Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
To land a contract worth millions for the company, I spent six straight months on the road.
When I finally came back to the office, I took a thick stack of business travel expense receipts to the new girl in Finance for reimbursement.
She rejected them on the spot.
“Company policy,” she said coolly. “Travel expenses have to be submitted in the same month, and you can’t claim more than a hundred dollars a day. None of these can be reimbursed.”
I’d been with the company for years and had never heard of any rule like that. “Who made that policy?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “I’m Finance. I decide how reimbursements work.”
Then she gave a smug little laugh. “You think being the top sales performer makes you special? My father sits on the board.”
“All you did was go out, drink with men, and close some minor account. As far as I’m concerned, you follow my rules.”
I stared at the young woman in front of me, impeccably made up and barely out of college, and for a second I honestly wondered if I’d walked into the wrong company.
“What did you just say?”
With her arms folded, she shoved my stack of business travel expense receipts to the corner of her desk like they were trash.
“I said they’re not getting approved.”
She repeated it slowly, her impatience even more obvious the second time.
“New policy came out last month. Didn’t you read the email? Travel expenses have to be submitted within the same month or they expire. And the lodging cap is a hundred dollars a day. Hilton? Marriott?” Her gaze flicked over the receipts with open contempt. “What, you think I’ve never seen expensive hotels before?”
I took a slow breath and forced down the anger rising in my chest.
“I was on assignment for six straight months. I was on-site the entire time. How exactly was I supposed to submit them month by month? And this was a multi-million-dollar account. The client specifically requested meetings at five-star hotels. What was I supposed to do—bring them to some roadside motel?”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine.”
Chloe Sterling lifted her chin and looked me up and down with naked disdain.
“You think being the top sales performer makes you special? My father is on the board. Around here, you follow my rules.”
Then she gave a little sneer.
“And who knows how you landed that account anyway. You probably just went out drinking with men. Don’t act like some kind of corporate hero.”
The office went silent.
Every eye turned toward me.
I looked at her, and then I smiled.
Good.
So while I’d been gone these past six months, the company had acquired a real princess.
I didn’t argue with her. That would only drag me down to her level and make me look hysterical.
I picked up my receipts and headed straight for the CEO’s office.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
CEO Hayes had been the one who discovered me when I first joined the company. Back then, he’d pushed past everyone’s objections and moved me out of a technical role into sales. He’d clapped me on the shoulder and said, “Claire, you’re one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. This company won’t mistreat someone who delivers.”
He had always valued me. He’d followed this account from the moment it was proposed to the day the contract was signed. He knew exactly how hard I’d fought for it.
I knocked, and when I went in, Daniel Hayes welcomed me warmly and motioned for me to sit.
But by the time I finished explaining what had happened, the smile on his face had stiffened.
He picked up the phone and called an internal line.
“Chloe, can you come to my office for a minute?”
A few moments later, Chloe clicked in on her heels. The instant she saw me, the corner of her mouth curved into a provocative little smile.
“You wanted to see me, CEO Hayes?”
“Well…”
He gestured awkwardly toward the receipts on his desk, his tone cautious.
“Claire’s situation is a little unusual. Is there any way we could make an exception here?”
Chloe didn’t even blink.
“Policy is policy, CEO Hayes. If we start making exceptions, then the rules mean nothing. How is Finance supposed to function if everyone expects special treatment? My father has always said proper corporate governance starts with the small details.”
She put just enough weight on my father has always said to make sure everyone in the room understood exactly what she meant.
Daniel’s face shifted from pale to flushed and back again. In the end, he let out a long sigh and turned to me.
“Claire… why don’t you just work around it for now?” he said carefully. “Chloe is only trying to protect the company by enforcing the rules. And as our top sales performer, you should set an example, support the new staff, and think about the bigger picture, right?”
Then came the usual executive fog: company priorities, mutual understanding, everyone needs to compromise.
I understood.
Between a board director’s daughter and the employee who had brought in millions in profit, he chose without hesitation not to offend the former.
So that was what his support was worth. What his promises were worth.
Nothing.
The man who had once spotted my talent had now personally replaced a thoroughbred’s feed with sand.
I walked out of CEO Hayes’s office with the stack of receipts in my hand and said nothing.
Chloe Sterling trailed after me like a peacock fresh off a win, chin lifted, smugness practically glowing off her.
When we got back to the sales floor, she stopped on purpose beside my desk.
“See that, Claire?” she said lightly, all showy contempt. “Around here, being good at your job doesn’t mean you get special treatment. My dad’s the one calling the shots now.”
She gave a little laugh, dripping with disdain.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“Next time you want reimbursement, you’d better check with me first. Then maybe you won’t embarrass yourself again by running to CEO Hayes.”
A few sales reps who’d never liked me immediately crowded around her and chimed in.
“She’s right. Company policy is company policy.”
“Claire’s been out on the road for six months. Guess she’s lost touch. She doesn’t even know the winds shifted a long time ago.”
I ignored the noise.
I sat down, turned on my computer, and quietly started organizing the project files from the last six months, along with every client communication record.
They thought I’d swallowed the insult and had no choice but to endure it.
What they didn’t understand was this: when you’re a top sales performer and the rules stop protecting you, you learn how to use those rules.
And when necessary, you create new ones.
That evening, I turned down the department’s welcome-back dinner and went home alone to my apartment.
I hadn’t been back in half a year. A fine layer of dust coated everything, and the air had that stale, shut-up smell that only comes from a place left empty too long.
I dropped my suitcase by the door. I didn’t even bother turning on the lights.
I just sat there in the dark for a long time.
Then my phone screen lit up.
A text from the hospital, reminding us that payment was overdue.
In that instant, all the calm and control I’d forced myself to hold onto all day collapsed.
Out of that stack of expense receipts they’d just sentenced to death, more than a few thousand dollars had come out of my own pocket.
I’d already planned what that money was for.
My mother’s next round of targeted cancer therapy.
Four months into the business trip, I got the call from home.
My mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
My mind went blank. I almost booked a flight home on the spot.
But at the time, the deal was at its most critical stage. One final push. One wrong move, one flicker of doubt from the client, and the work of dozens of people over several months could have gone up in smoke.
So I gritted my teeth and wired every cent of my savings back home.
I told my family to find the best doctor, get the best medication, and not worry about the money.
I’d handle it.
I told myself, Claire, close this deal. Get the seven-figure bonus. Mom can still be saved.
I smiled through dinners and drinks with the client, while all I could see in my head was my mother’s face growing thinner by the day.
For six months, I fought like a soldier hacking through a battlefield for her.
And when I finally came back victorious, I discovered the people behind me had burned my supply line to the ground.
They hadn’t just humiliated the work I’d done.
They were cutting off my mother’s medication money.
I opened a drawer, took out a bottle of stomach pills, and swallowed two dry.
Six months of nonstop pressure had wrecked my stomach long ago.
Exhaustion and bitterness rose over me like a tide, but I knew this was not the time to fall apart.