A Foundation of Lies

"Open your eyes and look closely! Flora and I got married a long time ago!

"What business is it of yours if I'm intimate with my own wife in the office?

"Besides, when did I ever say we were boyfriend and girlfriend?"

The crowd around us instantly exploded, their whispers turning into loud mockery.

"Exactly! The boss and Flora made it official to the company ages ago. They're inseparable and so in love, it's incredibly sweet!"

"How can someone be so shameless, practically begging to be the other woman?"

"They have such a deep bond, there's no way a piece of trash like her could get between them."

"I've barely even seen her around the office. How does she have the nerve to call herself the boss's girlfriend? And claim he's cheating? Is that even possible?"

I stared at the marriage license, biting my lip until it turned white.

The date on it was from seven years ago.

So, this was the reason he had refused to go public with our relationship all these years.

All that talk about waiting for the firm to stabilize, waiting for the right time, waiting until he could give me a secure life before going public—it was all a lie.

Without even knowing it, I had been the other woman.

I forced a bitter smile and looked them both straight in the eye.

"Fine. Okay. I'll leave you two to it."

With that, I bent down, gathered my personal belongings from the floor, and prepared to leave.

"Hold on."

Louis suddenly called out, stopping me.

He held out his hand to me, his tone condescending.

"Hand over all the client files you have, as well as that multi-billion-dollar project you're currently working on.

"These are company secrets. If you take them with you, it's illegal."

I replied coldly, "All the files are on my computer. As for that collaborative project..."

I looked down at the shredded documents on the floor and pointed at Flora.

"She just tore it all to pieces."

Hearing this, Flora immediately averted her eyes and leaned coyly into Louis's embrace, pouting.

"It doesn't matter, darling. They're just some blueprints. I can easily draft seven or eight new versions, and I promise they'll be better than anything this woman drew."

Louis's expression finally softened at that, and he announced to the room.

"Don't worry, everyone. When this project is completed, everyone will get a share of the bonus!"

The office instantly erupted into cheers.

I merely finished silently packing my things, turned around, and walked away.

What they didn't know was that the document Flora had destroyed was the final proposal I had spent an entire month negotiating with a major client.

That client was incredibly deep-pocketed, but ruthlessly nitpicky about the details.

Besides me, very few people could manage to balance all his demands.

It took me a full month to finally produce a result that satisfied him, and he had given it his full approval.

But that proposal had just been shredded.

I couldn't wait to see how they would explain this to him later.