Part 1Love Rotting in Memory

The employee with the worst sales figures at our company had to do a walk of shame wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "Ultimate Loser." This time, the bottom spot belonged to my wife’s old flame, but she swapped my sales champion numbers with his.

Everyone stared, jaws dropped, when they saw I was the one branded the loser. Her golden boy, Spencer, just smirked, tossing the shirt at me.

"A bet's a bet. You're not gonna chicken out, are ya?"

My wife, Chloe, secretly texted me:

"Do me a favor, Liam. Spencer’s sensitive; a stunt like this could mess him up psychologically. You’re different. You’re the sales king, thick-skinned. This is nothing for you. If you do this, I’ll finally agree to have a baby with you."

I didn’t respond. She got impatient, stood up, and slammed her hand on the table.

"This rule was set a long time ago! Either wear it or expect your pay and bonus to be docked. Your money or your pride, your choice."

A grin spread across my face as I tossed my employee ID on the table.

"Sorry, I choose to quit. I'm done with you, and I'm done with this company."

* * *

The moment I said it, the entire room went into shock.

Everyone knew I’d been the sales champion for five years straight. I’d brought in almost all the company's business.

Me leaving was like cutting off the company's lifeblood; the whole place would probably collapse.

An employee immediately spoke up for me:

"Ms. Lin, Liam’s been our top seller for so many years. It’s just one slip-up. Does he really need to be punished like this?"

My wife, Chloe Lin, kept a stern face, her fingers flying across her phone, texting me.

But I just placed my phone face down on the table, not even glancing at it.

An older colleague I was close to got anxious, giving me a look that screamed, "Just apologize, man!"

"Liam, if you two want to fight, do it at home. Don’t bring your drama to work."

But he didn’t get it. This time, I was dead serious.

I’d helped Chloe build this company from the ground up. I’d hustled for every single client.

But I barely saw any of the money, and after seven years of work, closing countless major deals, I was still just a junior manager.

Every time a promotion came up, she’d talk about retaining talent and then give the supervisor position to someone else.

"Honey, we're married. What's mine is yours. It's just a title; we don't need that."

I believed her. I watched her go through ten supervisors in five years, none of them me.

This was our seventh year of marriage.

On our anniversary, she got drunk and excitedly promised:

"Honey, if you’re the sales champion one more time, the supervisor position is yours."

I worked like a man possessed, fueled by adrenaline, and secured first place by a landslide. I thought it was a sure thing this time.

But then her old flame, Spencer Thorne, was suddenly parachuted in, taking the position that should have been mine.

I confronted her. She explained:

"Spencer has a Ph.D. from overseas. I paid a fortune to recruit him. He’s better suited to manage the company than you are."

She urged me to prioritize the company's interests.

Seeing Spencer’s fancy degree, I gritted my teeth and swallowed it.

But what happened? A quarter later, Spencer, the whiz kid she had such high hopes for, was at the bottom of the performance chart, doing worse than a newbie who’d only been there for half a month.

This time, I’d planned to use his failure as an opportunity to reclaim the supervisor role.

I never imagined Chloe would abuse her power to swap our numbers just to protect Spencer, even trying to force me into this humiliating public display.

This was just too much!

The atmosphere in the conference room was incredibly awkward. No one dared to speak.

Chloe, seeing I wasn’t replying to her messages, was getting anxious and was about to say something.

Spencer, mimicking me, took off his ID badge and, feigning distress, said:

"Forget it, I’ll be the one to leave. It's all my fault for insisting on following the rules and upsetting everyone."

"Liam was the former sales champ, and he's Ms. Lin's husband. I really should have shown him more respect."

"It’s all my mistake. I’ll apologize to him right now."

With that, he raised his hand and slapped himself across the face.

The crisp sound of the slap echoed, stunning everyone.

My phone wouldn’t stop vibrating.

Watching Chloe fuss over Spencer, comforting him, I curiously opened my phone.

A small group chat was buzzing with activity.

"There goes Spencer, the drama king, with his little act again. I really don’t get why Ms. Lin made him a supervisor. No talent, but so arrogant."

"Last time, Ms. Lin snatched my deal and gave it to him. He was so high and mighty, not only did he piss off the client, but he also blew the deal."

"And Ms. Lin didn’t even blame him! She called me in and chewed me out for half an hour, saying my clients were low-class and if I brought in any more like them, I’d be fired."

Suddenly, a cough was heard, and the chat went silent.

Clearly, someone realized I was in the group and clammed up.

I raised an eyebrow.

Chloe had previously asked me to introduce my clients to Spencer, which I’d refused.

I hadn’t realized she’d actually stoop to pressuring employees to hand over their clients to help Spencer boost his numbers.

This was her "highly educated talent"? This was her idea of fairness and justice?

Her bias was so blatant, yet she still talked to me about what was best for the company, for our family.

As I saw it, she was only doing what was best for her love life!

Chloe, still unaware of this, spent a good while whispering sweet nothings to calm Spencer down.

Then she turned to me, her voice sharp:

"Who hasn't been the 'Ultimate Loser' at some point?"

"You weren't born a sales champion either. Back in the day, you were fine doing frog jumps on the street wearing the 'Ultimate Loser' shirt. What’s wrong now?"

"I think you’ve gotten a big head now that you're older."

She criticized me mercilessly in front of our colleagues, assuming I’d cave like before, out of respect for our marriage and to save her face.

Little did she know, I had a temper too.

She was the one who broke faith first; she couldn't blame me for not playing along.

I smirked and threw down the printouts of the real data I’d prepared.

They clearly showed my performance miles ahead in first place, while Spencer was the one at the bottom.

I said calmly:

"If I had lost, I’d own up to it. But I will not take the fall for someone else."

"Everyone, take a good look. Who’s the real 'Ultimate Loser' here?"