I dropped by the company Chloe Miller runs for a surprise audit. The second I walked in, I spotted a newly built room. It was kitted out with high-end computers and audio equipment. Inside, a stylishly dressed guy was completely zoned into a game, the volume cranked so loud it made the office walls vibrate. A few minutes later, he lost the game. Pissed, he slammed his keyboard, stormed out, and pointed at the employees outside. “Can’t you guys type more quietly?! If you hadn’t been so loud, I wouldn’t have lost!” I pulled the intern next to me aside and asked who’d hired this clown. The intern whispered, “He’s CEO Miller’s husband, Jake. I heard that he owns the whole company.” My temples started throbbing. He’s Chloe’s husband? Then what the hell am I? I pulled out my phone and called my dad. “Dad, tell Chloe to bring the divorce papers to the office. Now.” Dad sent me to the company to test Chloe. He said it was just a routine check—nothing to stress over, just a chance for me to get acquainted with the business. I figured it’d be just a formality. I told the receptionist I was an auditor from Corporate, and she swiped me through security without a hitch. The second I stepped into the office floor, a deafening wall of game noise hit me. At the far end of the space was a new glass-walled room packed with top-of-the-line computer gear—a massive monitor, mechanical keyboard, high-end mouse, and a full surround sound setup. A silver-haired kid in a trendy hoodie was glued to the screen, headphones on, furiously smashing buttons. “C’mon! You guys suck! Can’t you play any better?!” He muttered curses under his breath, fingers flying across the keyboard, totally zoned into his gaming bubble. Outside, the employees all looked miserable. A few had noise-canceling headphones on, heads down in their work. Not five minutes later, a furious yell erupted from the glass room. The guy ripped off his headphones, slammed them on the desk, then smash his keyboard before yanking open the glass door and storming out. He pointed at the programmers crunching to meet deadlines and started yelling. “Can’t you guys type quieter?! Tap, tap, tap! It’s so freaking annoying!” “I lost that last team fight ’cause you jerks were too loud! A bunch of losers—can’t you work quietly?” The programmer he was yelling at froze, face flushing red then paling, hand trembling on the mouse. “Clearly, you’re just trash at the game…” mumbled a female colleague next to him. “What’d you say?” Jake’s ears pricked up. He whirled on her. “Say that again—I dare you.” The woman flinched, shrinking back in her chair, too scared to peep. I watched the scene go down, my blood starting to boil. I flagged down a young-looking intern nearby. “Who’s this clown?” The intern glanced at me, then quickly at Jake’s retreating back, eyes wide with nervousness. He put his finger to his lips, signaling me to keep it down. “Shhh.” He leaned in close, voice scarcely audible. “He’s Chloe Miller’s husband, Jake—our GM.” My heart dropped. All of Chloe’s weird behavior lately suddenly clicked. The intern kept going. “Word is he owns the whole company—so he’s the real boss around here.” “You new here? You’ll get used to it after a few days.” He sighed, looking way more worn-out than his age. “Chloe even built that room just for him to game. He usually holes up in there, so we don’t deal with him much.” “He must’ve lost a bunch of games today—so he’s in a crappy mood and came out to vent.” His words bounced around my head, mind spinning. He’s Chloe’s husband. Then what the hell am I? The intern caught my expression and frowned worriedly. “You good? You look awful.” I shook my head, forcing a smile. “I’m fine—just a little shocked.” “Having someone like that in a company… it’s definitely an eye-opener.” The intern shrugged dryly. “You’ll get used to it. He never actually does anything. We just grin and bear it, hoping he’ll win a game soon so he’ll go back to his cave.” I didn’t say anything else. Never actually does anything? Publicly humiliating employees, ruining the whole office vibe—that’s not “doing” anything? I watched Jake grumble back to the glass room, slap his headphones on, and the game noise cranked back up. I pulled out my phone, half-tempted to call my dad right then. But I paused, then put it away. Walking out now would let Chloe off way too easy. Dad sent me here to evaluate her skills. And right now, both her skills and her character had massive red flags. I wanted to see just how badly this company had gone off the rails under her watch. I smoothed out my shirt and headed to the front desk. “Hi, I’m Liam Miller, assigned by Corporate to do a project review.” “Can you set me up with a temporary workstation? Somewhere quiet, preferably.” “Also, this is an internal audit—I’d rather Chloe doesn’t know I’m here.” The receptionist nodded politely. I walked into the office floor, found a corner spot, and my eyes landed on the glass room. Jake was already back to gaming, flailing his arms around, totally clueless about the new person in the office.
