No Sharing My Project Bonus

The project in my hands wrapped up flawlessly.

The General Manager handed me a $300,000 bonus check right there on the spot, the entire floor erupting into applause.

Before the paper even had time to warm up in my hands, Valerie from my team sidled over. Her lips were stretched into a sickeningly sweet smile.

"Congratulations, Aria!"

She leaned in, her voice dripping with fake camaraderie. "But let's be real, this project wouldn't have crossed the finish line without everyone's support. Remember when you were drowning in work last month? I was the one who pulled those data summaries together for you."

Her so-called 'help' consisted of dumping a spreadsheet riddled with errors onto my desk, forcing me to burn half a day redoing it all myself.

I swallowed the urge to roll my eyes and forced a tight, polite smile. "Right. Thanks for that, Valerie."

I thought that would be the end of it.

I was dead wrong. First thing the next morning, my phone started buzzing off the hook. The department Slack channel was blowing up.

The message at the very top was from Valerie.

"To celebrate our massive project success and to thank the team for all our hard work, Aria is treating us to dinner tonight at six! Let's all go soak up some of that good luck!"

I stared at the screen, letting out a dry, incredulous laugh.

When did I ever agree to pay for a department dinner?

Below her announcement, a cascade of kiss-ass replies had already piled up.

"Thanks for organizing, Val! You're the best!"

"Valerie always takes care of us!"

"I'll be there! Aria is so generous! Sticking with Val always pays off!"

Reading row after row of people thanking Valerie and praising my non-existent generosity, a hot knot of anger tightened in my chest.

While I was sitting there in pure disbelief, another notification popped up. It was Marcus, one of the senior engineers who practically lived in Valerie's shadow.

"You seeing this, Aria? That's what we call big picture thinking from Valerie. When you're young and just making a name for yourself, you need to show some gratitude. You've got a lot to learn from her about office politics and networking. Don't just bury your head in your screen."

His message acted like blood in the water, drawing out more sycophants.

"Marcus hit the nail on the head! Valerie is a real role model."

"Aria, you should really ask Val to mentor you!"

I slammed my phone face-down on the desk.

Learn from her? Learn what? How to have the sheer audacity to spend someone else's money and take all the credit for it?

Unbelievable.

Seeing that I hadn't replied in the channel, Valerie sashayed over to my cubicle, her hips swaying with unearned confidence.

"Aria, honey, I handled all the reservations for you. Booked the VIP room, the biggest one they have!"

She leaned down, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"Look, you just bagged a massive payout. If you don't bleed a little cash to show your appreciation, the people under you are going to get bitter. I'm doing this for your own good. It builds team cohesion."

Looking at her smug, self-satisfied face, a wave of nausea washed over me. I opened my mouth to shut it down immediately.

"Valerie, I..."

"Oh, stop! Don't be shy!"

She cut me off instantly, her voice rising so the whole floor could hear.

"Look at our Aria, guys! So modest, she's actually blushing! It's settled then!"

That evening, we sat in the largest private dining room of a high-end seafood restaurant.

After three rounds of drinks, the room was buzzing with a tipsy, loud energy. Valerie clearly felt the mood was ripe. She tapped her fork against her wine glass and stood up.

The room gradually quieted down.

"Aria definitely spearheaded this project, and corporate rewarding her with $300,000 is well deserved. We are all thrilled for her!"

She offered a token compliment before seamlessly pivoting to her real agenda.

"However, no project succeeds in a vacuum. It takes a village, and it takes the silent, grinding effort of every single person sitting at this table!"

She paused for dramatic effect, her eyes locking onto mine with the practiced weight of a disappointed parent.

"So, I have a proposal. How about you take a slice of that bonus and share it with your work family?"

She didn't even give me a second to process before laying out the math she had obviously been calculating all day.

"Nothing crazy. Just carve out $200,000. There are fifteen of us in the department including you. That's a clean 0-03,000 per person. You're young, Aria. You have to look at the long game. There's always more money to be made, but if a team loses its spirit, you can never get it back."

Her little clique of yes-men immediately started nodding and chiming in.

"Valerie is so right! Wealth is better shared, Aria!"

"Exactly! Do this, and we'll bust our asses for you on the next one!"

"Thirteen grand isn't even that much to you now. Just treat it like you're buying us a vacation!"

