Fired Top Sales, Collecting Rent From Former Boss

I had been the top performer at the company for three years when they suddenly demoted me.

My boss told me to take it or leave it. He said the world didn't revolve around me and the company would thrive regardless.

Even my boyfriend abandoned me, choosing to cling to the boss's daughter for a chance at the high life.

So, I left.

When I finally returned, I wasn't looking for a job.

I walked up to my former boss, whose company was on the brink of bankruptcy, and handed him a legal document.

"Hello," I said. "I'm here to collect the rent."

The moment I stepped into the office, I was slapped with a demotion notice.

The gossip mill was already spinning.

"How did Raina get demoted? She's literally the MVP of this agency!" one of my coworkers whispered.

I raised an eyebrow, feeling just as confused.

I had worked my tail off for three years, pulling in massive accounts and securing my position as a manager.

We had just thrown a victory party for a project I closed last week. This demotion made zero sense.

My friend in HR, Mrs. Gable, pulled me aside with a heavy sigh.

"I'm just following the boss's orders, Raina. If I were you, I'd think long and hard about who you might have offended lately"

I caught her drift immediately.

"Who's the new manager?" I asked point-blank.

Mrs. Gable looked pained. "It's the new intern, Cece Lovell."

My frown deepened. Cece Lovell was the boss's daughter.

She had just graduated and was parachuted into the company with a massive ego. On her first day, she actually ordered me to get her a glass of water.

If she were talented, I might have swallowed my pride.

But she had flunked out of several prep schools before her parents bought her a degree from a mid-tier college abroad.

She knew nothing about the business but was an expert at causing chaos.

I tried to find a place for her on my team, but she was useless.

Eventually, I just told her to keep an eye on the water cooler and let someone know when it was empty.

Apparently, the little princess didn't appreciate that.

I rubbed my temples. I had no patience for this kind of nepo-baby nonsense.

I marched straight into the boss's office to demand an explanation.

Mr. Lovell didn't even look up. He was ready to gaslight me.

"Raina, you've been with us for three years, right?"

I nodded and started listing my successful projects and the revenue I'd generated.

He took a slow sip of his tea, looking unimpressed.

"Those projects might not have been because of you. Maybe those clients just saw how much potential our company has.

"Young people shouldn't be so arrogant."

I let out a cold laugh.

"And what about Cece? She's been here for two weeks and hasn't finished a single task. How does she deserve my title?"

I had recently brought her to a meeting with a major European client, thinking her time abroad meant she could at least handle basic English.

It turned out her English was worse than my middle-school nephew's.

When I asked her to translate, she just pointed at the client and yelled, "Water! Water!"

The client was baffled, but I knew exactly what she wanted. The princess was just trying to order another person around.

Mr. Lovell slammed his hand on the desk.

"She deserves it because she's my daughter! People are born different, Raina. In this company, I am the sun, and Cece is the moon. You? You're just dirt."

The mask was off. I didn't hold back.

"Sir, this kind of favoritism will destroy the morale of your best employees. If you put the wrong people in charge, the company will suffer."

He looked at me with pure disdain.

"I'm not firing you, am I? You'll keep doing the work, but your salary is getting a massive haircut.

"That's the deal. Take it or get the hell out. This company moves on with or without you!"

I ripped my ID badge off my neck and hurled it onto the floor. I even gave it a good stomp for measure.

Everyone has a breaking point, and I had just reached mine.

Mr. Lovell turned red with rage.

"Raina Sterling! Think carefully. I have a lot of pull in this industry. If you walk out that door, I'll make sure no other agency touches you!"

"Don't worry about me," I snapped.

I walked out and sent a text to my boyfriend, Leo Young.

"I quit. Are you coming with me?"

I didn't expect him to say no. We had been together since college. I was always the top of our class.

Back then, Leo told me that regular people like us could never get ahead just by being employees. He said we had to start our own thing to climb the social ladder.

We had a plan to learn the ropes for a few years and then strike out on our own.

Minutes passed. Silence.

I went to his department to find him, but a coworker told me he wasn't there.

Leo had taken the day off.

"A day off?" I muttered.

I sent another message. "You're off today? Is everything okay? I've left the company. Do you want to leave too?"

I went back to my desk to pack my things.

My phone buzzed. I unlocked it to find a single, soul-crushing sentence.

"Let's break up."

I sent a string of question marks, only to realize I had been blocked.

I stood there, stunned. Was it really just because I quit?

I tried calling him, but my number was blocked too.

Then I noticed my teammates looking at me with pity and confusion.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Raina you should probably look at this."

One of them handed me their phone. It was a post Leo had made on social media an hour ago.

It was a photo of two hands intertwined on a hotel bed, followed by a mirror selfie of a couple hugging in a luxury suite.

The caption read: "Finally found the one."

The woman in the photo, the one he called his soulmate, was Cece Lovell.

The comments were full of fake congratulations. Only a few people from my team had posted confused emojis.

"Leo! What the hell? Have you no respect for Raina?" one of my friends had commented.

Leo replied instantly. "Sorry, true love is an irresistible force."

I felt a cold chill. I wasn't entirely surprised, though.

The day Cece was introduced, I saw the way Leo looked at her. It wasn't professional; it was predatory and desperate.

Every time we had dinner lately, he seemed a million miles away.

The signs were all there.

It wasn't "true love." It was just a social climber finding a faster ladder.

"They are so shameless. We're swamped with work, and they're playing house in a hotel!"

