Chapter 1

The day I received my full-time offer email, my roommate suddenly popped her head out from her bunk curtain.

"Megan, go ahead and decline that job offer email."

I froze, turning around to stare at her in disbelief. "Anna, what are you talking about?"

She looked down at me, taking her sweet time before speaking. "Your team lead is my boyfriend. That spot was reserved for me all along."

My heart skipped a beat. Was I really dealing with a nepo-baby trying to hijack my job? I closed my laptop and stepped over to her bed.

"Wait, you've never even interned at our company."

"I don't need to intern. I'm a direct hire," she declared, her tone oozing confidence and arrogance.

My eyelids twitched as I pulled up my team lead's social media feed, but there wasn't a single photo of them together.

"So, how long have you two been dating?"

"We're about to start dating."

"What do you mean by about to?"

"I just sent him a friend request. As soon as he accepts, we're official."

Chapter 1

Anna Whitman's bizarre logic left me speechless, yet she didn't even bother pulling back her bed curtain.

Assuming this had to be some kind of joke, I knocked on her bed frame. "Anna, are you seriously pulling my leg?"

She sounded annoyed. "Why would I waste my time joking with you?"

A heavy knot tightened in my chest. "But I've been busting my butt for the past six months to earn this offer!"

"So what? I'm only giving you a heads-up out of the goodness of my heart," she said dismissively. "Don't be ungrateful. Be smart and go decline that email right now."

She sounded as if she were bestowing a grand blessing upon me.

"But you aren't even acquainted with Mikael! How could you two be dating?" I scowled, pushing back.

She finally pulled open her bed curtain, throwing me a look of pure disgust. "What era are you living in? Haven't you ever heard of speed dating or whirlwind romances? For someone in college, how are you such an uncultured dinosaur?"

She snapped the curtain shut again and rolled over. I gritted my teeth and sat back down at my desk with my head spinning.

She sounded composed, not like someone blabbering in her sleep, but her logic made zero sense to me.

Unable to hold it in, I called out loudly, "Anna, did you not wake up properly or something? Are you talking in your sleep?"

The curtain whipped open. "Megan, do you not understand English, or do you have some secret crush on my boyfriend?"

Before I could react, she sneered with condescending disdain. "All you know how to do is study like a drone and slave away at work every day. No boyfriend and no career prospects."

Anger flared straight into my brain. I stood up and glared at her. "And who's like you? Sitting there talking about stealing someone else's job through connections? I study hard. I work hard. I earn everything with a clear conscience!"

Before I could finish, she stormed out and slammed the door shut. My favorite song was playing in my headphones, but all desire to listen had evaporated.

I pulled out my phone and searched online.

[What to do if someone uses connections to steal your job offer?]

The comment section was overwhelmingly pessimistic.

[Nothing you can do, OP. Might as well find your own connection.]

[If it's not meant to be yours, it won't be.]

...

"Why is everyone just taking it lying down?"

I tried searching Whirlwind Romance and Speed Dating.

[Fast-food romance is so trendy right now!]

[Flash dating is honestly the most efficient way to date!]

...

I locked my phone screen, feeling as though I was the only sane person left on the planet.

Just then, my team lead, Mikael Brady, sent over pre-onboarding materials for me to review. I typed out a long reply, deleted it, and ended up with just a simple [Thanks!]

"Could this total workaholic really be into fast-track dating?" As I was pondering, Anna walked back in, holding an armful of expensive cosmetics.

She cast a sideways glance at me, mocking, "Looks to me like you're the one who hasn't woken up from her dream."

I ignored her, pulling my bed curtain shut and putting my headphones back on to sleep.

...

The next morning, I was woken up by the sound of Anna aggressively slamming drawers open and shut. Not long after, she walked out, caked in heavy makeup.

While brushing my teeth, I mindlessly scrolled through Instagram. Two photos on Anna's story immediately caught my eye.

In the first one, she was riding a carousel while Mikael stood a short distance away holding his phone, looking as though he were taking a picture of her.

In the second one, she held up an iced coffee while he stood at a pharmacy counter paying for medicine.

The caption read: [Having fun at the amusement park today when I suddenly felt under the weather. My boyfriend is so attentive!]

Chapter 2

As I stared at the familiar face in those two photos, a chill ran straight down my spine.

I zoomed in on the pictures and re-examined them ten times over, my heart pounding against my ribs like a sledgehammer.

