Say No to Being Second Choice

After my girlfriend returns from a month-long business trip with her first love, she notices that I've changed.

She sides with him to take over my project, but I don't quit in anger. Instead, I throw myself into helping him, even drafting proposals for him.

She destroys the design I worked so hard on to help him snag the year-end bonus, yet I don't try to defend myself. I take all the blame and let her punish me however she likes.

Even when she goes as far as to promote him to general manager against the rules, I don't get upset. I hand over all my shares, letting her distribute them as she wishes.

My girlfriend wonders why I've suddenly become so submissive, while her first love just grins smugly.

"See? I told you—giving him the cold shoulder works. Once he's afraid of losing you, he'll fall in line," he says.

It clicks for my girlfriend. She smiles, tells me I've been good, and offers me a promotion.

Then, she unexpectedly asks me to propose. But she doesn't seem to realize that while we weren't speaking, she has already signed my resignation papers.

And I've already broken up with her.

From this moment on, I sever all ties with her, and we no longer have anything to do with each other.

"Get this proposal done by the end of the day. It's urgent," Beatrice Campbell ordered in an icy voice.

As soon as she finished speaking, she slammed a thick stack of documents onto my desk and walked away.

Once she was out of sight, my colleagues crowded around. Their voices were overlapping. One of them asked, "Isn't this Zachary's project?"

"His projects are the most difficult. There are so many requirements, and it's hard to find all the information," another commented. "There's no way anyone could finish them all today. Honestly, even by tomorrow night would be a stretch."

"Ms. Campbell favors him way too much. He doesn't even handle his own projects, and she just assigns them to someone else."

They crowded around me, speaking without restraint. However, I knew perfectly well they weren't defending me. They were just here for the drama.

Everyone in the company knew that the CEO, Beatrice, was my girlfriend. Yet, she showed blatant favoritism toward my sworn rival, Zachary Fletcher.

Back then, Beatrice hadn't just bent the rules to give Zachary the managerial role on the project team. She had even handed him a multimillion-dollar project I had spent a month securing, then another month working overtime. And she did it right before it was due.

I refused to accept it. So, Beatrice responded by holding a public vote to decide who would take on the project.

On the surface, my coworkers spoke up for me. But when it was time to vote, they all cast their votes for Zachary.

Afterward, they told me they had only voted that way because they were intimidated by Beatrice. They even suggested I be more