Contract Error, They Framed Me, Boss Is Dad

I sat at my desk, working through the day's tasks, my eyes on the screen in front of me.

Eve Fox came over out of nowhere, a document in her hand.

Lulu, could you help me out? This is the contract for the new partnership. Manager Finch wants it tonight, and there's just no way I'll finish everything in time.

"Give it a couple of days and I'll treat you to a nice dinner."

She pressed her palms together, a plea on her face.

Seeing her like that, I instinctively reached out to take the file and help.

We'd joined the company in the same batch back then, so we got along well enough, and helping each other out seemed perfectly normal to me.

But just as my hand was about to touch the document she held out, a voice sounded in my ear.

Don't take it. Lucretia James, whatever you do, do not help her.

Eve made a huge mistake. There's a serious problem with the contract that would cost the company tens of millions.

The only reason she's asking for your help is so she can pin the blame on you.

I froze for a second and rubbed my eyes, thinking I was imagining things.

Set aside how the strange voice had appeared at all. I found it hard to believe a coworker would set out to hurt me like that.

Trust me, every word of this is true!

In a moment, your boyfriend Caspar Finch will come over and, under the banner of "we're all old classmates," push you to help.

But what you don't know is that Caspar has long since been carrying on with Eve, and he's the one who planned this whole thing.

My confusion only deepened. I had no idea whether the voice in my ear was telling the truth.

Seeing me stand there without taking the contract, something anxious flickered deep in Eve's eyes.

Right then, Caspar walked up, snatched the file from her hand, and pressed it straight into mine.

"Lucretia, we're all coworkers here, and you're not busy right now anyway. Just help out!"

Hearing him say the exact words the voice had just warned me about, my expression stalled for a moment.

I looked down at the contract in my hand and couldn't help the cold smile rising inside me.

They wanted to frame me?

Did they really think I was some soft pushover anyone could squeeze however they liked?

...

I looked at the document in my hand and set it down on the desk in front of me.

"Sorry, Eve, I'm just swamped today. I haven't even finished my own work."

Ever since we'd joined the company in the same batch, Eve had come to me for help all the time.

And out of courtesy between coworkers, I'd never once turned her down.

If not for that voice that had suddenly sounded in my ear, I'd probably already be helping her with the contract by now.

But with that warning ringing in my ear, there was no way I'd fall into her trap.

At that, a flash of surprise crossed Eve's face.

She clearly hadn't expected me to refuse. She stepped closer and gently took hold of my hand.

"Lulu, I really can't keep up, just help me this once!"

"We're all coworkers. Just help me this last time!"

Caspar chimed in from the side: "Exactly. We're all coworkers, helping out is completely normal. Besides, how busy can an ordinary employee like you really be?"

I lifted my head and looked at Caspar, as if trying to read something different on his face.

But his face was exactly as it had always been, not a trace out of place, as though he were merely putting in a good word to help a colleague.

I glanced over the contract.

Just a few glances and I spotted the problem with it.

They both thought I was nothing more than an ordinary employee. What they didn't know was that I'd grown up steeped in it under my father, and I understood contracts inside and out.

Better, even, than most professionals.

The contract looked harmless enough, but it was riddled with problems.

If I'd really been as oblivious as they were counting on, I'd have walked right into their trap.

And then they could have shoved every problem onto me.

"It's not that I don't want to help, I really am too busy today."

"On a normal day I'd have done it, but right now I've got work Director Cobb assigned me. If I hold it up, he'll have something to say about it."

I brushed her off with the first excuse I could find.

Seeing me still unmoved, the panic in Eve's eyes grew, and she kept glancing at Caspar beside her.

"Lulu, just help me this one time. I promise it'll be the last time I ever ask you for help."

The last time, all right.

If I really took the fall for them, being on the hook for tens of millions in penalties would be more than enough to end my time at this company.

By then I wouldn't even be here anymore, so of course I'd never be helping them again.

Caspar grabbed my hand, a hint of pleading on his face.

"We all joined this company together back then, we're friends. How can you stand to watch her get chewed out? As for the work on your desk, I'll go explain it to Director Cobb for you later. Just help Eve out first."

The three of us had come into James Group together as management trainees. With my help, the two of them made a name for themselves fast.

Eve became a director's assistant, and Caspar was already a department manager.

Only I was still an ordinary employee.

Maybe, in the eyes of Caspar and Eve, I'd fallen behind because I wasn't good enough at the job, or lacked something else.

But I was the only one who knew the truth: I'd simply wanted a few more years down in the trenches.

I'd never once let slip who I really was, but the company had reached out to me long ago.

Back then the senior leadership had said they wanted to promote me, give me more responsibility.

My father brought it up too. He felt the timing was about right, that we could go ahead and reveal my relationship to him.

But at the time I'd told my father I wanted more seasoning at the ground level, that I'd step forward once I really knew how the company worked.

Beyond that thinking, there was another reason. I wanted to give Caspar and Eve some time to adjust.

I didn't want it to change what was between us.

What I never expected was that my goodwill would make bullying me, framing me, feel like the most natural thing in the world to them.

Since they were so set on it, I didn't want to go back and forth with them anymore. I said it flat out: "Sorry, I can't do this one."

Hearing that, Caspar couldn't keep his composure. His face darkened as he looked at me.

"Lucretia, we're all friends here. Do you really have to be this cold? After all the years I've spent with you, I never thought you were this kind of person."

I lifted my head and looked at Caspar, a flicker of disappointment in my eyes.

"So this is what I've been to you all along."

Caspar and I had joined the company in the same batch.

He'd chased after me from the moment we met, but I hadn't said yes to him at first.

As time went on, once I'd slowly come to understand him, I finally accepted him.

In our years together, I'd never told him who I really was.

I stayed with him in that shabby rented place on the edge of the city. It was nothing like the comfort of the family estate, but I never held it against him.

When Caspar talked about saving up to buy us a place of our own in the city, I handed over my paycheck without a second thought, ate at street stalls with him, chewed on the day's leftover fruit.

All those years, I thought I understood him well enough.

I'd been planning to bring him to my father before long, to formally introduce him to my family.

I believed that even without my family's blessing, I would keep walking that road beside him.

I thought I understood Caspar well enough.

But now, looking at that cold, stranger's gaze of his, I finally knew I'd been wrong.

Caspar looked at my face, none of the old tenderness there.

"Isn't it true? Eve just asked you for a little help, and you turn her down like this. It shows exactly what kind of person you are. You've really let me down!"

The commotion soon drew the attention of the coworkers around us. Heads turned our way, and the muttering started.

"Lucretia's really going too far. She's just being asked for a hand, and she's putting up all this resistance?"

"Right. We're all colleagues. Everyone hits a crunch sometimes. If someone came to me for help, I'd absolutely pitch in."

"Eve's a director's assistant, and Caspar's a department manager. Two people like that lowering themselves to ask, and she still won't give them the courtesy. That's really something."

"Exactly. No wonder Lucretia's still just a low-level nobody. She can't read a room at all."

...

Listening to the snide remarks around us, Eve and Caspar couldn't help the smug look creeping onto their faces.

The way they saw it, I'd cave under all the pointing and whispering soon enough and finally agree.

The moment I took on the work, they could pin the whole mess on me.

Caspar acted like he'd already won. Even his tone softened.

"Lucretia, stop making a scene. Just say yes."

"When you're done tonight, I'll go home and cook you something really nice."

I used to think all of Caspar's little kindnesses came from loving me. But now, looking at that two-faced expression of his,

I finally understood. It had only ever been a way to use me.

I ignored the gossip around me and looked straight at Caspar and Eve.

"If that's how you see it, then fine!"

"But I'll say it again. I can't help."

Eve froze where she stood.

Caspar was caught off guard. He hadn't expected that answer, and his face changed in an instant.

"Lucretia, do you really have to make me lose face like this?"

I looked at Caspar, my expression calm.

"Caspar, I think I've made myself perfectly clear. I can't help."

Caspar was worked up now. He coughed twice.

"Fine, fine, fine! Lucretia, you're really something. Since that's how you want it, don't blame me for not sparing you any face."

"Lucretia, as department manager, I'm now ordering you to finish this work. Otherwise, you can go wait at HR to be fired."