2.

At first, she thought she didn't really mind if she got fired for her team's mistakes, though she wouldn't be that generous to forgive them and to forget her bitter feeling. She worked her ass off in this team for two years, yet no one was loyal enough to stand up for her, both openly nor secretly. It sucked and sad, yet she couldn't complain because she knew she didn't have personal closeness to any of her colleagues in Marketing Department. So, again, although she was salty, she was ready to accept her fate to be their escaping goat.

HOWEVER, when she arrived this morning to her cubicle, her team leader's word triggered her in a very bad way.

"So you haven't packed up your belonging." Her boss in this department was a plain man with thin glasses that always cared with his appearance. Even though there wasn't any feature that memorable from him, the way he dressed up was quite pleasing, especially because he gave a lot of attention to his color coordination. Plus, the fact that all of his attires were famously branded, was truly helped.

Layla ignored him and sat on her chair, clean up her messy desk a little bit to find place to put her cup of coffee.

However, that man mistook that as a gesture of packing.

"Don't be too upset, Layla," he showed her a hypocritical sad smile, "Maybe it's truly better for you to leave now since I notice you weren't too fond of working as marketing team member."

"I don't know on what basis you say that. But as far as I remember, I always finished my task without any problem." Or hard feeling, despite his behavior to Layla.

"But I know you did not enjoy working here."

"Umm, no? The salary is high and I got paid fairly well for overtime work." She really hated his know-it-all tone. Although it might be true, she was sure that she never told anyone except her brother.

His smile turned creepy pretty quickly.

God, she hated him.

"Anyway, the milk has already spoiled, so even if we only worked for a short time, we can throw a good bye party for you. Of course after you finished packing up your belonging. I believe, it's not a lot, so what about at lunch?"

Layla clenched her hands, contemplating either to slap that man's face first or kick his crotch, but at the end, she only took a very deep breath because his words caught others attention. One by one, her team's colleagues came to her desk to offer condolences and empty hopes for her in her new company.

Such a stupid and silly behavior. They truly left their last brain cell in the depth of hell. There's no way they could believe that Layla had such a thick skin to come to the office right after she was fired on a busy work hour just to pick up her minimalist belonging. Furthermore, with a cup of hot coffee and a pair of heels!

"Thank you for your concern, but—"

Before she could retort, one of the girl cut her off. "You know, work is not everything. We, as a woman, will finally need to settle down at some point." She smiled suspiciously to the Manager. "And I think this is the right time for you to start thinking about marriage."

Marriage my foot!

Layla was really speechless by their blatant antagonism to her. She didn't deserve such attention and caution from them. She was never outstanding that could outshine anyone's career nor she's too incompetent that she dragged her team behind.

If there was someone they could ignore with ease in this company, that someone would be Layla. Or was it because she didn't show her purpose to stand on the sideline clearly to them?

Suddenly, Layla lost all her will to retort and clarify. One way or another, they would know the truth, and she didn't have to play as a messenger.

"I need to go to the toilet," she took her iPad and untouched coffee with her and headed to somewhere. Anywhere far from these imbeciles.

However, her lips' tail betrayed her, fortunately only after she turned back.

She still could hear their silent conversation even after she closed the door.

"… I am sure she's already fired now, Sir."

"Hopefully so. She is a wonderful woman, but she doesn't suit to be here." The manager halted for a second. "She's more suitable to be at home, attending her husband and the children."

"Yeah…"

The rest of conversation did not reach Layla's ears, since she run while holding her laugh.

Those stupid apes would be extremely disappointed when they knew the Big Boss hadn't fired her yet. He gave Layla second chance instead, and now Layla was more than ready to prove her worth.

No matter what happened, she could not let them won.

She would rather worked hard to the bone than humor them.

What she did not know was, after she left, one of the executive secretary visited Marketing office and told the manager that Steve's PA wanted him to come to her office with the progress report of the previous project that he handled.

This notice brought a sudden chaos to the Marketing department.

Steve's only PA was infamously known as the iron lady, who never felt the need to interact with anyone but the CEO. It birthed a lot of nasty rumor, but she still confidently stood above them all. The only time she bestowed her attention was when she found severe mistakes or misappropriations in the company.

And their conscience knew, something illegal that they secretly did was caught by the iron lady. In many times, that woman was scarier than he CEO himself.

The manager's face complexion turned pale. He bit his bloodless lips, took random documents and followed the secretary while giving a warning gaze to his subordinates. The messages was clear, be quiet or we're doomed.

However, after he left, the office became more chaotic with every single one tried to safe themselves. They blamed each other like they were under the spell, and it only took some time for them to make their arguments turned to be physical.

Layla, who at that time was loitering around the longue and pantry knew nothing at all. Her head already filled with every possible modification and change to the plan. She scribbled on her tab while sipping her warm coffee, ignoring several people who walked passed her to the same directions.

She knew it, the plan was disastrous from the beginning. There were too much missing points that could make them lost money, and yet the reviewer team ignored them. Layla was sure that it was impossible for the CEO, especially under his PA's supervision, did not know this.

It was too suspicious.

Layla frowned and started to revising the documents. She did not have time to play with her mind now.

.