My Rise, Her Regret

“Wanda Stewart, he made a mistake with key data that could potentially impact projects worth tens of millions of dollars!”

Samuel’s eyes immediately turned red as he said indignantly, “Jansen, I know I’m stupid and am nothing compared to you, but I’m already trying my best…”

“Samuel, it’s not your fault!”

Wanda wrapped an arm around his shoulder and comforted him tenderly.

When she turned to look at me, that tenderness was immediately replaced with disgust.

“Jansen Graham! Are you quite done? Why do you keep harping on something so trivial? You’re really becoming more and more of an old geezer!”

I stood stunned at her sudden remark.

She completely disregarded the pained look in my eyes as she raised her voice, saying, “You can’t even do your work well and you kick up a fuss over nothing all day long! Calling you an old geezer is being kind to you!

“See how humble Samuel is! I’m only saying this for your own good!”

Samuel held Wanda’s hand, looking smug.

“Alright, Ms. Stewart. I get it. I’ll figure something out regarding the data.”

I turned around and heard Wanda comforting Samuel, her voice becoming tender once more, “Samuel, don’t cry. Ignore him, he’s just jealous of you and twisted in his heart and mind…”

-

The humiliation didn’t stop there, and only became worse.

Wanda’s blatant tolerance of Samuel’s behavior gave him and everyone else amnesty.

“Old geezer” became a semi-official nickname for me.

Two interns walked past me with a strange smile on their faces.

I heard one of them muttering under his breath, “Come on, let’s go. The old geezer is here, you might just get bitten by him.”

“I heard that there’s a group chat…are you in it?”

“Not yet. Invite me, quick.”

Incidents like this were a daily occurrence.

Finally, everything came to a head during a project review meeting.

My boss was already upset with me for the lack of data in my previous report.

This time, I made sure I was fully prepared.

However, ten minutes before the meeting began, Wanda came strutting in with Samuel.

“Samuel has been working on this project for a long time. Let him present the progress update and you can add on.”

I tried to fight my corner.

“Ms. Stewart, I’ve been overseeing this project from its launch to its execution. I know it inside-out.”

Wanda chuckled as she glanced at me, “You know it inside-out? Who disappointed the boss so badly at the last progress update?”

She then turned to look encouragingly at Samuel.

“Samuel, get ready to begin.”

Samuel immediately stepped forward to insert his thumb drive into the computer.

Wanda kept nodding approvingly at his report, looking extremely pleased with his performance.

I looked on in silence, the look in my eyes growing cold.

Just as he was switching between windows, he accidentally clicked on the bottom right corner of the screen.

His personal messages were immediately flashed on-screen.

Right at the top was a group chat with an attention-grabbing title: [Old Geezer Observation Log]

The chat was filled with pictures secretly taken of me and comments about them.

[That old geezer is wearing suit pants and drinking coffee. How classy of him!]

[He’s just living off Ms. Stewart. It’s been eight long years, I’d have dumped him a long time ago!]

I could just hear the pretentious tone in Samuel’s voice through his response on the screen. [Don’t say that…]

Wanda replied with, “Samuel, leave the old geezer alone, lest he finds trouble with you.”

I turned to look at Wanda who was pretending nothing happened, a small smile hanging on her lips.

My heart turned cold as ash, realizing that all the sacrifices and effort I poured into the eight years of our relationship were nothing but a joke.

Before the meeting ended, I handed my resignation letter to the HR department.

I had packed my things and loaded them in a box, all ready to leave, when I bumped into Wanda and Samuel who were chatting and laughing together.

Wanda’s gaze locked on me, but she said nothing.

'Goodbye, Wanda Stewart,' I said inwardly. 'I’ll never see you again.'