Cash Back Tycoon: Spend Big, Earn Bigger

Lily dropped her glass of wine so hard the red liquid spilled over the rim and soaked into the white tablecloth.

"Three years," she said, her words echoing in the dining room of Lumiere. "Three years counting the coins with you and I am done with this relationship"

Ethan Vance stared at his anniversary cake. The small candle on the top was still burning. It had taken him two months to pay for this cake.

"Lily, please, lower your voice. We can talk about this at home."

"Home?" She laughed. A couple at the next table turned to look. "You mean that rented room with the broken heater. I am not going back there."

The restaurant door opened behind her and a man in a custom navy suit walked in as if he owned the street. Chad Whitmore, wearing a watch that cost more than Ethan's last five years of salary, slid an arm around Lily's waist without looking at the man he had come with.

"Is this the boyfriend?" Chad asked, smiling like a cat with a cornered mouse. "You were right, babe. He looks exactly like a man who splits the bill."

Ethan rose with enough force that it caused the chair to make an angry sound against the marble floor. "She has been with me for three years. You do not get to talk about her as if she is a prize you won."

"She is not a prize." Chad's voice was cold against the warmth of the candles. "She is an upgrade."

Lily didn't argue, she picked up her designer handbag, the one Ethan had never been able to afford, and walked towards the door with her new boyfriend.

Chad stopped beside the table and pulled out a crisp hundred-dollar bill from his pocket and dropped it onto the ruined tablecloth.

"For the cake," he said. "Get yourself something nice, kid. Might be the last thing you can afford."

The waiter at the edge of the room smirked. Ethan stood, waiting till the door was closed, then he paid the bill with his card because he would never take that hundred dollars. The receipt showed his remaining balance. Exactly five hundred and twelve dollars.

He left the hundred where it lay.

The next morning Ethan arrived at Hartwell Financial twenty minutes early. His eyes were still red.

He had hardly reached his desk before the whole floor fell silent. Manager Harris stood in the center aisle with a thick folder in hand and a smile on his round face.

"Vance," Harris said. "My office. Actually no, let the whole floor hear this."

Ethan's stomach turned. "Is there a problem, sir?"

"Forty-eight thousand dollars has vanished from the Meridian client account." Harris slapped the folder against the nearest desk. "The transfers were made from your login, at your terminal, over the last three weeks."

A hushed murmur ran through the office. Ethan felt every pair of eyes on his skin like needles.

"That is not possible," Ethan said. "I never touched the Meridian account. I only process the reconciliation reports."

"The logs say otherwise."

"Then the logs were altered." Ethan took a step forward, his voice shaking with anger. "I have seen those transfers, Manager Harris. Every one of them carried your authorization code, not mine."

The smile on Harris's face froze. There was one second, one flash of something cold and dangerous behind the man's eyes.

Then Harris laughed, loudly, so that the whole floor could hear. "Listen to this. A junior analyst who can't even afford a decent suit wants to accuse a department head of theft."

Several people on the floor managed to snicker at this. Ethan knew the sound because it was the same one that had come out of the restaurant the night before.

"I have the reconciliation reports saved," Ethan said. "Give me one hour and I can prove which login approved those transfers."

"Prove it to whom?" Harris leaned in close, lowering his voice so only Ethan could hear. "Nobody in this building will take the word of a nobody over mine. You have no family, no money, no friends who matter. Did you really think anyone would protect you?"

Ethan's hands curled into fists at his sides.

Harris straightened up and spoke loudly again. "Security, escort Mr. Vance from the building. He is terminated, effective immediately, and the police will be notified about the missing funds."

Two guards appeared at Ethan's elbows. One of them was a man Ethan had greeted every morning for two years, and now that man would not meet his eyes.

"Hands off my desk," Harris barked. "He does not get to take anything that belongs to the company."

Ethan was allowed to keep a single cardboard box. He packed a coffee mug, a cracked phone charger and a framed photo of his late mother. Somebody near the printer raised a phone and started filming.

Lily's name appeared on Ethan's own screen as he lifted it from the desk. It was a message, just one line.

Chad says you should not contact me again. Please do not embarrass yourself.

Ethan read it twice, then he turned the phone face down and carried the box out of the building.

Rain smashed against the sidewalk outside Hartwell Financial.

He stood for a long moment beneath the glass awning, his entire life crammed into a damp cardboard box. The traffic hissed past him on the wet road. A black sedan splashed through a puddle and soaked him from the knees down, and the driver never even slowed.

Three years of his life had been stolen in one night. His job had been stolen in one morning. The police might well come for him by evening, and the only man who could clear his name was the same man who had framed him.

Ethan looked up at the gray sky and let the rain hit his face.

"Is this really all I get?" He said quietly. "Is this my whole life?"

No one answered because no one ever had.

He started walking with no destination and five hundred and twelve dollars in his account. His shoes filled with water at the first intersection. At the second, he passed the window of a boutique and his own reflection stared back at him with a sunken face, wet hair, and a box of useless memories.

He decided that he would remember this feeling for the rest of his life.

He decided that every person who had laughed at him would pay for it.

His thoughts were cut up by a sound that wasn't meant to be in the street. It was a bright, crisp chime, and it rang inside his skull.

Ethan stopped in the middle of the crosswalk.

The rain froze in the air around him, every drop hanging motionless like glass beads. A translucent blue panel unfolded in front of his eyes, glowing with soft light.

[ Ding! ]

[ Host's despair and humiliation have reached the threshold. Conditions met. ]

[ Infinite Cashback System is now activating. ]

Ethan's breath caught in his throat.

[ Welcome, Host. From this moment, every dollar you spend will return to you multiplied, in assets, in brands and in power. ]

The blue light pulsed once and a final line appeared in the center of the panel.

[ Your first purchase awaits. Spend wisely. ]