Chloe wasn’t in the office that morning. Jake must’ve lost a few more games. He strolled out of the glass room, face stormy as a thundercloud. He roamed the office, obviously looking for someone to pick on. He eventually wandered into design, stopping behind a designer and glaring at her screen. “What the hell is this crap? That color scheme’s hideous—looks like dog barf.” The designer, a young woman named Maya, turned bright red, eyes welling up. She bit her lip, too scared to talk back. Then he headed to operations, snatching a freshly printed event proposal off a desk. He flipped through a couple pages, scoffed, and smirked. “Who wrote this crap? A kindergartner? I could run a better guild war in my game.” With that, he flicked the papers back onto the desk, scattering them all over the floor. The operations manager, Ms. Reed, scurried to grab them, hands shaking. Jake kept strolling, making his way to the server room door. He must’ve felt hot, so he grabbed the thermostat on the wall and started mashing buttons. “This AC sucks—it’s not cooling worth a damn.” He hit some random button, and the panel started blaring an alarm. David, the tech lead, bolted out of his office, face turning white when he saw what was going on. “Don’t touch that! That’s the server room’s climate control!” But it was already too late. With a click, the whole office’s AC cut out. A few seconds later, a shrill overheat alarm started blaring from the server room. David ignored Jake and sprinted into the server room. The office temp shot up fast, making everyone swelter. Jake stood in front of the AC panel, scratching his head. “What a piece of crap—breaks just from pressing a button. Why’s all your equipment so cheap?” The guts on this guy—to blame everyone else—was unreal. Mr. Jenkins, the office manager, hurried over too. He glanced at the blaring server alarm, then at Jake. He immediately put on a kiss-up smile. “Didn’t scare you too bad, did it sir? This panel’s always been glitchy—should’ve had it fixed sooner.” “Ain’t your fault—swear! I’ll call someone to fix this right away!” “Why don’t you head back to your room and relax? We’ll handle this.” Jake grunted, still looking put-out, but stomped back to his glass room. Only then did Mr. Jenkins wipe the sweat off his brow and start directing the tech team’s emergency repairs. As he walked by, I called out. “Mr. Jenkins—does this happen often?” Mr. Jenkins glanced at me, recognized the corporate badge, and his face twisted bitterly. He tugged me into the fire escape stairwell and lowered his voice. “You’re the auditor, right? I shouldn’t say this… but today’s incident? It’s nothing.” He sighed heavily. “Truth is—he’s Chloe’s husband. We can’t do a damn thing.” “Chloe’s out at a meeting today—so no one’s here to rein him in.” “On good days, she keeps him locked in that room…” His face crumbled with helplessness. “Last month, he lost a game and trashed his keyboard. Pieces flew everywhere—took out three monitors.” “We tried to replace them, but Chloe said we were negligent—didn’t protect company property. Tanked our whole department’s quarterly review.” “Said it was a ‘learning experience.’” My stomach dropped. This was Chloe’s management style. Letting a deadbeat run wild while making hardworking employees clean up his mess. Chloe… unbelievable. Just then, the glass room door flew open. Jake stuck his head out yelling. “It’s freaking hot! AC fixed yet? My computer’s gonna overheat! And I need more game credits—who’s gonna buy me cards?” No one answered. The office went dead silent—only the server alarm cutting through the air.
The AC barely kicked back on when Dad called. He asked me to grab core data from marketing. Said the board needed it for their afternoon meeting—insisted I handle it personally, no mistakes. I grabbed a USB, copied the files from the marketing director, and headed to the copy room. I’d just finished stapling the reports when the door swung open. Jake strolled in, sipping coffee. His eyes lit up when he saw the shredder humming next to the printer. “Why’s this thing so loud? Ruining my game.” He reached for the stop button. I instinctively pulled the freshly printed reports aside—the shredder was too close, and I didn’t trust him not to knock them in. Jake’s hand hit air, and he stumbled forward. Coffee went flying. The scalding brown liquid arced through the air—landing directly on my freshly printed confidential reports. The thick stack of A4s soaked up the coffee instantly, ink smearing into an unreadable mess. I stared at the ruined documents, my calm facade cracking. I looked up, eyes locking on Jake. He didn’t look remorseful—just annoyed I’d moved the papers and made him miss the button. My voice turned to ice. “You gonna fix this?” Jake had probably never been talked to like that by an employee. He froze. Then his face turned red with anger. “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?” “You know who I am?” He puffed out his chest, looking indignant. “I’m Chloe Miller’s husband!” I stared at him, feeling numb—almost amused. “Oh?” “So Chloe Miller’s husband gets to ruin company documents? Disrupt work because his game got interrupted?” My words clearly rattled him. He blew a gasket, pointing his finger at my face. “Damn right I can!” “Chloe owns this company—so I own it! I can do whatever I want!” His voice screeched—like nails on a chalkboard. “Who the hell do you think you are? Some new hire lecturing me?” Coworkers gathered at the commotion. They saw the mess and held their breath. A couple of admin ladies tugged my sleeve, urging me silently to apologize. I stood my ground. Just stared at him. Jake hated losing face in front of the team. He pulled out his phone, smirking coldly. “Tough guy, huh? Think you can push me around?” “I’ll call Chloe—she’ll remind you who’s boss here.” He fired up FaceTime. It rang once and connected. He held the phone up, waiting for Chloe to rescue him.
Jake’s face did a complete 180 the second Chloe appeared. He turned to the camera, voice quivering with fake hurt. “Chloe! This guy’s bullying me!” “I tried to turn off that loud shredder, and this new guy attacked me!” “He spilled his own coffee on his papers and blamed *me*! Yelled at me!” He twisted the story so hard, acting like the biggest victim ever. Chloe’s soft, soothing voice came through the phone. “Calm down,baby. I’m here. No one’s gonna hurt you. I’ll fix this.” I could see she was in a fancy boardroom—company logo blazoned behind her. Probably at that international summit—make-or-break for the company’s future. And she paused it—for his stupid tantrum. “Be a good boy, honey. Hand him the phone.” Her voice dropped to subzero. She addressed the crowd behind Jake—ice in every syllable. “Who hurt my Jake?” “Give them the phone. I’ll handle this myself. Let’s see who’s got balls big enough.” Jake’s grin could’ve split his face. He thrust the phone at me—chin high, eyes glinting with glee. I took it calmly. My face filled the screen. Chloe saw me—and her face blanched. Panic flashed in her eyes. “Liam?! What are you doing there?!” Her brows knit—like I was the worst inconvenience. “Don’t do this! I’ll explain when I’m back—please!” I stared at her face—the one I used to dream about. Now she just looked ridiculous. My cold silence made her voice sharpen—edging on threats. “Don’t be petty, Liam! This meeting’s critical—the company’s future’s on the line!” Blamed me for being “petty.” Her stupidity made me laugh—bitterly. I spoke into the camera—voice like steel. “Perfect, Chloe.” “I’ve seen all I need to see—about your leadership, your judgment.” Before she could process it, I flipped the phone back to Jake—who fumbled to catch it. I pulled out my phone and called Dad. It rang once. My voice stayed calm—but it cut through the entire copy room. “Dad, assessment’s done.” “Tell Chloe Miller to get back here—with divorce papers.”
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