constantly. She's set a terrible example for the entire company. She's lucky to even get twenty-five dollars!"

The room erupted in laughter.

"So that's why her bonus was so pathetic—she doesn't actually do anything!"

"Everyone knows Vice President Pruitt only got her position by sleeping with Mr. Gilbert. Now she can't even bother to show up on time. She doesn't deserve that title!"

The words crashed over me like waves, and blood rushed to my head. My ears rang.

My phone buzzed. A text from Neal: