Monday morning, I woke up at 5:30 AM in my studio apartment.
The ceiling still had that water stain I'd been staring at for three years. The Murphy bed still didn't fold up properly. The shower still took ten minutes to produce hot water.
But it was mine. For now. Until the landlord decided the rent was two weeks late and evicted me.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand. A text from the hospital.
*Payment now 96 days overdue. Final notice before discharge proceedings begin. Please contact billing immediately.*
I deleted it without reading the rest.
I'd been doing the math obsessively for weeks now. Hospital bills: $4,850 overdue, plus another $600 monthly for the new medications. Rent: $1,200 due in three days. Subway pass: $127. Food: whatever was left, which was usually nothing.
My paycheck covered rent and half the hospital bill. Maybe.
The promotion would have fixed everything. The $15,000 raise, the signing bonus. I'd had it all planned out—which bills to pay first, how much I could send to Grandma's facility, maybe even enough left over to finally visit her on a weekend instead of just calling.
But the promotion went to Ava.
And now I was here, staring at my cracked ceiling, calculating which bill I could afford to ignore this month.
I got dressed,thrift store blazer, black slacks with the loose button, scuffed flats,and took the subway to Apex.
***
I arrived at 7 AM, same as always.
The office was mostly empty at this hour. Just me, the cleaning crew finishing up on the lower floors, and the faint hum of computers left on overnight.
I liked it this way. Quiet. No one to perform normalcy for.
I sat at my cubicle and opened my laptop, pulling up the financial reports that were due by Friday. Numbers that would be presented by someone else, credited to someone else, praised by someone else.
"Elena! You're here early." Ava's voice startled me.
I looked up. She was standing at the entrance to her office,my office,with two coffee cups in hand, wearing a soft pink blouse and an apologetic smile.
"I brought you coffee," she said, walking over and setting one of the cups on my desk. "I know you usually make instant in the break room, but I thought... I don't know. You've seemed stressed lately."
The coffee was from that boutique place on Madison. $8 per cup.
"Thanks," I said.
"How are you doing?" She leaned against my cubicle wall, genuine concern in her eyes. "You've been so quiet the past few weeks. Is everything okay?"
*Is everything okay?*
My grandmother was dying. I was three months behind on her bills. I'd lost the promotion that would have saved everything. I'd watched this woman,this kind, well-meaning, oblivious woman,take my job, my dress, my restaurant reservation, and now she was asking if I was okay while holding a coffee that cost more than my daily food budget.
"I'm fine," I said. "Just busy."
"Well, if you ever want to talk..." She smiled. "I mean it. I know we haven't known each other long, but I'd like to think we're friends."
Friends.
"Sure," I said. "Thanks for the coffee."
She walked back to her office, and I stared at the expensive cup on my desk for a long moment before taking a sip.
It tasted like guilt.
***
At 10 AM, everything changed.
I was deep in a spreadsheet when I heard it,the sharp click of expensive heels on tile, moving fast, moving with purpose.
Then a voice, loud and imperious: "I don't need an appointment. Adrian knows I'm coming."
I looked up.
The woman striding through the office was stunning in that calculated, aggressive way,tall, model-thin, designer suit in crimson red, perfectly styled black hair, sunglasses she didn't bother to remove even indoors. She moved like she owned the building.
Several people had stopped working to stare.
"Where is she?" the woman demanded, her voice carrying across the entire floor.
Mr. Hendricks emerged from his office, looking alarmed. "Ms. Ashford, if you're here to see Mr. Wolfe, he's not available. He's in meetings all—"
"I know exactly where he is. Tokyo. Conveniently far away." Victoria's eyes, visible now as she lowered her sunglasses, scanned the office with cold precision. "I've been watching this floor for weeks, waiting for the right moment. And I'm here to see the woman who thinks she can steal what's mine."
My stomach dropped.
Weeks. She'd been watching for weeks.
"Ms. Ashford, you can't just barge in here—" Hendricks tried, but she'd already spotted her target.
Ava's office.
"There you are," Victoria said, her voice dripping with contempt.
She pushed open Ava's door without knocking, and I stood up from my desk, some instinct telling me this was going to get bad.
Through the glass walls, I could see Ava look up from her computer, confusion crossing her face. "Can I help you?"
"I'm Victoria Ashford." She said it like the name should mean something. "Adrian's fiancée."
The office had gone completely silent. Everyone was watching now, not even pretending to work.
Ava stood up slowly, her expression shifting from confusion to something harder. "I'm sorry, but Adrian doesn't have a fiancée. We've been together for three years."
"You've been a distraction for three years." Victoria stepped fully into the office, and I could see her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. "Our families have an arrangement. We were promised to each other when we were sixteen. One day,very soon,he'll remember his obligations, and you'll be exactly what you are: a temporary amusement that overstayed her welcome."
Ava's face had gone pale, but her voice stayed steady. "I think you need to leave. Now."
"Make me, you little gold-digger."
Mr. Hendricks was on the phone now, probably calling security. Marcus had stood up from his desk, looking torn between intervening and staying out of it. Everyone else was frozen, watching like this was a reality TV show.
Victoria turned suddenly, her eyes scanning the gathered crowd, and they landed directly on me.
"You," she said, pointing. "Elena Chen. I've been watching you too."
I felt my entire body go cold.
"You're the one who was supposed to get the associate director position. Before *her*." She jerked her head toward Ava. "I did my research. You've been here three years, worked every weekend, trained half the department. And they gave your job to Adrian's little pet."
The office somehow got even quieter.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said carefully, but my voice sounded weak even to my own ears.