I had never in my life witnessed a group of people dress up blatant extortion with such righteous vocabulary.

Every eye in the room was fixed on me. Some looked greedy, some jealous, and a few held a trace of pity.

I calmly set my fork down and picked up a linen napkin, dabbing the corners of my mouth.

"Valerie, you make a fascinating point."

A triumphant, greedy light ignited in Valerie's eyes, as if the cash was already resting in her bank account.

"But tell me," I kept my voice perfectly level. "What exactly did any of you do to help me on this project?"

Her smile froze instantly. The temperature in the private room plummeted.

I maintained my polite, even tone.

"Valerie, during the initial phase, I needed raw market data. You told me you would coordinate with the vendors. I waited three days, only for you to tell me they 'wouldn't give you the time of day.' I had to pull an all-nighter to scrape and rebuild that research from scratch."

She opened her mouth to argue, but I didn't give her an inch. I shifted my gaze straight to Marcus.

"Marcus. I hit a technical wall and came to you for advice. You patted my shoulder, said it was an easy fix, and promised to look at it later. That 'later' miraculously arrived the day after the deadline."

Marcus's face turned a mottled red, his eyes darting away to stare at the tablecloth.

I let my voice rise just a fraction, lacing it with ice and absolute disdain.

"I carried this entire project on my back from day one. Where do you all find the nerve to stand here and demand an equal cut of my payout?"

"Is it because you're older? Because you have zero shame?"

"Or is it just because you're completely delusional?"

A sudden snort broke the silence.

An intern sitting in the corner, who usually caught the worst of Valerie's bullying, couldn't hold back a laugh.

Valerie's hand shook violently as she pointed a manicured finger at me. It took her a full ten seconds to squeeze out a pathetic defense through gritted teeth. "Aria Kensington! How dare you slander me! When have I ever refused to help you!"

"Whether it's slander or the truth, you know exactly what you did."

I had zero interest in debating a liar. I grabbed my purse, stood up, and walked out the door.

I assumed the storm had passed. But the next morning, the second I sat down at my cubicle, Valerie marched over and slammed a ridiculously long receipt down on my keyboard.

"What the hell is your problem, Aria!"

She planted her hands on her hips, her voice a screeching siren designed to turn every head in the office.

"Fine, you're too greedy to share the bonus! But you promised to pay for dinner, and you sneaked out like a rat! You humiliated all of us, and we had to split the check! Your character is absolute garbage!"

I glanced down at the crumpled receipt.

Unbelievable. Fifteen people managed to rack up an $8,000 bill.

They had deliberately ordered the most expensive bottles of wine and premium seafood, fully intending to bleed me dry.

I looked up at her, my expression blank.

"When exactly did I ever say I was paying for that dinner?"

Valerie blinked, clearly not expecting me to challenge the premise. She immediately doubled down on her twisted logic. "I posted it in the Slack channel! Everyone saw it! You didn't object!"

"So, you unilaterally make an announcement in a group chat, I ignore it, and that constitutes my legal consent?"

I let out a short, mocking laugh. "By your flawless logic, if I post in the channel right now that Valerie is voluntarily donating her entire salary next year to the company retreat fund, you'll just hand it over?"

A few people in the neighboring cubicles let out muffled snickers.

Valerie's face flushed a deep, ugly crimson. She was losing her grip and she knew it.

"You! Everyone went because we thought you were paying! You owe us this money! Who is ever going to trust you in this industry again if you don't pay up!"

I leaned back in my ergonomic chair, crossing my arms, completely unbothered.

"Valerie, I didn't take a single bite of food or sip of water the entire time I was there. Why on earth would I pay your tab?"

I picked up my phone and unlocked the screen. "Do you want me to call the restaurant manager right now and pull the security footage? From the second I walked in to the second I left, I didn't touch a single plate."

Her face went completely slack. She hadn't anticipated I would go straight for the security cameras.

"You... you're talking crazy! How do we know you didn't bribe the restaurant staff!"

She was grasping at straws, her overbearing aura rapidly deflating.

I looked at her like she was an absolute clown. "Bribe a high-end restaurant over an eight grand bill? You really think way too highly of yourself, and way too little of me."

"Whoever ordered the lobster, pays for the lobster."

I flicked the receipt right back at her chest.

