"Yes, sir. I'm heading back to the office right now. I'll have the corrections done immediately."
I hung up the phone and got into the driver's seat.
The road was buried in darkness, silent and devoid of any other cars.
"Damn it…"
The curse slipped out before I could stop it.
I started the engine and stomped on the gas. The car groaned as it lurched forward.
I knew it was too good to be true when he actually let me leave at a reasonable hour.
I grabbed the coffee from the cup holder and downed it in one go.
No matter how I looked at it, my boss definitely had a few screws loose.
Who tells you to go home because you're done for the day, only to call you back to the office just as you're pulling into your driveway?
How thick-skinned do you have to be to say something like that without a shred of guilt?
I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but the project presentation was due in two days.
I had no choice but to suck it up and wait for my chance to get even.
'Just you wait.'
I ground my teeth as I sped down the empty highway.
They say the ultimate winner in the corporate world is the one who survives the longest, right?
Even if it was a lie, I had to believe it to keep going.
I'd lost track of time, and my eyelids started to feel heavy.
After working like a zombie for the last few days, my body refused to cooperate.
Even the caffeine couldn't fight off this level of exhaustion.
'There are no other cars around anyway. I won't crash.'
My hazy mind whispered a comforting lie.
The traffic lights and the road blurred together before fading from my view entirely.
I gave in to the temptation. My eyes drifted shut…
*Crash!*
For a moment, I felt weightless. My body felt like it was floating.
In that split second, I realized I'd hit a streetlight.
But it was already too late.
I was hurled forward, and my head snapped into the steering wheel. A brief, sharp shock followed, and then a blinding white light filled my vision.
Was this my life flashing before my eyes?
Born into a broken home, suffering daily abuse, and eventually running away to live on my own.
Landing a job at a mediocre company, turning twenty-eight, and now dying from falling asleep at the wheel due to overwork.
It was a pretty hollow ending for twenty-eight years of grinding through life.
But at that moment, I had no idea.
I had no idea that I was about to be reborn as the son of Gaius Julius Caesar, a legendary Roman politician and general.