Chapter 1

I was so nervous during the interview, and the iced coffee I drank this morning didn't help. My chronic stomach gastritis suddenly flared up.

Clutching my stomach, I dry-heaved twice. I was just about to reach for a sip of water to calm it down.

Opposite me, Chelsea Davis, the female HR manager, slammed my resume shut. She looked at me with pure disgust.

"Cut the act. I’ve seen plenty of girls like you—trying to get hired just so you can abuse our maternity leave and insurance benefits."

I was completely dumbfounded. I wanted to explain that it was just a severe stomach spasm, but she waved her hand impatiently, cutting me off.

"Look at how you're dressed. Baggy clothes, messy long hair... your private life must be a total mess, right? You’re so young, yet you have no self-respect. Getting knocked up before marriage and trying to scam our company? Do we look like idiots to you?"

Anger flared inside me, and I was about to argue. But she just let out a disdainful sneer.

"Still trying to deny it? If I were you, I'd go home and focus on your pregnancy. Stop coming out here and embarrassing yourself."

Looking at the weird glances from the other applicants around us, I was utterly speechless.

Is this woman blind? Can't she see the freaking Adam's apple on my neck?

Chelsea crumpled my resume into a ball and threw it onto the floor.

"I’ve seen plenty of people of your kind. You find a way to cheat the pre-employment medical exam, sign the contract, and then immediately announce your pregnancy."

She snorted.

"Young people nowadays don’t think about improving their skills. All you do is study how to scam businesses."

I took a deep breath, my face contorted in pain from my burning stomach.

"I’m not pregnant. I’m just..."

"That's enough!" Chelsea slammed her hand on the desk.

"You still dare to lie? Do you think I'm blind?"

She pointed her finger aggressively at my upper body.

"Look at how you're dressed. Your hair is so long, I doubt you even wash it. You look like a ghost."

"And those clothes. Oversized shirt, loose pants—isn't that obviously to hide your baby bump?"

"If you didn't have a guilty conscience, would you show up to a professional interview looking like this?"

I looked down at my clothes. A loose flannel shirt and baggy cargo pants—the typical comfort style of a male software developer.

I didn't have the strength to yell, so I could only hold onto the edge of the table and explain:

"I'm a guy..."

But my voice was too quiet, completely drowned out by Chelsea's loud mouth.

"Don't give me your useless excuses!"

Chelsea stood up, looking down at me like a queen.

"Knocked up out of wedlock, a messy lifestyle, and now looking for a company to bail you out?"

"Our company actually does real business. We are not a charity, and we are definitely not a trash recycling center."

"Get out of here. Don't dirty our chairs."

With that, she grabbed her desk phone.

"Security, come up to the interview room right now."

Enduring the agonizing pain, I reached out to grab the plastic water bottle on the table, desperate to soothe the burning sensation in my stomach.

Smack!

Chelsea slapped the back of my hand hard.

The water bottle flew across the room, hit the corner of the wall, and rolled away.

"That water is for real employees, not for morally bankrupt scammers like you."

The back of my hand burned. It was already turning red.

Anger rushed to my head. I snapped my gaze up to look her dead in the eye.

"Are you out of your freaking mind?"

Chelsea froze for a second, then an even more exaggerated, mocking sneer appeared on her face.

"Oh, got exposed and now you're throwing a tantrum?"

"Still refusing to leave? Fine!"

She marched to the door and flung it wide open.

Instantly, the eyes of a dozen job seekers waiting in the hallway locked onto us.

Chelsea pointed at me, still curled up in the chair, and raised her voice to a screech:

"Everyone, look at this!"

"This person is pregnant before marriage and tried to hide it to scam our company's insurance!"

"Now that I’ve exposed her, she’s refusing to leave and trying to blackmail us!"

The crowd gasped, and whispers immediately broke out.

"She looks so young. Why doesn't she have any self-respect?"

"Is a maternity paycheck really worth doing something so shameless?"

"There are so many scammers like this nowadays. They make it so hard for honest women like us to get hired."

I tried to stand up to explain, but my stomach convulsed again.

"Ugh..."

I couldn't control it. I leaned over the trash can and dry-heaved.

Even though nothing came out, Chelsea acted as if she had seen the plague. She took two dramatic steps back and covered her nose and mouth.

"Disgusting!"

"See that, everyone? That’s morning sickness!"

"And she still denies it!"

"Where is security? Why aren't they here yet?"

Heavy footsteps hurried down the hall. Two uniformed security guards ran into the room.

"What's the matter, Ms. Davis?"

Chelsea pointed at me with pure disgust.

"Throw this female scammer out. She's throwing up in our office. What a curse!"