Five Bucks for a Million-Dollar Lunch

Karl, however, said, "You really don't know what's good for you, Emma! Isn't Julia just telling the truth here? Did she touch a sore spot or something?

"You ought to remember Julia's status as well. She's the future successor of this company! She only asked for your help out of pity, to give you a chance to earn some side income, Emma!"

Karl delivered this lecture with heavy gravity, making it seem as though turning down Julia's request meant I simply didn't know what was good for me.

In reality, this company was only respectable within the local market. It wasn't even on the radar nationally. I had concealed my identity as the primary successor to our family's business solely to gain foundational experience for managing our own assets.

In addition, the largest investor of this company still had to depend on cooperation with my family's business to operate.

I never thought I would end up dealing with someone so unreasonable and ungrateful in this company. I still decided to let it go, though. I knew that if I simply refused to engage, she wouldn't have the nerve to orchestrate any serious drama. It was entirely unnecessary to get upset over someone so insignificant.

I placed my heated meal on my desk, like I always did, the following day at lunch. I got up and went to the water cooler near the entrance to get some hot water, but when I returned, I was met with a shocking sight—the lunch box I had left on my desk was somehow in Julia's hands now.

I noticed that the neatly arranged food in the lunch box was now a complete mess from Julia digging through it with her cutlery, and to make matters worse, she was "generously" sharing my food with everyone else in the office.

In the short time it took me to grab some water, Julia had completely emptied my lunch box.

I felt my breathing stop for a moment because the nutritionist controlled my food portions properly every day, and because of my physical constitution, I couldn't eat any regular snacks. I would have to stay hungry all the way until evening since my lunch was gone.

I was absolutely livid. I rushed over and grabbed my empty lunch box back from Julia. "Who gave you permission to touch my food?"

Upon hearing how fierce I was, Julia flinched dramatically. "Oh, my goodness! Why do you have to yell like that?"

She retorted shrilly, "I was just sharing good food with everyone. I didn't even hold it against you when you were acting like a total miser yesterday, so don't start nitpicking today. If anything, you should be thanking me instead! I mean, thanks to this, people won't view you as a selfish person anymore!"

In that instant, a few colleagues nearby—who had initially looked guilty—immediately grew confident and started taking Julia's side when they heard her remarks.

"Julia is right! You should take it as a compliment that Julia even wanted to eat your food!"

I thought that even though the company was small, the rules, regulations, and departmental procedures were well-defined during my interview back then. I never expected that underneath it all, the place was just full of brown-nosers.

I refused to back down. "You're the ones being shameless here! I brought this food myself, so there's no reason why I should share it with everyone for free! If you're really that starved, go beg on the streets for scraps!"

In that instant, the commotion caught the attention of the colleagues who were further away, prompting them to cast observant glances toward our corner of the office.

Julia flushed with embarrassment and anger, clearly surprised that a low-level employee like me would dare to publicly snap at her. She lifted her chin stubbornly, refusing to give in. "How dare you call me a beggar! I can't believe my kindness is treated with such contempt!

"I told you yesterday that I would have simply paid for it, but you didn't want any of it. Why are you making such a scene when I merely had a few bites today? You don't have to make everyone else suffer just because you're selfish, Emma!"

I was trembling with fury after hearing her fallacious remarks.