Chapter 2
I sat down at my desk and took a long, slow sip of hot tea until my heartbeat steadied.
Then I pulled out my phone, scrolled through my contacts, and called James.
“Yes, Miss Chloe. Is everything all right?”
“The carpool rate is going up,” I said. “Two hundred dollars a day starting now.”
“As you wish, Miss Chloe.”
I hung up.
If they wanted to play the game of market rates, they could pay them.
They had forgotten what it was like to stand on a freezing platform at six in the morning. They thought they were clever. They thought they were in control.
I was just getting started.
I was buried in a quarterly report when the three of them stormed over and surrounded my cubicle like a mob in business casual.
“Chloe, did you tell James to raise the price?” Trevor shouted, slamming his hand down on my desk.
“I can’t believe you,” Brianna snapped. “You’re completely two-faced. I never realized how pathetic you actually were.”
Trevor leaned in, his face red.
“You call him right now and tell him to drop the price back down, or we’re going to have a serious problem.”
I didn’t even look up from my screen.
“I told you he’s a distant relative. He decided the extra mileage wasn’t worth the low rate. If you have an issue, take it up with him.”
“Take it up with him?” Brianna’s voice rose into a glass-shattering pitch. “You’re the one who set this up. You acted like some big shot and now you’re trying to scam us. Were we just a paycheck to you this whole time?”
My silence only made them angrier.
Lauren stepped forward, wearing that same fake wounded expression.
“Chloe, I’m so disappointed in you. We were trying to be your friends, and you treat us like fools.”
A wave of nausea rolled through me.
If I hadn’t heard them in the restroom, I might actually have felt guilty.
“It’s work hours,” I said coldly. “Go back to your desks.”
Trevor’s hand moved in a blur.
Crash.
He swept my ceramic mug off the desk. It shattered on the floor, and a sharp shard of porcelain sliced across my forearm.
I gasped as a bright line of blood welled up on my skin.
Trevor froze for half a second, then doubled down.
“Don’t you dare try to play the victim. You probably moved your arm into it on purpose.”
The office went silent.
People started peeking over their monitors.
“Are you insane?” someone shouted from across the room.
A few coworkers rushed over with tissues and gauze, helping me wrap the cut. But as the crowd formed, Brianna took one steadying breath and put on her best public-concern face.
She raised her voice so the whole floor could hear.
“We didn’t want it to come to this, but Chloe has been running a scam. She recruited us into a carpool at a low rate, and now that she’s got us dependent on it, she quadrupled the price to line her own pockets. We just wanted an explanation. Trevor got upset because we’re all struggling to pay bills while she plays games with our livelihoods.”
Trevor nodded immediately.
“She probably cut herself just to get me in trouble. Look at her, trying to extort us even now.”
Whispers spread.
The sympathy in my coworkers’ eyes cooled into suspicion.
“That’s not right, Chloe,” someone muttered. “You can’t exploit your coworkers like that.”
The cut on my arm stung, but the coldness in my chest hurt more.
I had given these people everything. My time. My car. My protection. And they had turned it into a weapon against me.
I reached into my pocket and hit a speed-dial number.
“Dad,” I whispered when he picked up. “How does the firm handle employees with severe character and integrity issues?”
At exactly five o’clock, I walked down to the parking garage.
As I reached for the passenger-side rear door of the black Mercedes, a hand shoved me back.
“You don’t get to ride,” Trevor growled. “Not until you fix the price.”
Lauren stood beside him, her voice trembling with fake pity.
“Chloe, it’s pouring out here. Your wound could get infected. Just be reasonable, pay our fees for the month, and we’ll let this go.”
I looked at her. Really looked at her.
The hypocrisy was enough to make me sick.
I ignored them and reached for the handle again.
This time Trevor lunged for my shoulder, but a large, solid figure stepped between us.
James.
He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to.
His presence alone was a wall.
He gently moved me behind him.
“James, let’s go home,” I said.
“Of course, Miss Chloe.”
The three of them froze.
The heavy thud of the Mercedes doors closing sounded like a vault sealing shut.