In the end, Valerie and her little clique of scavengers had to swallow that massive credit card charge themselves.

During my lunch break, a friend from marketing sent me a direct message with a link.

"Aria, your team is actually unhinged. Look at this."

I clicked the link. It took me straight to the company's anonymous Blind forum. Sitting pretty at the top of the trending page was a thread titled:

[EXPOSED: The New Girl in Operations Agreed to Treat the Team, Pulled a Runner, and Left Senior Staff with an $8,000 Bill!]

The post was vicious.

"A certain new hire named Aria got incredibly lucky and scored a massive project bonus. She offered to take the whole department out to celebrate. And what does she do? She sneaks out the back door when no one is looking!"

"She left her mentors with an eight grand tab! The senior staff just had to bite the bullet and split it. Are all Gen Z hires this arrogant and selfish now? Does a toxic, anti-team player like this really belong in our corporate culture?"

Pinned right below the post was a cropped screenshot of the Slack chat. It showed Valerie's message announcing I was paying, but conveniently cropped out the timestamp and the lack of my reply, making it look like an agreed-upon plan.

The comment section was an absolute dumpster fire.

"I know exactly who this is. Trash behavior!"

"Lol, gets a little cash and thinks she's better than the rest of us corporate slaves."

"HR needs to step in. People like this are a liability."

"Sending prayers to her team. Imagine dealing with a psycho like that daily."

The vitriol was pouring in by the second.

I stared at the monitor, my face devoid of emotion, but a cold, sharp laugh echoed in my head.

Valerie was hellbent on destroying my reputation.

I placed my fingers on the keyboard, ready to nuke the thread with the truth, when a notification popped up. Greg, the department supervisor, wanted me in his office immediately.

The second I closed the door, Greg frowned, skipping the pleasantries.

"I saw the thread on Blind, Aria. I have to say, Valerie has been with this company for years. How could you humiliate her like that?"

When I didn't immediately apologize, he assumed I was intimidated.

"Look, her execution might have been a bit flawed, but her intentions were good. She just wanted team harmony! You blowing it up like this and embarrassing everyone... how do you think that helps your career trajectory here?"

I shot him a sideways glance, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Greg, are you defending her so fiercely because she's a valued senior employee? Or is it because... she's your long-time mistress?"

Greg's face went deathly pale, then violently red. He slammed his hands on the desk and shot up from his chair, pointing a trembling finger at me.

"Aria Kensington! What the hell is wrong with you! Watch your damn mouth!"

"We both know I'm not lying."

If he wanted to play dirty, I was perfectly happy to rip off the bandaids.

"If she wasn't sleeping with you, do you really think someone with her abysmal metrics and zero talent would still be walking around this office acting like she owns the place?"

"You... you lying bitch! I will fire you right now! Try me!"

His chest was heaving. I had struck the exact nerve I aimed for.

"Fire me?"

I casually tapped my phone against the palm of my hand. "If corporate finds out about the little financial discrepancies you two have been cooking up, let's see which one of us gets escorted out by security."

"You... you..." He choked on his words, completely paralyzed.

He didn't dare make a move. After all, I was the one who just secured a massive account for the company.

Valerie watched me stroll out of the supervisor's office completely unscathed. She practically ground her teeth into dust, glaring at me with pure, unfiltered venom.

I ignored her and went straight back to my desk to finalize the project handover.

The only thing left was to import the market data Valerie was responsible for, generate the final deck, and submit it to the client.

I took a slow breath and walked over to her desk.

"I need the market data for the final report. Send it over now. It has to be in the client's inbox by six PM."

Valerie was leisurely applying luxury hand cream, not even bothering to look at me.

"What's the rush? This data is sensitive. I need to run it through another audit. If there's a mistake, who's going to take the fall?"

I knew for a fact the data had been ready for days. She was just sitting on it.

"How long is this audit going to take?" I asked, keeping my voice clipped.

"Hard to say," she purred, blowing softly on her manicured nails before flashing me a venomous fake smile. "Data is delicate work. You can't rush perfection."

Looking at her smug, punchable face, I knew her game. She was going to drag this out to the absolute last second to make me sweat.

I walked back to my desk and set a timer, asking her every single hour.

"Still checking."

"Stop rushing me, it makes me prone to errors."

Right up until five PM, when people were already grabbing their coats to leave.

