Chapter 2

I held the invoices out in front of Cathy, keeping my voice calm. "If we submit 14,700 dollars in fake invoices and get caught, the finance department will be held responsible.

"I can't afford to cover that kind of loss. Either pay for it out of your own pocket, or have him submit new invoices that meet the requirements."

She froze. "Come again? 14,700 dollars?"

She whipped her head toward Kai, her tone sharp with disbelief. "How does entertaining one ordinary client cost that much?"

Panic flashed across Kai's eyes. He snatched the invoices from me and quickly hid them behind his back.

"I… I was only trying to maintain your client relationship. And besides, entertaining clients is exhausting. Am I not allowed to reward myself with a few things?"

The more he spoke, the more justified he sounded. His eyes reddened as he continued, "Before we started dating, you said your money would be mine. Now you're upset over me spending just this little?"

Cathy massaged her temples and sighed helplessly. "You can't confuse business and personal spending. If you want money to buy things, you could've just asked me."

She turned to me, still standing awkwardly off to the side, and waved. "Go back to work. You did the right thing."

Needless to say, I had completely fallen out of favor with Kai after this incident.

The next day, I found my desk moved to a spot near the restroom.

Everyone knew I hadn't done anything wrong, but they all kept their distance, afraid of getting dragged into the mess themselves.

Kai was victoriously smug about his handiwork. "Starting today, this is your seat. Since you love checking the books so much, you can do it here to your heart's content. Let's see how long you last!"

I said nothing. I carefully cleaned my lucky cat with a wet wipe.

As coworkers came and went from the restroom, they shot me all kinds of looks. Once they were out of sight, hushed whispers followed, each word pricking at my back like a needle.

I ignored them and focused even harder on reviewing each payment.

Just then, a procurement payment popped up in the company's financial system.

Since joining the company, I had familiarized myself with its basic operations. This was a routine payment that went out every month.

That was when I heard the lucky cat.

"They changed the supplier for this batch, passing off inferior goods as high-quality products."

My finger was just about to click "Confirm" when I froze. A moment later, I rejected the payment.

Within minutes, Will Sullivan from the procurement department stormed over with a grim look. "I've settled everything with the supplier. Who the hell are you to reject the payment now?"

Will was a burly man with a booming voice. When he planted himself before my desk, he looked downright menacing.

"If this holds up the delivery at the end of the month, are you going to take responsibility?"

The lucky cat piped up, sounding indignant this time.

"He and his brother, Kai, have already made a deal. They want to pocket kickbacks from the payment."

I stood up and met his intimidating glare without flinching. "You switched to a new supplier. I need to inspect the samples before approving payment."

Guilt flickered across Will's face, but he quickly raised his voice. "It'll take a week to get the samples here! The factory schedule can't wait that long! Besides, we've signed the contract!

"If we fail to deliver by the end of the month, will you promise to pay the penalties for breaching the contract?"

My voice remained calm, but my tone left no room for compromise. "We can always terminate a signed contract, but if the goods fail to meet quality standards, the company will suffer an even greater loss."

At that moment, Kai stormed over and launched straight into a tirade.

"You blocked my reimbursement—fine. But now, you're holding up the procurement payments, too? Do you think being in finance gives you the power to run this entire company?"

He turned toward the rest of the office and yelled sarcastically, "Everyone, look at how far our finance department thinks its authority extends! They won't even pay a routine procurement bill!

"Are they trying to make sure we all go hungry at the end of the month or what?"

With their own interests possibly affected, some coworkers immediately spoke up in anger.

"If we can't deliver the goods by the end of the month, don't expect us to share the blame for the losses!"

"I bet he's just putting on his holier-than-thou act to catch Ms. Miller's attention. He wants to become her kept man!"

Amid the murmuring, Kai lifted his chin with unmistakable arrogance. "Approve the payment, or you should start thinking about how a broke nobody like you will afford to cover all the losses."

My expression remained unchanged. "Then we'll let Ms. Miller decide. If she approves it, I'll release the payment immediately."