"Can’t afford to what?" Stan looked at her. Then back at Zeke. "Who exactly does he think he is?"

"I’ll tell you who I am," Zeke said, jabbing a thick finger in Stan’s direction. "I’m the man who decides whether your sister has a job tomorrow. Now get out of my building, or I will have you removed."

Stan studied him for a long, still moment.

"One more question," he said quietly. "And I want an honest answer. Do you deliberately overload my sister with work? Do you intentionally make her do overtime that no one else has to do?"

"Yes." Zeke didn’t even hesitate. The admission came with the casual arrogance of a man who was absolutely certain there would be no consequences. "I assign her whatever I want. I schedule her however I see fit. That’s my prerogative as manager."

He smiled, a small, cruel, satisfied smile.

"If she doesn’t like it, she can quit."

The smile lasted approximately two more seconds.

WHOOSH!

Stan’s fist connected with the center of Zeke’s face with a clean, sharp crack that echoed across the empty office.

The punch carried everything, the Sunday night crying, the years of skipped meals, the unpaid overtime, the stolen credit, the systematic cruelty disguised as management.

It lifted Zeke off his feet and deposited him on the floor in a graceless heap, one hand pressed to his nose, blood already seeping between his fingers.

"Stan, Stan!" Sacha was pulling at his arm with both hands. "Stop, please, you’ll get in trouble,"

"Security!" Zeke howled from the floor, his voice thick and nasal. "Security!"

Security didn’t come.

What came instead was the sound of heels, sharp, measured, approaching from the direction of the elevator with the unhurried precision of someone who had been expecting this moment.

A woman appeared in the office doorway.

She was tall, composed, and wearing a red cheongsam that made every head in the building turn when she walked past. Her bearing carried the quiet, absolute authority of someone who operated several tiers above anyone else in this building.

It was Miss Hannah, the Vice Chairman of the Wanhai Group.

Manager Zeke saw her from the floor and nearly wept with relief.

"Miss Hannah, Miss Hannah! Someone is assaulting me. In my own office. This man broke in and,"

Miss Hannah looked down at him with an expression that could have frozen running water.

"Are you blind?" she said, her voice quiet and precise. "Do you have any idea who you’ve just offended?"

Zeke’s mouth hung open.

Miss Hannah walked past him without another glance, stopped in front of Stan Harrison, and inclined her head in a respectful bow.

"Mr. Harrison. I’m sorry for the delay. I came as quickly as I could."

Stan had called the Wanhai Group’s executive line before he’d left his apartment that morning. He’d explained the situation in brief, factual terms, his sister’s workplace, the manager’s conduct, his intention to visit. Miss Hannah had been dispatched within the hour.

The food delivery had been the cover. The real purpose of today’s visit was sprawled on the floor with a bloody nose, staring at the vice chairman of the parent company with the dawning expression of a man who has just realized he is completely, irreversibly ruined.

Stan pointed at Zeke. "Fire him."

Miss Hannah nodded once.

"Manager Zeke."

Her voice rang through the office with the cold finality of a judge delivering a sentence. Every conversation in the room died instantly.

"Your employment with the Wanhai Group is terminated, effective immediately."

Zeke’s face stiffened, but she wasn’t finished.

"You are to surrender your access card, company devices, and all internal files to Human Resources within the next ten minutes. Security will escort you from the building once the process is complete."

A suffocating silence settled over the office.

She took a slow step forward, eyes sharp with undisguised contempt.

""As for your pending salary and performance bonuses...it’ll be withheld." her lips curled faintly with cold disdain. "Your conduct today alone constitutes gross abuse of managerial authority. HR will be receiving a full report before the hour is over."

She looked down at him with undisguised contempt.

"I will also be authorizing the immediate suspension of all discretionary payouts attached to your position, including your outstanding bonuses and performance incentives. Be grateful if you leave this building with nothing more than the legal minimum required by law."

Several employees lowered their heads, not daring to breathe too loudly.

"You abused your authority, embarrassed this company, and mistook your position for immunity." Her tone hardened further. "Consider this your lesson. The Wanhai Group has no place for incompetent men who think intimidation is leadership."

Then, without even looking at him anymore;

"Get out before I lose the little patience I have left for you."

Zeke’s brain was running about thirty seconds behind the situation.

"You, you can’t just, on whose authority,"

"On the authority of the largest individual shareholder of the Wanhai Group," Miss Hannah said, tilting her head slightly in Stan’s direction. "The man you just called a visitor."

The employees were shocked beyond measure. Someone sucked in a sharp breath. Another employee hurriedly lowered their phone, the screen still displaying the company group chat that had exploded into chaos seconds earlier.

The atmosphere in the office changed instantly. Moments ago, Stan had been an unwelcome outsider. Now nobody in the room dared meet his eyes for too long.

Then the name finally connected. Stan Harrison, the forty percent shareholder.. The shareholder the entire executive team has been talking about for weeks.

Zeke gasped as his legs buckled. He caught himself on the edge of a desk, his face ashen, blood still dripping from his nose onto his shirt.

"I - I, I didn’t know, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize," Zeke opened his mouth again, but no sound came out.

A lot had happened in a few minutes. For the first time in years, nobody in the room looked afraid of him.

Not the employees who used to lower their heads when he walked past. Not even the lowly securities...

Not even the interns pretending not to stare.

The authority he’d built his entire identity around was evaporating in real time, stripped away sentence by sentence.

"Please, I didn’t know..."

"You didn’t need to know who I was," Stan said coldly.

"You just needed to treat people like human beings." Stan’s gaze was cold. "That shouldn’t have been difficult, yet, you failed at something that basic."

"Please, I was wrong, I’ll change, I swear,"

"You had years to change. You spent them making my sister’s life a living hell instead." Stan’s voice was flat and final. "Apologize? You think you deserve the chance to apologize?"

He leaned forward slightly.

"Get out."

Zeke stared at him for one last, desperate moment, searching for mercy, for an opening, for anything, and found nothing but cold, settled certainty looking back at him.

He straightened up slowly, pressed his sleeve to his bleeding nose, and walked out of the office without another word.

Halfway to the door, Zeke’s employee badge slipped from his trembling fingers and hit the floor with a hollow clatter.

Nobody moved to pick it up.

The door closed behind him. The room went quiet.

Miss Hannah turned to Stan.

"Is there anything else you need, Mr. Harrison?"

Stan glanced at his sister. Sacha was standing behind her desk, one hand still gripping the back of her chair, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly open, tears running silently down her cheeks.

She looked as if someone had just rearranged the fundamental laws of the universe while she was trying to finish her paperwork.

At that moment, Sacha suddenly remembered every exhausted smile she’d forced over the past few years. Every late night. Every skipped meal. Every humiliation she’d buried so her younger brother wouldn’t worry. Somehow, quietly, he had noticed all of it.This was unexpected...

Seeing Sacha’s expression, Stan smiled...

"My sister," Stan said. "I’d like her to take over as manager of this branch. I’ve been observing her work for a long time. She’s more competent than anyone else in this building, more competent than the man who just left. She’s earned it."

Miss Hannah nodded without hesitation.

"Of course, Mr. Harrison. I’ll process the paperwork with HR this afternoon. The appointment will be effective immediately."

She gave Sacha a warm, professional smile, then excused herself and left.

The office was empty now. Just Stan and Sacha, standing on opposite sides of her document-covered desk, the smell of cold fried chicken still lingering in the air.

"Stan." Sacha’s voice was barely a whisper. "How, when did you, what happened?"

"It’s a long story," Stan said. "But the short version is: your little brother isn’t so little anymore."