"Is Mikael and Anna really dating? What about my offer then? God help me! Is the spot I've slaved over for six months really about to be hijacked by someone with connections?"

While my mind raced in frantic circles, a notification popped up in the company Slack channel.

[Attention all interns: Please complete the return offer evaluation form. Available online or in hard copy.]

I stared at the alert, a sudden idea taking shape in my head.

...

On Monday morning, I arrived at the office right on time.

The cubicle area was quiet. Mikael's desk was empty. His computer was off, and his favorite coffee mug wasn't in its usual spot.

I leaned over to a coworker in the adjacent cubicle and whispered, "Is Mikael out today?"

The coworker leaned in, lowering her voice to a hush. "Bizarre, right? The ultimate workaholic called in sick. He hasn't even replied to any messages."

My heart sank. "Called in sick? Is he alright?"

"No idea. Karen from HR mentioned he had some personal stuff to deal with over the next couple of days." My coworker flashed a mischievous, knowing wink. "Think he's secretly off on a romantic getaway with a new girlfriend?"

I didn't reply, my palms slick with cold sweat.

After I completed the evaluation form and handed it over to HR, Karen Wilson flipped through my file to check my address.

"Oh, Megan, you're living on the Westwood Campus?" she asked. "Mikael's place is nearby at Oakwood Apartments."

I blinked. "Really? That close?"

She pulled a document out of a folder and handed it to me. "Perfect timing. I need his signature on this contract anyway. Mind dropping it off on your way home? Building #3, Apartment #601. Saves me a trip across town."

I took the document, my heart beating fast for some unexplainable reason. "Sure thing."

...

Back at the dorm, I placed the document on my desk and went to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face.

When I stepped out, Anna was leaning against her bed frame, scrolling on her phone. She cast a casual, sideways glance at me. "Went to the office to fill out your forms?"

I nodded silently, unwilling to engage in any conversation with her.

She stood up and sauntered over, a sneer plastered on her face. "You really won't give up until you hit a wall, will you? I tried giving you sweet advice, but you just wouldn't listen."

Ignoring her, I slipped the document into my bag and lay down on my bed.

The next morning, however, the document was gone.

I was the only one left in the room; Anna had vanished early in the morning. I tore through my backpack and desk in a panic, cold sweat breaking out on my forehead.

Right then, my phone buzzed with a text message from Anna: [Stop searching. I already took the company document over to his place.]

Attached was a photo of a coffee table in the living room, with the contract spread out on top.

Anna: [Mikael agreed to spend my birthday with me today, so I just brought it along for him. I already hard-launched our relationship on Instagram. Why are you still clinging to false hope? Do I have to embarrass you in public before you wake up?]

As I stared at the photo and the texts, my brain short-circuited. "Are she and Mikael really dating? Or is this all a staged performance to trick me?"

I rushed straight to Mikael's apartment complex and knocked on the door with trembling hands. The door swung open to reveal Anna, a sweet, triumphant smile beaming on her face.

"Well, look who tracked us down," she taunted. "Can I help you with something?"

I bit my lip and looked over her shoulder, catching sight of the hem of Mikael's trousers resting on the living room sofa.

Anna's sweet expression instantly flipped into a scowl. "If you don't have any business here, stop standing around like a ghost. You're interrupting our quality time together."

With a loud slam, she shut the door right in my face. Dazed and dejected, I stumbled back to the dorm, only to be greeted by two text messages from Mikael.

[Megan, I'm in a relationship now. I hope you can respect my boundaries.]

[Also, stop coveting things that don't belong to you.]

I stared at the chat screen, frozen in place. After a long silence, I typed out a message, trying to ask him if any of this was real.

I wanted to ask him why, while I had worked so hard, he was giving my job away through the back door. With trembling fingers, I hit send.

Then I found he had blocked me.

That evening, Anna returned to the dorm room. Waving her phone at me, she smirked like a cat that had caught a canary. "Ready to give up yet?"

Chapter 3

I didn't sleep a wink that night, staring over and over at Mikael's texts as my fingernails dug deep into my palms.

Still, the next morning, I bit the bullet and clicked "Accept Offer" in the corporate email.

Then came the agonizing wait. One day. Two days. Three days...

There was zero advancement in the onboarding process, and my inbox remained as dead as a grave. By the fourth day, I couldn't take it anymore and dialed Karen.

