She was dismissed because of her plain clothes, first mistaken for a custodian and then treated like an intern. When Secretary Baek Yerin stopped her from using the executive elevator, another employee quietly warned her to take the service elevator instead. Baek mocked her, and the humiliation stayed with her. Then she noticed Baek wearing a rare white watch she had personally chosen for her mother-in-law—a watch her husband Doyun had supposedly ordered.

Upstairs, Baek proudly claimed she had been close to President Han for years. When Doyun arrived, he spoke warmly to Baek in front of thirty employees and asked who had upset her. Baek pointed at his wife and called her an intern. Doyun looked at the narrator but said nothing. His silence told her everything she needed to know.

Rather than argue, she went to the tenth floor and opened the board meeting as the company’s incoming chief executive. By noon, she had removed the humiliating elevator policy from the company’s code of conduct. She made it clear that clothing, appearance, or job title should never determine who deserved respect.

An internal audit soon uncovered something far more serious. Baek had been approving expensive client entertainment for three years without proper authority, including questionable expenses connected to the watch. The investigation ended her position, while Doyun resigned from the board rather than face the full review. Seven months later, the narrator divorced him, ending their fifteen-year marriage.

Song Boram, the employee who had quietly tried to protect her, was promoted to run operations. The narrator also returned the watch to Doyun’s mother, who continued wearing it and calling every Sunday. In the end, she understood that the people who judged her in that hallway had never determined her worth. She simply stopped waiting for those who underestimated her to recognize it.