Boss Fires Employee Stranded Overseas via Text, Not Realizing She Held the $12 Million Contract
The signing was scheduled for a Thursday morning. Eduardo wanted to do it properly, with his whole family present. He treated it like it meant something. I was proud of what I’d built. Genuinely proud. For once in my life, I felt like I’d done something that mattered, something bigger than just surviving.
That Wednesday evening, I was in the hotel lobby checking if I had everything ready for the next day when my phone buzzed. The message from Graydon appeared:
«We’re cutting you loose. Your company card is cancelled. Figure out how to get home yourself, loser.»
I stopped breathing. I read it again. Then again. No explanation. No warning. Just those words.
I checked my card. He wasn’t lying; it had been cancelled. I had $40 in my wallet. My return flight was booked for next week, using the company’s travel account. I didn’t know if that was cancelled too.
I was stranded in a foreign country after three weeks of work. After giving up my daughter’s birthday. After eating cheap street food to save the company money. After sleeping in bargain hotels and taking buses and doing everything they asked. And Graydon called me a loser.
My fingers moved on their own. «Thank you for letting me know.» I didn’t know what else to say. My mind was blank. Empty.
I sat on that bench for maybe an hour, maybe more. People walked past. The hotel staff glanced at me sometimes but didn’t say anything. I kept thinking about Ivy. How would I get home to her? Would I have to ask my sister to wire me money? The humiliation of that felt almost as bad as the text message itself.
Then something shifted inside me. Not anger, exactly. Something colder, clearer.
I looked at my bag. Inside was a folder with the unsigned agreement. The one worth $12 million. The one that would save Belmar’s entire spring season. The one Eduardo refused to sign with anyone except me.
I stood up. I walked out of that hotel. I found my way to the bus stop, and I rode back to Eduardo’s workshop one last time.
It was dark by the time I reached the workshop. The lights were still on inside. Eduardo and Lucia were finishing up paperwork for the next day’s signing. They looked surprised when I walked in.
«Rhea?» Eduardo said. «Is everything all right? You look—»
«They fired me,» I said. The words came out flat, matter of fact. «My boss. He sent a message this evening. Said they’re cutting me loose. He cancelled my company card. Told me to find my own way home.»
Lucia’s hand went to her mouth. Eduardo’s face went hard. «After everything?» he said quietly. «After three weeks? After you worked so hard?»
«Yes.»
«Where are you staying tonight?»
«The hotel. I have enough cash for maybe two more nights. Then I’ll figure something out.»
Eduardo exchanged a look with his wife. They had one of those conversations married people can have without speaking. Then he turned back to me.
«The signing tomorrow,» he said. «What do you want to do?»
That was when I realized something. Eduardo wasn’t asking if the signing would happen. He was asking what I wanted to happen.
«What do you mean?» I asked.
«This agreement,» he said, gesturing to the papers on the workbench. «It’s written with your name. You are the contact person. You are the one who approves everything. The company must deal with you to get our leather. That’s what we negotiated.»
«But I don’t work there anymore.»
«Exactly,» Eduardo said. «So why would I sign with them?»
The weight of what he was saying hit me slowly. The agreement wasn’t just about me being a contact person; it was legally binding. Eduardo had insisted on language that made me the required point person for the entire partnership. Without me, there was no deal.
«They’ll send someone else,» I said. «They’ll try to renegotiate.»
«Let them try,» Eduardo said. «I won’t speak to them. My family won’t speak to them. We built this relationship with you, not with that man who disrespects us. You.»
«But what about the other company?» I asked. «The one that contacted you last month?»
Eduardo smiled. It wasn’t a happy smile. It was something else. Something sharp.
«Aurora Lux,» he said. «Yes. They’ve been calling us for almost a year. Offering better prices, better terms. We always said no because we had an understanding with Belmar. But now?» He shrugged. «Now Belmar has broken that understanding.»
«You’d really walk away from 12 million dollars?» I asked.
«The money isn’t walking away,» Lucia said gently. «It’s just walking to someone else. Someone who treats people properly.»
I felt something loosening in my chest. Something that had been tight for so long, I’d forgotten it was there.
«There’s something else,» Eduardo said. «Aurora Lux asked us last month if we knew anyone who could coordinate their international buying. Someone who understands materials and suppliers. Someone with connections.»
He paused. «I have someone in mind now.» He meant me.
«I can’t,» I said automatically. «I need to get home. I need to find another job. I need…»
«You need to stop letting people treat you like you’re worthless,» Eduardo said firmly. «This man. Your boss. He throws you away like garbage after you built something valuable for him. And you want to rush home and find another person who will do the same thing?»
«I have a daughter,» I said. «I need stable work. I can’t take risks.»
«This isn’t a risk,» Lucia said. «This is you taking what you’ve earned. You built this relationship. You did the work. Why should they benefit from it?»
I looked at the unsigned agreement in my hands. Three weeks of my life. Three weeks away from Ivy. All those conversations, all those negotiations, all that trust I’d built. And Graydon had called me a loser.
«What would I need to do?» I asked quietly.
Eduardo’s expression softened. «Tonight? Nothing. Stay here. We have a guest room upstairs. Tomorrow morning, I’ll call Aurora Lux. I’ll tell them Belmar is no longer an option. I’ll introduce them to you. Then I’ll call your old boss and tell him there will be no signing.»
«He’ll be angry,» I said.
«Good,» Eduardo said simply.
I stayed in their guest room that night. It was small and clean, with a bed that felt like sleeping on a cloud compared to the hotel. Lucia brought me tea and empanadas. She sat with me while I ate.
«My father used to say something,» she told me. «When someone shows you who they really are, believe them the first time. Your boss showed you who he is. Don’t give him a second chance to prove it again.»
I thought about that all night. About all the times Graydon had shown me exactly who he was and how I’d ignored it because I needed the job. Because I was scared. Because I thought I didn’t have choices.
The next morning, Eduardo made his calls. First, he called someone at Aurora Lux. I could only hear his side of the conversation.
«Yes, this is Eduardo from Familia Reyes Leatherworks. We spoke last month about a partnership. Is that still something you’re interested in? Good. I have someone you should meet. She’s brilliant. She’s the reason Belmar wanted to work with us. Now she’s available.»
Then he called Graydon. I sat there in Eduardo’s workshop while he put the phone on speaker. My hands were shaking, but I tried to keep my face calm.
Graydon answered on the second ring. «Eduardo, finally! I’ve been trying to reach you. Are we all set for this morning?»
«No,» Eduardo said. «We’re not all set.»
Silence. «What do you mean?» Graydon’s voice changed, got harder.
«I mean there will be no signing. No agreement. Familia Reyes will not be working with Belmar Goods.»
«Is this about money? Because we can…»
«This is about respect,» Eduardo said. «Something you don’t understand.»
«Now wait a minute. I don’t know what Rhea told you, but…»
«She told me you fired her,» Eduardo interrupted. «After she spent three weeks here building something good. After she worked harder than anyone I’ve seen. You threw her away like she means nothing.»
«That’s an internal company matter,» Graydon said. His voice was tight now, controlled. «It has nothing to do with our business arrangement.»
«It has everything to do with it,» Eduardo said. «Rhea was our arrangement. We negotiated with her. We trust her. We don’t trust you. So there is no arrangement.»
«You can’t do this. We have a verbal agreement. We have…»
«We have nothing,» Eduardo said. «And now I’m going to work with Aurora Lux instead. They’ve been asking us for a year. We said no because we were loyal to Belmar. But Belmar wasn’t loyal to the person who made this possible. So, goodbye.»