"Don't play stupid. Everyone here knows you were passed over." Victoria's smile was sharp and cruel. "They gave your job to Adrian's mistress. You must hate her."
Part of me wanted to say yes. Part of me understood Victoria's rage,the feeling of something being stolen, of being erased, of watching someone else live the life that should have been yours.
But I looked at Ava, pressed against her office door, looking small and scared, and I knew: whatever I felt, it wasn't this. It couldn't be this.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I repeated.
"I know I would," Victoria continued, walking toward me now. People scattered out of her way. "So here's what's going to happen. You and I are going to teach this pretender a lesson about taking things that don't belong to her."
"Victoria, please," Ava said, and I could hear real fear in her voice now. "Elena hasn't done anything wrong. This is between you and—"
"This is between women who know their place and women who don't." Victoria's eyes were still locked on mine. "So what's it going to be, Elena? Are you going to help me, or are you going to keep licking her boots?"
I looked at Ava. She was pressed against her office door, arms wrapped around herself, looking small and scared and nothing like the confident woman who'd taken my promotion.
I looked at Victoria, with her designer suit and her manic eyes and her pure, distilled rage.
I looked at everyone else in the office, watching, waiting to see what I would do.
And I thought: *This is wrong. This is insane. I need to stop this before—*
"Slap her," Victoria said suddenly.
The words seemed to echo in the silent office.
"What?" I stared at her.
"Slap her." Victoria said it louder, performing now for the entire floor. "Slap that homewrecking bitch across the face. Show her what happens to women who steal other women's men. Prove you're not just another one of her pathetic little followers."
My heart was hammering against my ribs. This was insane. This was—
"Victoria, stop—" Ava tried, but Victoria cut her off.
"Do it, Elena. One slap. That's all I'm asking. Show everyone here that you have a spine."
"No," I said.
Victoria's expression darkened. "What did you say?"
"I said no. I'm not going to slap her." My voice was shaking, but I kept talking. "You need to leave. Whatever issues you have with Ava or Adrian, this isn't—"
"You stupid, pathetic little—" Victoria stepped toward me, and I flinched back.
That's when I made the decision that would destroy everything.
I pulled out my phone.
"What are you doing?" Victoria demanded.
"Calling Adrian," I said, my fingers already finding his number in the company directory. "If you won't leave, maybe he can talk some sense into you."
It seemed like the smart thing to do. The professional thing. Call the CEO, let him handle his crazy ex-fiancée, get Victoria out of the office before this escalated further. Maybe Adrian would even be grateful. Maybe this would finally get me noticed, acknowledged, maybe even—
Victoria's face transformed into something ugly.
"You little snitch."
The call was ringing. Once. Twice.
"Hello?" Adrian's voice, distant and professional, probably annoyed at being interrupted during his Tokyo meetings.
"Mr. Wolfe, this is Elena Chen from analytics. There's a situation in the office—"
I explained quickly: Victoria Ashford was here, harassing Ava, refusing to leave, causing a scene. I kept my voice calm, professional, factual.
Adrian was silent for a moment.
Then: "Put her on."
I handed the phone to Victoria, who snatched it from my hand.
"Adrian, darling," she said, her voice suddenly sweet. "Your little assistant here seems confused about—"
Whatever Adrian said made her face go white.
"But—"
More silence as she listened.
"I was just—"
Her expression shifted from shock to fury to something calculating.
"Fine," she said finally. "I understand perfectly."
She ended the call and threw my phone back at me. I barely caught it.
Victoria looked at me for a long moment, her face unreadable. Then she smiled,cold, sharp, predatory.
"You made a mistake," she said quietly, and there was something in her voice that made my blood run cold. "A very, very big mistake."
Then she turned and walked out, heels clicking against the tile, leaving absolute silence in her wake.
Mr. Hendricks cleared his throat. "Everyone back to work. Show's over."
People slowly returned to their desks, murmuring to each other.
Ava approached me, her face flushed. "Elena, thank you. That was... I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't—"
"It's fine," I said.
But it wasn't fine.
I could feel it in my bones,the way Victoria had looked at me before she left, the cold promise in her voice.
*You made a mistake.*
***
The rest of the day passed in a blur of anxiety.
I kept expecting something to happen,security to escort me out, HR to call me in, Mr. Hendricks to fire me for "involving myself in executive personal matters." But nothing came.
Just the usual work. The usual spreadsheets. The usual invisibility.
At 6 PM, I took the subway home, hyper-aware of every person around me, every shadow, every sound.
Nothing happened.
I ate instant ramen standing at my kitchen counter, staring at my phone, waiting for... what? A threatening text? Another call from Victoria? Something?
Nothing.
At 2 AM, my phone finally rang.
Unknown number.
I almost didn't answer. But something made me pick up.
"Hello?"
"Elena Chen?" A man's voice, unfamiliar. Professional.
"Yes?"
"Calling Tokyo was a mistake." His voice was flat, emotionless. "Ms. Ashford wanted you to know: there are consequences for interfering in family matters. You should have minded your own business."
The line went dead.
I sat up in bed, heart pounding, staring at my phone.
Family matters. As if Victoria's obsession with Adrian was somehow legitimate. As if I'd done something wrong by trying to prevent a public assault.
I didn't sleep the rest of that night.
I just lay in bed, staring at the water-stained ceiling, listening to every creak and groan of the building, waiting for something terrible that didn't come.
Not yet.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was coming.
Victoria Ashford didn't make threats she didn't intend to keep.
And I had just made myself her enemy.