"Hi, Karen, I wanted to follow up on my onboarding status..." I said, getting straight to the point.

"Megan?" Karen sounded perplexed on the line. "The position has already been filled. Didn't you know?"

My mind went blank. "Filled? How is it filled?"

"The company finalized the candidate selection. It's your roommate..." she replied honestly.

"On what grounds?" My voice shot up an octave in disbelief. "She hasn't even interned at the company for a single day! How on earth could you hire her?"

Karen let out a soft sigh. "Look, you two share a room, so your qualifications are probably comparable. Plus, health comes first. It's really not my call to make."

Before I could demand a clear explanation, my phone was snatched right out of my hand. Anna had crept up behind me without a sound. She offered a sickly sweet, syrupy giggle into the receiver.

"Hi, Karen! I'll report on time for my first day! Oh, don't mind my roommate. She's just having an emotional breakdown right now."

She hung up and tossed my phone back onto my lap. My body shook with rage. "Anna Whitman, what the hell did you do?"

She casually stroked a fresh coat of pinkish polish onto her fingernails. "I told Karen to hand that spot over to me. That's all."

"Who gave you the right?"

"Mikael is my boyfriend. What's wrong with a guy securing a job slot for his girl?"

Her audacity angered me so much that my vision went black. Before I could fire back, our dorm room door was pushed open.

A swarm of seven or eight girls barged inside; they were Anna's loyal clique.

Sierra Fernandez, the queen bee leading the pack, thrust her phone forward. Displayed on the screen was that photo taken outside Mikael's apartment.

I was standing by the door, looking agitated, while Anna leaned casually against the frame with a triumphant smirk.

"Look at this, everybody! Megan Kelly is shamelessly trying to seduce someone else's boyfriend! Stealing jobs, stealing men, and even stalking him at his door to throw a scene!"

Sierra blasted the photo into the class group chat and uploaded it simultaneously onto the campus confession board.

In less than half an hour, the comment section exploded into chaos.

[Megan Kelly? Isn't she that high-achiever who's always arguing with professors?]

[No wonder she got selected as an outstanding graduate. So, this is how she gets things done behind closed doors.]

[Disgusting! The school board should just expel her immediately.]

...

I clutched my phone, feeling a lump in my throat so thick I could barely breathe.

Two girls grabbed my arms while Sierra pinched my chin, her voice dripping with venomous mockery. "You think you can compete with Anna? Mikael is her man. Pulling strings for her job was literally a one-sentence deal.

"We gave you a chance to back off quietly, but since you won't take the hint, losing a job is going to be the least of your problems."

Bright red marks flared across my arms where they pinned me down. I endured the pain and yelled back at the top of my lungs.

"You nepo-babies have no shame! That job offer was earned through my hard work! I'm going straight to HR to clear this up! I don't believe for a second that they will hire a worthless fraud like her!"

Sierra glanced down at her phone and smirked, signaling the others to let go of my arms.

"Don't bother going to corporate just yet, Megan," she scoffed. "The University President wants to have a little chat with you in his office."

Throughout the ordeal, Anna stood behind them with a smug grin, even sticking her tongue out to make a face at me.

I unlocked my phone, and sure enough, the academic advisor had flooded my inbox with dozens of texts and missed calls.

The most recent text read: [Megan! The moment you read this, get over to the President's office!]

I had barely finished reading when his phone call came crashing through again. His furious voice erupted in my ear, loud enough to shatter my eardrums.

"Megan Kelly! What the hell are you doing?" Kyle Cain snapped. "Stirring up a massive scandal, ignoring my calls, and ignoring my texts! Get over to the President's office right now!"

Chapter 4

I hurried over to the President's office, where the air felt as frigid as an icebox.

"Megan..." The president, Jonah Clark, pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at me sternly. "The school board has decided to revoke your Outstanding Graduate designation."

I snapped my head up. "On what grounds?"

"On the grounds that the negative publicity you've stirred up has severely damaged the university's reputation." He pulled a piece of paper from a folder and slid it to the edge of his desk.

"Furthermore, a disciplinary mark will be added to your record, and your employment recommendation forms will need to be revised."

I stared down at the disciplinary notice, my vision darkening. "Those are all false rumors! I didn't..."

"The evidence is clear as day. What else is there to say?" interrupted the vice president, Keith Ray. "The other girl posted photos taken right outside Mikael Brady's apartment."

"Anna Whitman set me up! She took the company contract from my bag, and..." I started to explain.

