Chapter 1 - The Woman in the Executive Elevator
On my first morning as the company’s new CEO, a woman I had never met stepped in front of the executive elevator and ordered me to leave.
What made it worse?
She was my husband’s secretary.
What made me stay silent?
The limited-edition white watch gleaming on her wrist—the exact watch I had asked my husband to buy for his mother’s birthday.
Only ten existed in the entire world.
And somehow, his secretary was wearing one.
I didn’t confront her.
I didn’t call my husband.
I simply waited for him to walk out of his meeting.
Because suddenly, finding out who was allowed to use the executive elevator was the least important question on my mind.
“This is the executive elevator,” the woman said, blocking my path. “Custodians use the service elevator.”
Her tone was slow and condescending, like she was explaining a simple rule to a child.
I looked at her.
Then at the elevator behind her.
“I’m not a custodian.”
Her eyes swept over my plain clothes.
“Then you’re an intern.”
She folded her arms.
“Interns use the service elevator too. If you can’t understand something that basic, maybe you shouldn’t be working here.”
That was how my first day back at headquarters began.
No welcome.
No introduction.
Just my husband’s secretary deciding I wasn’t important enough to stand inside an elevator.
Her name was Jang Chin Tong.
And judging by the nervous expressions around us, she was accustomed to getting whatever she wanted.
Several employees stopped to watch.
Not one challenged her.
A woman nearby quietly approached me.
“Just take the service elevator,” she whispered. “Don’t argue with Secretary Jang.”
I frowned.
“How do employees above the sixty-third floor get upstairs if the service elevator stops at sixty-three?”
The woman hesitated.
“We take the stairs.”
“The stairs?”
She nodded.
“It’s only five floors.”
Only five floors.
Every morning.
Every afternoon.
Every time someone needed to move between departments.
All because someone had decided ordinary employees were not worthy of sharing an elevator with executives.
“That sounds like workplace discrimination,” I said.
Secretary Jang laughed.
“You’ve worked here for years and still haven’t been promoted?” she said to the employee. “Then that’s your own incompetence.”
The woman lowered her eyes.
And strangely, that bothered me more than anything Jang had said to me.
Humiliating me was one thing.
I knew who I was.
Watching an employee accept humiliation because she believed she had no power to fight back told me something was deeply wrong inside this company.
I had been married to Shiaoza for ten years.
Whenever he came home late, there was always an explanation.
A meeting.
A client dinner.
An executive emergency.
A business trip.
I believed him.
Marriage was supposed to come with trust.
Now I had returned to headquarters because the board had appointed me to take responsibility for the company’s operations.
Jang Chin Tong clearly knew none of that.
To her, I was simply another plainly dressed woman who had wandered above her station.
She stepped closer.
“This elevator is for executives only,” she said coldly. “Don’t dirty it.”
So when the doors opened, I stepped inside.
Her face changed.
She followed me.
“You really don’t understand what you’ve done, do you?” she snapped. “You think you can still work here after this?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I’ll have your internship canceled.”
I almost smiled.
Instead, I asked, “Since when does an intern’s future depend on whether she obeys the general manager’s secretary?”
Her expression hardened.
“Everyone working under President Shiao has to pass my inspection.”
That caught my attention.
She didn’t sound like a secretary.
She sounded like an owner.
Upstairs, employees began warning me.
“Secretary Jang is President Shiao’s right hand.”
“He trusts her more than anyone.”
“He spoils her.”
“Offending her is the same as offending him.”
Then something flashed beneath the lights.
A watch.
White.
Elegant.
Limited edition.
My stomach tightened.
I knew that watch.
Last month, I had chosen it as a birthday gift for my mother-in-law.
I had been too busy to purchase it myself, so I asked my husband to handle the order.
He told me he would.
And now his secretary was wearing it.
Jang noticed me staring.
Then she smiled.
“Oh. Now I understand.”
“Understand what?”
“You’re after President Shiao.”
I stared at her.
She continued.
“You think you can seduce him?”
She looked me over slowly.
“Look in the mirror. Do you even deserve him?”
Then Jang lifted her chin.
“I’ve been with President Shiao for a long time.”
My eyes returned to the watch.
Ten years of marriage.
Ten years of believing him.
Then the conference-room doors opened.
Employees straightened.
My husband walked out.
The moment Jang saw him, she transformed.
Her face softened.
Her voice became sweet.
She hurried toward him.
Shiaoza looked at her with immediate concern.
“Tong Tong, what’s wrong?”
Tong Tong.
My husband had never called his own senior assistants by nicknames.
Jang pointed at me.
“President Shiao, it’s nothing important. Just a newbie.”
She smiled.
“An intern.”
My husband followed her finger.
His eyes landed on me.
The color drained from his face.
I said nothing.
I simply looked at the watch on Jang’s wrist.
Then back at my husband.
And waited.
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Because after ten years of marriage, I needed to hear his next words more than anything else.
Which one of us would he choose?
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