Chapter 1
On Employee Appreciation Day, every woman in the office got a $500 bouquet of roses. Every woman except me.
When I went to HR to ask why, I overheard the interns laughing in the breakroom.
"Julian spent Morgan's flower budget to buy Chloe a massive custom bouquet! Who cares if Morgan is the Creative Director? She's just a sad workaholic obsessed with the CEO."
What those interns—and that spoiled little mistress—didn't know was that Julian wasn't just my boss. He was my husband of seven years.
I was the secret genius working for pennies to build his multi-million-dollar agency. But since he wanted to treat me like trash to impress a 22-year-old, I decided to give him the ultimate divorce gift.
I packed up my winning pitch, walked out, and called his biggest, most lethal billionaire rival.
"I'm in," I told him. "Let's bankrupt my husband."
Morgan
On Employee Appreciation Day, every woman in the office got a bouquet of expensive roses. Except me.
I was walking to HR to ask what happened, but stopped when I heard laughter coming from the breakroom.
"Isn't it messed up they skipped Morgan?"
"Who cares?" a coworker scoffed. "She's always hanging around Julian's office, and it pissed Chloe off. So Julian used Morgan's flower budget to buy Chloe that giant custom bouquet just to smooth things over!"
"Julian clearly can't stand her, but she keeps throwing herself at him. So embarrassing."
I froze, picturing the massive display of red roses delivered to our intern, Chloe, this morning.
Since starting this agency, Julian hadn't bought me a single flower.
He couldn't even spare time to eat dinner with me on our anniversary. Even sex lately was rushed and cold. All he did was complain that the upcoming pitch for the city's biggest luxury account was too tough, terrified our rival, Marcus Sinclair, would steal it.
I loved him, so I worked myself to the bone for him. I turned down a massive offer from Marcus Sinclair just to build Julian's company for minimum wage. I even agreed to keep our marriage a secret so he wouldn't look "tied down."
My reward? When coworkers spread vicious rumors about me, he stayed quiet to "avoid suspicion," while openly treating his young intern like a queen.
Looking at the flash drive in my hand—loaded with the winning pitch I just finished—I took a deep breath and dialed Marcus Sinclair's private number.
"I'm in," I said. "I'm bringing the strategy to you."
...
Marcus went quiet for a second before answering, clearly thrilled.
"Morgan, best decision you'll ever make. With your creative on tomorrow's pitch, it's a guaranteed win."
Just as I said yes, someone snatched the phone out of my hand.
I turned to see Julian glaring at me, a crowd of nosey coworkers behind him. He just hit 'end'.
"Throwing a fit over flowers? Really?" he snapped. "You're the Creative Director. Are you seriously whining to HR just to make Chloe look bad?"
I forced a bitter smile.
I hadn't even spoken to HR yet, but he was already running to Chloe's defense. For a year, people called me a crazy stalker out to ruin his relationship. He just played deaf.
Taking his cue, the coworkers chimed in.
"She's probably never gotten flowers before. No wonder she's acting crazy."
"Take a hint, Morgan. Mr. Vance clearly isn't interested!"
"Employee Appreciation Day is for people who actually bring good vibes, like Chloe. Not some bitter stalker!"
Every word stung, but Julian just stood there.
It hit me—they were just saying exactly what he thought.
Shaking, I glared at my husband of seven years. "I work here too. I'm just asking for the same perk everyone else got. Is that an issue?"
Seeing my eyes tear up, he looked slightly guilty and sighed.
"Look, if you really want some flowers..."
"Morgan, it's my fault!" Chloe pushed through the crowd, clutching her massive bouquet. She forced out fake tears. "I'm just an intern! Keep them, just please stop bullying me! I'm scared to even work with you!"
Her desk-mate immediately backed her up.
"Julian, the second Chloe got her roses, Morgan made her print hundreds of pages of useless data in one hour! She's been stuck at the printer all morning. It's straight-up workplace bullying!"
Julian glanced at the messy stack of papers on a nearby desk. His guilt vanished.
He grabbed a stack of the documents, ripped them in half, and threw them right at my chest.
"And I was actually going to make it up to you!" Julian yelled. "You're so toxic, Morgan! You're an absolute embarrassment to this agency!"
Behind the falling paper, Chloe and her friends smirked.
What Julian didn't know was those papers were the final marketing strategy I'd spent five sleepless nights writing. I asked Chloe to print them so we could ambush the client and lock down the mega-contract before bidding even opened.
He grabbed another file and shoved it aggressively in my face.
"Apologize to Chloe. Right now."
The sharp edge sliced my cheek. It stung, but it was nothing compared to the coldness in my chest.
I bent down, picked up a torn page of my work, and looked him dead in the eye.
"I gave her an hour to print those," I said coldly. "She blew the deadline because she was too busy showing off her flowers. She's the one who owes an apology."