"That's enough." Jonah raised a hand, cutting me off. "Go back to your room and await further notice."

Blood rushed to my head, but I forced my voice to stay steady. "She's a nepo-baby using backdoors to hijack my job offer! Why is all the blame being dumped on my head? I reject this decision! I demand a re-evaluation!"

Kyle dragged me out of the office and into the hallway, which was already swarming with students. Anna stood right in the center of the crowd, crossing her arms.

A smirk was plastered across her face. "Give it up, Megan. The job is mine, and the man is mine. There's nothing you can steal from me."

I stared at her, a sudden, bitter absurdity washing over me.

This offer I had slaved away three months for just vanished because of a few lies she spun. The Outstanding Graduate honor I had spent four years earning was ruined by just a fabricated photo.

Whispers rippled through the surrounding crowd, and every stray comment I caught was dripping with insult and condemnation.

I took a deep breath and turned to walk away, feeling hollow and numb. Right then, my phone buzzed in my hand.

The caller ID flashed a name: Mikael Brady.

Furrowing my brows, I answered the call, my voice thick with barely suppressed rage. "Calling to stick up for your girlfriend? What else do you want from me?"

Silence held the line for two seconds before Mikael's confused voice came through. "Megan, what are you talking about?"

Too exhausted to debate him, I snapped, "What do you want? Shouldn't you be maintaining your boundaries with me?"

Another pause followed. His tone softened, carrying a note of genuine concern. "Megan, I called to ask about... your conditions."

I froze. "My conditions? I'm fine."

Then I added bitterly, "Aside from being thoroughly disgusted by you two shameless frauds, I'm fantastic."

He seized on my words immediately. "You're not sick? You're not in the hospital?"

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "First, you hand my offer over to your girlfriend, and now you're wishing illness and hospitalization on me? Mikael, I used to respect you as my team lead. I never imagined you were such a snake!"

His tone dropped into a dead serious register. "What nonsense are you talking about? First off, I don't have a girlfriend, and second, I never wished illness on you. And as for the job offer... didn't you turn it down because of your health issues?"

"What?" My brain exploded with a loud crash.

I whipped my head around toward the President's office. Anna was still chatting with Jonah, but when she caught me on the phone, a flash of panic darted across her eyes.

Mikael was still talking on the other end. "I saw the HR notification that you turned down the offer for health issues. After thinking it over, I decided to call and check on you..."

Clutching my phone, I turned on my heels and marched straight back toward the president and the crowd.

"Mikael! Get over to our campus right now! Right this second!" I said quickly. "I'm at the Southlake University Administration Building. They're accusing me of seducing you and stealing job offers, and the President is issuing me a disciplinary record."

He paused. "I'll be there in 20 minutes."

Anna's face turned white as chalk. She lunged forward to grab my phone. "What ridiculous lies are you spouting?"

Having learned my lesson, I side-stepped her attempt and held the phone tightly to my chest. "Everyone heard that? My team lead will be here in 20 minutes!"

The surrounding students exchanged uncertain glances, and whispers began spreading through the crowd.

Anna forced a smile. "Megan is lying. Mikael is my boyfriend. Don't you think I'd know? The decision is already final anyway."

Turning to me, she continued, "Megan, stop making a scene. I'll buy you dinner to smooth things over, okay?"

I ignored her, grabbed a chair from the hallway, and sat down right in front of everyone. Seeing my unwavering stance, the onlookers decided to stick around to watch the drama unfold.

Anna frantically typed messages on her phone, her complexion going paler by the second. 20 minutes ticked by, and the hallway remained dead quiet.

The smug smirk returned to her face. "Told you. He's totally..."

Before she could finish her words, rapid footsteps thundered from the far end of the hallway. Mikael, wearing a black windbreaker jacket with sweat glistening on his forehead, strode over toward us.

Everyone froze in place.

Anna's smile instantly froze on her face. "Wait... weren't you unable to drive here?"

Mikael darted a sharp glare at her. "I was wondering why the gate scanner at my apartment complex suddenly wouldn't recognize my license plate.

"So, you were behind that. I just grabbed a bike and pedaled over here. Consider it my morning cardio."

Anna swayed on her feet, her face flushing crimson.

Mikael stepped right up beside me, sweeping a piercing gaze across the surrounding crowd. "So, who exactly is my girlfriend? Step forward so I can meet her."