Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Vanessa Cole fixed her eyes on your legs beneath the hem of your skirt and raised her voice loud enough for the whole office to hear.
“Sophie Bennett, you actually wore brown tights? I would’ve bet money you were bare-legged.”
In an instant, the attention of the room snapped toward you—open curiosity, open scrutiny. You kept your head down and continued editing the slide deck, but your fingers tightened on the mouse.
This wasn’t teasing. Not really.
The tights were just an excuse. She was testing your boundaries.
You couldn’t be bothered to answer, but you knew exactly what this was.
It was only the beginning.
That afternoon, several people from the company found one excuse after another to drift into your office area. Their purpose couldn’t have been clearer—they wanted to see for themselves whether you were wearing tights.
Linda Parker was the first one over.
She came holding the supply log, pretending to flip through it, but her eyes stayed glued to your legs.
“Sophie, is this the first time you’ve worn a skirt this short since you started here?”
Short?
The hem hit your knees.
You gave her a standard, polite fake smile and said nothing.
Instead of taking the hint, she leaned in closer, all false warmth.
“This color makes you look darker. Trust me, next time you should wear something else.”
You knew exactly how Linda operated. She was one of the core members of Vanessa’s little clique.
The two of them were inseparable. They went everywhere together, even to the restroom, linked arm in arm. Women well into their thirties, acting like grade-school girls building factions on the playground.
You didn’t need to guess what they’d talked about over lunch. They’d definitely spent the whole break making your skin tone the topic of the day. And now Linda was repeating it in front of everyone on purpose, just to make sure you understood that being “dark” was supposed to be some kind of flaw.
You shot to your feet and stopped her as she turned to leave.
“Linda, are you sick—”
Vanessa was sitting not far away. She looked like she was working, but she’d been secretly watching your side of the room the entire time.
Before Linda could even react, Vanessa sprang up and cut in, voice ringing across the office.
“Sophie! How can you talk to her like that? Linda was just trying to give you some friendly style advice, and you’re insulting her?”
Linda’s face flushed red at once. She raised a hand and pointed at you.
“Exactly. Sophie, you’re way too sensitive. I wasn’t making fun of you. I just wanted to help you dress a little better.”
With everyone’s eyes now gathered on the three of you, Vanessa only got bolder.
“You really don’t appreciate people’s kindness at all, do you? Have you already forgotten how patient Linda was when you first got here? Without her, would you even have made it to full-time conversion?”
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The two of them worked perfectly in tandem, one after the other, never giving you a chance to finish your sentence. They were determined to catch you saying something wrong.
You sighed and lifted a hand, pointing toward the leave request form sitting on top of the printer.
“Linda, I meant—when you were sick that time, you didn’t go through the leave process. I was worried payroll would send attendance to HR later and they’d dock your pay.”
The moment the words landed, both of them froze.
They looked at each other, and all the fire went out of them at once.
Linda, with nowhere to vent the anger still stuck in her chest, pulled a face, snatched up the form, and turned to go.
You added gently, almost helpfully, “Next time you’re sick, make sure you sign it.”
Vanessa finally quieted down. She kept her head lowered, tapping at her phone without pause, the glow from the screen washing over her face and making her expression impossible to read.
Any time Michael was out on a business trip, she really let herself go. One minute she was heading downstairs to pick up a package, the next she’d vanish for two hours straight, and somehow come back looking brighter and more energized than ever.
Honestly, you kind of envied that.
But you didn’t dare.
You were the one who had insisted on taking this job. Until you’d earned enough real experience—and dragged the inside mole into the light—you weren’t going anywhere.
You rubbed at your aching, heavy eyes, forced your focus back onto the laptop screen, and kept reviewing the slide deck and project budget files.
The office door opened again.
Ethan Reed poked his head in, then bent down as if he were tying his shoe, his gaze flicking quickly over your legs.
You swore at him silently. You truly didn’t understand how a grown man could be this nosy.
Just then, a new message popped up in the private office chat.
It was a photo of Michael standing beside a deeply tanned model. If you remembered right, it had been taken at an auto show last year.
What they still didn’t know was that you’d been lurking in this chat for ages—using the cleaning lady’s account.
Vanessa was in full swing in the group chat.
“No wonder the boss values Sophie so much. So that’s his type—girls with dark skin.”
Linda chimed in at once. “Rich people really do have strange taste. Sophie never used to wear skirts that short.”
Vanessa replied, “Well, if she doesn’t show it off, how’s the boss supposed to know she’s dark?”
Ethan, apparently unable to stomach it, sent a message of his own. “Sophie’s not even that dark. And she works pretty hard.”
Vanessa turned on him immediately. “Ethan, don’t tell me you’re trying to steal the boss’s woman.”
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
He went silent on the spot, but Vanessa kept going in the chat.
“Olivia was dumb, sure, but at least she was pretty. I seriously don’t know what was wrong with the boss’s eyes that he pushed her out.”
“Honestly, after Sophie screwed up that huge project during her trial period, she never should’ve gotten full-time conversion.”
The Olivia they were talking about was Olivia Hayes, Michael’s former secretary.
You had only taken over her position after she left.
If Vanessa hadn’t brought up your full-time conversion, you might have forgotten how miserable things had been when you first parachuted into the company at the start of the year.
Back then, Michael had assigned Linda to walk you through the company structure and the business. But Linda only ever gave you the fluff version. She dumped a pile of tasks on you while carefully leaving out every piece of information that actually mattered.
When you followed up later and tried to ask for specifics, she put on that smug, superior tone and said, “Sophie, there are a lot of things in a company you have to figure out for yourself. I can’t exactly spell everything out for you.”
You’d been stupid then. You’d honestly believed older people naturally had more wisdom. Before you’d even started the job, your mom had told you that work was a kind of life lesson.
On the surface, they’d been warm to you. They often brought you snacks, and you’d actually been touched by it.
Then, when your three-month trial period ended, you’d sincerely invited Vanessa and Linda to come pick strawberries at your family’s place.
“My mom grew them herself,” you’d said. “No pesticides. They’re really sweet.”
But all that friendliness disappeared at once. They found one excuse after another and turned you down.
What was even more ridiculous was that, because you never ordered takeout and always reheated the food you brought from home in the break room, strange rumors had started spreading around the office.
Some people said your family were farmers and that the strawberry invitation had really just been a scheme to sell fruit to your coworkers. Others said you were some poor student Michael had sponsored, which was why you’d still managed to stay on after messing up such a major project.
Quietly, you opened your workplace observation journal and wrote:
There’s a pattern of toxic clique solidarity in this company. People use invasive comments and rumor-sharing as an icebreaker, then form fast, nasty bonds through mutual malice.
Once that kind of solidarity sets in, it hardens bias and drags down the moral standard of the whole group.
Right before the end of the workday, you finally finished checking the last pricing quote. The moment you looked up, you saw the CEO in the doorway.
He was back early.