Chapter 4

Bill's POV

I shook with pure rage.

Fine. If that was how they wanted to play it, then I'd just have to play along.

I whipped out my phone and dialed 911. "Hello? I'd like to report a crime."

…

The police soon arrived.

"Who called the police?" Officer McKellan, the older officer, asked as he surveyed the scene.

I raised my hand and stepped forward.

"I did. Officer, I work for this company, and today is my last day. I was packing up my personal belongings, but the company has forcibly seized my private property worth 100,000 dollars."

Officer McKellan ordered Karen to retrieve the boxes.

"Officer, he's lying!" Reed exclaimed, rushing forward.

"Those items clearly belong to the company. He's trying to take advantage of us. Now that he's leaving, he wants to take the company's equipment along with him. Our CEO, Ms. Halfpenny, is kind enough not to argue with him, and this is how he repays her—by turning around and accusing us!"

Officer McKellan looked at Reed. "You said the equipment belongs to the company. Do you have proof?"

He tilted his chin up and insisted, "The stuff has been sitting in our office for three years. If it wasn't company property, why would it be here? Besides, it's 100,000 dollars worth of gear. How could a low-level employee like him possibly afford it?"

Officer McKellan turned to me. "Do you have evidence proving those items belong to you?"

"Yes, I do."

I crouched down and began rummaging through my boxes. Earlier, I'd specifically placed the receipts inside, but even after turning the boxes upside down, I couldn't find a single receipt.

"What's wrong?" Officer McKellan asked.

Cold sweat began forming on my back.

"The physical receipts…" I said, my voice tight. "I clearly put them in this box, but I can't find them now."

Behind me, Reed let out a quiet, mocking scoff.

Ignoring him, I quickly pulled out my phone and opened my online purchase records. But what I saw made my blood run cold.

My purchase history had been wiped clean.

I snapped my head up and glared at Reed. When I went to the restroom earlier, I'd left my phone sitting on my desk. And he'd been rummaging through my boxes too.

"Bill," Reed said breezily. "If you can't find them, then just stop looking. How about this? Apologize to Ms. Halfpenny and leave the gear behind. She's a generous person. She won't hold a grudge against you."

My hands shook with rage.

Karen spoke gently, "Bill, just leave the company's things behind. You're young and inexperienced, so I can let it go. Making this a bigger issue won't help you. You still have to work in this industry, after all."

Officer McKellan concluded, "Here's what we'll do. Leave the equipment here in the office first. Once you go back and gather your evidence, you can come back and claim it."

"And what if the company moves the equipment?" I asked.

"Then you can sue them for misappropriation."

Officer McKellan shot Karen a glance. "Let me remind you—until this dispute is resolved, nobody is allowed to touch these items."

"Of course, of course," Karen said, nodding repeatedly. "We absolutely won't touch them."

Reed chimed in from the side, "Exactly. Our company isn't unreasonable."

At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to lunge forward, rip off their masks, and expose them for who they really were.

Once the police left, Reed, seeing how furious I was, blinked at me and smiled.

"Just accept it, Bill."

"So ungrateful!" Karen scoffed.

The anger, grievance, and indignance I'd been suppressing all day surged up all at once, filling my chest and scorching my insides until everything hurt.

Gritting my teeth, I snarled, "Fine. Just you wait."

During my three years at the company, I'd gradually spent 100,000 dollars of my own money on camera equipment and kept it at the office.

Since they insisted that the equipment was company property, yet the company had never recorded those assets in its books or declared a single cent of tax on them…

I spun around, walked out of the company gates, and immediately made a call.

"Hello, I'd like to report a company for tax evasion."