I stood over her desk one last time. She looked up, feigning surprise. "Oh, look at my memory! Just finished it!"

I forced down the urge to scream, grabbed the file, generated the report at lightning speed, and sprinted out the door to hand-deliver it to the client's office.

Despite practically flying through traffic, I was five minutes late.

But, thankfully, it was done.

Sitting in the back of my car on the way home, I dialed a private number straight to Corporate HQ.

"Add Greg Dawson and Valerie to the termination list."

"Understood, Miss Kensington."

My father had warned me the culture at this branch was rotting from the inside out, which is why he sent me here undercover.

Looks like I had just found the maggots.

The next morning, my driver, Cole, dropped me off in front of the office building.

The moment my heels hit the pavement, Valerie and her little flock of followers swarmed out of nowhere, blocking the entrance.

Valerie's eyes were glued to the sleek black luxury sedan behind me, pure, unadulterated envy swimming in her gaze.

She stepped aggressively into Cole's line of sight, pointing a finger at me.

"Hey, handsome! Don't let this girl play you! She acts all innocent, but she is absolute poison!"

Cole's expression hardened into granite. I reached out and rested a hand on his forearm to keep him grounded.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow. "Do tell. How exactly am I poison?"

My calm reaction only fueled her manic energy. She practically vibrated with malicious glee.

"I saw it with my own two eyes yesterday! You screwed up your timeline and missed the deadline for the client. You were running around the lobby of their building looking like a panicked rat. But suddenly, your project gets approved anyway! You suck at your job, but you sure know how to use your other assets!"

She paused, making sure a crowd of morning commuters had stopped to listen, before turning the volume up to ten.

"She was out on the sidewalk, practically grinding up against some old suit who looked old enough to be her father! They were so close it was disgusting! Next thing you know, the old guy takes her file and struts right into the executive elevator! Tell me, unless she's selling herself, why would a senior executive at the client's firm bail her out?!"

Her sycophants swarmed in, feeding off the drama like parasites.

"No wonder she got that massive bonus. She was putting in overtime on her knees!"

"She dresses like a professional, but she's just a cheap escort behind closed doors. You really can't judge a book by its cover!"

"Dude, seriously," one of the guys sneered at Cole. "Watch your back. Don't let her use you as a stepping stone. You're probably just one of her many sugar daddies."

It was the peak of the morning rush. Dozens of coworkers from different departments had stopped to stare, whispering and pointing at me.

If I were just a regular new hire, this kind of aggressive, public character assassination would have shattered my mental health.

Instead, I looked at her with mild amusement. "Is that right? Do you have a single shred of proof?"

Seeing that Cole hadn't flinched or stepped away from me, Valerie's voice hit a shrill, hysterical pitch.

"Of course I do! I've got the smoking gun right here!"

She triumphantly shoved her phone into the air. On the screen was a crisp, zoomed-in photo of me and my father standing outside the client's building.

I had been stressed out of my mind about the five-minute delay, and he had coincidentally been arriving for a meeting with their CEO.

I never imagined this psycho had actually followed me and photographed us.

"Look at this! The old creep has his hand right on her shoulder! Look at how she's smiling at him! She looks ready to drop to her knees right there on the sidewalk!"

Hearing her spew such vile filth about my father, my hands curled into tight fists. My voice cracked like a whip.

"You have absolutely no idea who that man is, and you stand here spewing garbage out of your mouth!"

Being shouted down in front of a crowd sent Valerie over the edge. Her face twisted into a mask of pure hatred.

"I don't need to know who he is! I know exactly what you are! You're a manipulative, social-climbing little slut who used her body to steal my bonus!"

Before I could blink, she violently swung her arm forward, hurling the contents of her travel mug straight at my face.

A splash of scalding liquid hit my chest. Cole gasped sharply.

The entire courtyard went dead silent.

Cole reacted instantly, pulling a pristine handkerchief from his inside pocket and frantically dabbing at the dark coffee stains ruining my silk blouse.

Looking down at the ruined fabric, a slow, freezing smile spread across my face.

Without breaking eye contact with Valerie, I pulled out my phone and hit a speed dial number. I put it on speaker for the entire crowd to hear.

"Get the legal team down to the branch lobby right now. I need immediate evidence collection for public defamation, harassment, and physical assault."

I paused, letting my words hang in the crisp morning air.

"And call the regional director. Tell him if he can't manage the animals in his building, I'll dissolve his entire branch by noon."

Valerie's hand remained frozen in mid-air, the empty travel mug slipping from her grip and clattering onto the concrete.

The absolute certainty in my voice sent a violent shockwave through the crowd. The coworkers who were just laughing and pointing at me were now choking on their own breath.

A terrifying thought crashed into Valerie's mind:

What if she really is... someone from Corporate?

A suffocating wave of panic seized her chest.

Just then, the sound of frantic, heavy footsteps echoed across the pavement.

Everyone turned to see Greg, the department supervisor, sprinting toward us. His face was a ghastly shade of gray.

Valerie's eyes lit up with desperate hope. Surely Greg was coming to back her up.

But Greg didn't even notice the bizarre, frozen tableau in the courtyard. He locked eyes with me and immediately started screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Aria! What the hell was in that final data report you sent to Carmichael yesterday?! It's completely corrupted! Mr. Carmichael just called me personally and ripped my head off! Do you have any idea how many millions we are going to lose because of this?! How could you be so utterly incompetent?!"

My eyes widened in genuine shock.

That was the data file Valerie had hoarded until the final five minutes! I never had time to audit her numbers!

Before I could even formulate a defense, the terror vanished from Valerie's face. Greg's screaming was a shot of pure adrenaline straight to her heart. Her spine snapped straight, her arrogant smirk returning in full force.

"Ha!" she sneered, her voice dripping with venom. "And here I thought you were some big shot undercover! Turns out you're just a useless piece of trash who can't even handle basic spreadsheet entry!"

She spun around, playing to the crowd of nervous onlookers.

"Look at her, everyone! This is the girl who just tried to threaten us with lawyers! She talks a big game, but her actual work is so garbage she just pissed off our biggest client! She almost tanked our entire department! Corporate needs to fire this liability immediately!"

She masterfully redirected all the heat right back onto me.

Greg was completely blinded by his own panic. He didn't even register Cole standing next to me like a bodyguard. He only cared about finding a scapegoat to survive Carmichael's wrath.

"Aria, what the hell do you have to say for yourself?!" Greg roared, his eyes bulging with rage.

I looked at the two of themthe corrupt manager and his malicious mistressand whatever shred of professional courtesy I had left evaporated into thin air.

"You didn't even trace the source data, but you instantly blame me?" I asked, my voice deadly calm.

"Valerie intentionally withheld that file until five minutes before the deadline, knowing I wouldn't have time to verify her numbers. A mid-level associate doesn't have the guts to pull a stunt like that alone. Tell me, Greg, did you two plan this together? Sabotage the account just to frame me?"

Greg's face twitched violently. "You paranoid bitch! Don't drag us into your mess just because you're incompetent!"

Valerie didn't give anyone time to process my accusation. She immediately lunged for the kill, her eyes burning with greed.

"Stop wasting breath on her, Greg! The client is furious, we might lose the contract entirely! Someone who ruins an account doesn't deserve a three-hundred-thousand-dollar bonus! That money needs to be seized and returned to the company to cover the damages!"

It always came back to the money.

To satisfy their own petty, pathetic greed, they were willing to nuke a multi-million dollar account and destroy months of work from the entire department.

A white-hot rage ignited in my chest.

I opened my mouth, ready to strip away the facade and annihilate them both with my real title.

But suddenly, Valerie gasped dramatically. Her eyes bulged as she pointed a trembling finger at my chest.

"Oh my god! Everyone, look! Look at her neck!"

Instantly, fifty pairs of eyes snapped to my collarbone.

Resting against my skin, partially hidden by the coffee-stained silk, was a delicate, blindingly brilliant diamond necklace. The morning sun caught the central stone, scattering fractures of intense light.

"That... that's a limited-edition piece from House of V! I saw it in Vogue last month!" a girl from marketing gasped, her voice thick with jealousy.

"It's a global exclusive! It costs at least three hundred thousand dollars!"

That number hit the crowd like a bomb.

"She has the audacity to wear a piece like that?!"

"She just cost the company millions, and she's parading around in a necklace worth a house?!"

"Holy hell, where did she get the money? Don't tell me she blew the entire project bonus on jewelry?!"