Chapter 1

"I'm Matthew Wells' girlfriend, Lydia Stone. I'd like to lodge an official report against Dana Lombard, who's ten years older than my boyfriend, for choosing to become his side chick despite knowing he's in a relationship with me!

"Matthew has already admitted to me earlier that Dana intentionally got closer to him by abusing her power as her superior! Not only that, but she also coerced and threatened him into starting a relationship with her!

"Just now, Dana even took advantage of her intoxicated state to sit in the front passenger seat of Matthew's car on purpose! Everyone here should know the significance of that seat, right? It's reserved for men's actual girlfriends only! No other women are allowed to sit in that seat!

"Dana's clearly taunting me! I can't tolerate her actions any longer! That's why I choose to let loose of everything now! I hope that Pearson Group can prioritize dealing with this matter due to its severity! Don't let an employee with bad ethics ruin the company's reputation!"

Notification chimes kept ringing from my phone. It appeared that Lydia was using Matthew's account to spam messages on the company's main chat group.

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. It felt as though the feeling of being pushed down the stairs and having my head smashed against the floor was nothing but a nightmare.

My subordinates began tagging me in different chat groups. "Ms. Lombard, what's going on?"

Kelly Goodwin, my protege, shot me a private text as well. "Ms. Lombard, that Lydia lady must be crazy, right? Don't worry, I'll deal with her right now!"

In my past life, Kelly raised questions about Lydia's intention to drag my name through the mud without solid proof in order to defend me. However, Lydia used a photo editing app to edit a few explicit photos featuring me and Matthew. She proceeded to post them in the group chat after that.

As a result, Kelly was mocked by others for being an idiot asking to be bashed. They even said she and I were the same type of trash who were blessed with bewitchingly beautiful faces. Those people even speculated that she had seduced countless married men during her off-work hours and that she had attained her current position just by sleeping with the right guy.

Since then, Kelly has been alienated by the entire company. What was worse was that she was constantly sexually harassed by perverts.

Those memories made me grit my teeth angrily.

I quickly texted back, "Don't say anything. Are you going to bite a rabid mutt that bit you? You have to use the right method in order to deal with the mutt once and for all."

I just ignored the text messages popping up in the main chat group. Those people just wanted to be there where the juiciest gossip was—they didn't care about me at all.

In my past life, my opinion of this incident was that Matthew's girlfriend was the one being unreasonable. Since he was just an employee who was still under probation, he'd definitely be dismissed from Pearson Group if I were to take this incident seriously.

Hence, I just treated it like a bit of drama that was meant to be ignored.

However, my passiveness resulted in a free opportunity provided to those who were jealous of my success in the company. They worked overnight in orchestrating a scheme to pin the incident on me. Matthew's accusations helped seal my fate as well, seeing as I couldn't defend myself at all.

This time, I would not remain silent any longer.

As the sales director of the company, I had enough authority to call the shots.

I quickly opened the main group chat of the company.

"It's obvious that the photos are edited using Photoshop. @Julia Cocker the IT director, please appraise the photos to verify their authenticity so that I can clear my name as soon as possible.

"@Matthew Wells, you have the right to remain silent. But everything that you say from here on out will be used as evidence in the defamation case I'll be charging you with. @Marcus Tate the Legal and Compliance Director, please serve as my witness in this incident.

"@Oliver Skelton the PR director, please strictly monitor the employees' comments and opinions regarding this incident. This is to prevent Matthew from damaging Pearson Group's image by spreading malicious comments in private."

After posting the long essay on the main chat group, I tapped on the chat group reserved for the sales department.

"@Everyone, I want you to gather in the meeting room at 8:30 am tomorrow. No one is allowed to take the day off."

…

The meeting room was extremely crowded when 8:30 am rolled by the next morning.

I scanned around the crowded room, yet I couldn't locate the main character of this incident. "Where's Matthew?"

Ivan York, the team leader of Sales Team 1, responded, "Ms. Lombard, Matthew texted me last night. He said he had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend, so he might show up at the company later than usual today."

The moment his words fell, murmurs broke out in the meeting room immediately.

I asked Ivan, "Did he request to take the day off?"

Ivan replied casually, "No, but he told me that he'd be late in advance."

I slammed my pen onto the meeting table in response. "If he didn't request to take the day off, that means he's skipping work without a reason!"

Ivan's eyes glinted at my words. Still, he refuted me. "But Ms. Lombard, the work schedule for our department has always been flexible! Technically speaking, Matthew should be permitted to be late, seeing as he has already informed me in advance."