Chapter 4 The Game Ends

Julian paused, his voice laced with threat. "They said they absolutely refuse to work with a company that employs someone as narrow-minded as you. As long as you leave, the partnership will continue. Otherwise, they'll terminate the contract immediately."

I glared at Julian.

This was clearly a setup he had arranged to get back at me for Hazel, using his position to settle a personal grudge.

I clenched my teeth, my hands curling into fists at my sides.

After a long moment, I slowly unclenched them and said coldly, "Fine. I'll leave."

Under a sea of stunned looks, I walked out of the company without looking back.

When I reached the underground parking garage, Lydia caught up with me.

She frowned, clearly confused. "Stella, why did you give in? By leaving, aren't you basically admitting you did it?"

I took a deep breath and swallowed the bitterness rising in my chest. "Ms. Frost, that project was the one thing my mom wanted more than anything to see completed while she was alive. I can't stand by and watch it fall apart because of me."

I looked Lydia in the eye, my voice firm. "But leaving doesn't mean I'm admitting guilt. I'll find the real evidence and prove I'm innocent."

For the next several days, I stayed home and did absolutely nothing.

Whenever Julian came over to visit Hazel, he would always take the opportunity to sneer at me from his high horse.

"Stella, you might as well sit around and wait for the end. There's no place for you at the company anymore."

I could not even be bothered to look at him. I treated him like a barking dog.

Then, half a month later, Lydia suddenly called me. "Stella, get ready. I'm taking you to meet someone."

On my way home after meeting that person, my phone vibrated.

It was an encrypted video from the person I had planted inside the company.

I opened the video, then looked down at the yellowed document I had brought home after meeting Lydia that day.

A cold laugh escaped me.

The game was over.

…

That day, the company booked out the city's most luxurious hotel ballroom.

Today was the big day when Hazel would officially become the project department director.

With my father and Julian backing her all the way, she was riding higher than ever.

When I pushed open the heavy ballroom doors, the room was already filled with laughter and the clinking of glasses.

Every eye immediately turned toward me, the uninvited guest.

Hazel was dressed in an elegant gown, her arm linked through Julian's. She looked at me like a victor. "Stella, what are you doing here? Did you come to congratulate me on my promotion?"

I strode onto the stage and snatched the microphone from the host. "Congratulate you? I'm here to send you straight to hell."

I raised the document in my hand and hurled it at my father's face. "Isn't the company what you all want? Then read this carefully! This is my mom's will, which she left behind before she died! Control of the company belongs to me!"

The entire ballroom erupted in an uproar.

I gave them no chance to catch their breath before playing another surveillance video.

Onscreen, Hazel was handing a bank card to the employee who had framed me.

"As long as you do what I say, replace the PowerPoint with those insulting pictures, and swear that Stella did it, this $500,000 is yours."

Her voice rang out clearly throughout the ballroom.

The color drained from Hazel's face. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor.