Ten

This morning’s board meeting took place in the central conference room—a room where the cold comes not only from the air conditioning, but also from the atmosphere of the higher-ups who are used to role-playing. I’m sitting at the end of a long table, directly facing the directors, division heads, and senior advisors who have always considered me a symbolic heir, not a decision-maker.

But today, they will see me differently.

On the projector screen, there was a document that I opened slowly.

“This is an internal investigation report on the effectiveness of logistics vendors and potential budget leaks in the distribution chain,” I said calmly. “We found indications of fictitious spending through sub-vendors that never actually delivered goods.”

One of the finance directors—Mr. Bernard, an older gentleman who used to be close to Lucas—directly chimed in, “Is this an accusation, or just speculation? Because if we’re talking about vendors, there are a lot of names that have been worki