"Shh, Raina is right there."

"I'm just mad for her!"

I gave them a small, tight smile.

"Relax, guys. I just lost a toxic job and a trash boyfriend in one day. You should be congratulating me."

"Oh, poor little career woman," a high-pitched, annoying voice mocked from the doorway. "Losing your man and your job. Are you going to go home and cry under your covers now?"

I turned around to see Cece. She was clutching Leo's arm, looking like she'd won the lottery.

I just shook my head.

"You're back from your hotel room already? Wow, Leo. You're getting faster. Good luck with that, Cece. I was getting bored of him anyway."

"You!" Cece shrieked.

Leo stepped forward, looking offended.

"Raina, don't be so bitter. Apologize to Cece right now. If she gets angry, your career is over!"

"Did I lie? If a couple of cheaters can stand here and talk, why can't I?"

Leo sighed, acting like he was the bigger person.

"Raina, I know it's hard to accept that I'm leaving you. But be realistic. You're talented, but Cece was born at the finish line. You could work a hundred years and never reach her level. Just give up."

One of my team members tried to step in, but I held them back.

I rolled my eyes at the pair of them.

"You're both standing on the same floor as me. Don't act like you're in the clouds. You might fall and break your necks."

Cece's face twisted with malice.

"You have such a nasty mouth. No wonder Leo doesn't love you. I came back just to watch you pack your pathetic little life into a box."

She stepped closer and whispered in my ear.

"I almost feel bad for you. My dad wasn't going to fire you yet. Do you know why he hates you? It's because of your precious Leo.

"He told my dad that you spend all day complaining about the long hours and calling the company's rules stupid."

I interrupted her, speaking loudly so everyone could hear.

"The rules are stupid."

Cece blinked, startled by my volume. "What?"

"I said the rules are idiotic. And it's one thing to have bad rules, but it's another to have a blind boss. This company is going to crash and burn."

Cece lunged as if to slap me, but I stepped aside.

"This company has no room for you! You're just a worker bee! How dare you have opinions!"

The office was turning into a circus until Mr. Lovell's voice boomed from his office.

"Meeting! Everyone in the conference room now!"

Here we go again.

Another meeting that served no purpose other than to stroke the boss's ego.

I ignored them and kept packing.

Through the thin walls, I could hear Mr. Lovell's voice.

"I'll keep this brief.

"Some people don't know their place. They think a little bit of luck makes them untouchable! They think they can question my authority! We don't need that kind of poison here.

"Whether I demote or promote someone, you must trust the process! There's a reason for everything. Leo, stand up. Tell them why Raina had to go."

I heard a chair scrape. That was Leo.

"Well Boss! Raina might look capable, but her attitude is terrible. She leaves the second the clock hits five! It's bad for morale. As employees, we should be willing to bleed for this company!"

"Bravo!"

Cece's solitary cheer was met with a few scattered, half-hearted claps.

It was a classic brainwashing session. They were using me as a scapegoat to scare everyone else into submission.

It was peak corporate greed.

My phone buzzed. My team had started a secret group chat.

"This is disgusting. I can't listen to this anymore."

"If this company focused on actual business instead of kissing the boss's feet, we'd double our revenue. We wouldn't have to rely on Raina to carry us."

"Bleed for the company? For fifteen dollars an hour? He's insane."

"Raina, are you really leaving?"

Mrs. Gable chimed in.

"Raina, dear, the boss is just trying to provoke you. If you quit now, you won't get any severance. Think about it."

I sent a sticker of a dog shaking its head.

"It's fine. I have a plan."

Mrs. Gable sent a sad face. She probably thought I was being naive and didn't realize how hard it is to fight a corporation.

But she didn't know the truth.

The land this office building sat on belonged to my family.

For every dollar they cut from my salary, I was going to add ten to their rent.

As I walked toward the elevator, Cece gave me one last smirk.

"Some people are just born to be losers. Talent means nothing if you don't have the right bloodline."

I didn't even look at her. I just texted my dad. "I quit. I'm coming home."

After hiring movers to take my things to a storage unit, I drove to the outskirts of the city.

I could hear the fireworks from a mile away.

"Hahaha! My girl is finally back!"

My dad ran out of the manor, laughing at the top of his lungs.

One of the reasons I hadn't come home in years was his eccentric personality.

"I told you to just take over the family business. Why did you have to go suffer with that loser?"

I sighed.

Leo had never been a good student. He was always obsessed with "networking," which mostly meant buying lunch for the student council president or playing golf with professors.

I knew he couldn't cut it at my dad's company.

But I also didn't want to use my connections. I wanted us to earn it. So I went to the Lovell Agency with him.

I wanted to sharpen my skills in a different environment and help him grow.

The plan was to reveal my identity as the Sterling heiress once we were successful enough to take over the family empire.

But Leo never changed. He spent his days sucking up to management instead of learning the business.

While I was out there grinding to close deals, Leo was busy taking the office leads out to dinner.

And now he'd set his sights on Cece.

Did he really think being a trophy boyfriend would be that easy?

"Maybe it's a curse," I joked. "The rich girl has to get betrayed by a loser before she can truly rise. It's a classic plot twist."

"Don't be sad, honey," my dad said, patting my shoulder. "I've got a gift for you. I'm giving you the deed to the Lovell building. You do whatever you want with it. Crush that little cockroach who bullied my daughter."

"Thanks, Dad. That warms my heart."

"Good. Because winter is coming for the Lovells."