Chapter 3

The remaining two burlap sacks of scratch cards were distributed to all employees.

Soon, the sharp scrape of coins against tickets echoed through the hall.

Nerina stood on the stage with a smug look on her face. "Hurry up and scratch them! Let's find out who luck is smiling on!"

Yet, gradually, the auditorium fell silent, and the atmosphere grew increasingly heavy.

"I didn't win anything."

"Me neither."

"I won ten dollars, but my year-end bonus was 500 dollars!"

More than three thousand employees were involved, yet the total winnings were less than 20 thousand dollars. 500 thousand dollars had been reduced to 20 thousand dollars. The remaining 480 thousand dollars had gone down the drain.

Looking at the useless tickets all over the floor, Nerina's face became ghastly pale, and her lips quivered. "T-This is impossible. I'm a lucky charm. You must have scratched them the wrong way, or you weren't sincere enough. So, you ruined my luck!"

Right after that, she pointed at the employees below the stage and yelled, "That's right. It must be your fault. You were all badmouthing me earlier, so you drove my luck away!"

The employees completely lost it.

"Nerina, give me back my hard-earned money!"

"Alistair, you dim-witted tyrant. I can't believe you actually let this madwoman pull this stunt!"

Alistair shielded Nerina with his body and yelled at the crowd, "Silence! It's just 500 thousand dollars. We can afford it! Anyone who keeps causing a scene won't have to bother showing up for work next year!"

As soon as his words fell, the crowd grew even more agitated.

"Fine, I'm out! This shithole of a company is going to crash and burn because of you!"

"We're going to report you to the Department of Labor! You misused company funds!"

Nerina shrieked and threw herself into Alistair's arms before breaking down into soft sobs. "I'm so scared, Alistair. They're so frightening. I was just trying to help everyone. Why are they so ungrateful?"

Alistair drew her into his arms and turned around to look at me. "Zoe, why didn't you intervene earlier? Had you stepped in and taken charge of the situation, things wouldn't have turned out this way!"

I sneered, "Mr. Kingsley, you were the one who said Nerina had guts and told me not to be so inflexible. Now that you've lost the money, you finally remember me?"

Gritting his teeth, he lowered his voice and ordered, "I want you to withdraw 500 thousand dollars to plug this hole and calm them down. Nerina's still young; she can't handle this."

I met his gaze and spat out, "My money didn't fall from the sky either. Since she wanted to play this game, she has to face the consequences herself."

After hearing that, Nerina sobbed, "How could you be so heartless, Ms. Carlisle? To secure more benefits for everyone, I scratched those cards until my hands were swollen, and you're actually going to stand there and do nothing?

"I knew it. You're just jealous of me. You're jealous that Alistair treats me well!"

Pointing at my nose, Alistair yelled, "I'm ordering you to transfer the money right now, Zoe! If you don't, I'm calling off our engagement!"

I took in his contorted face and found it laughable. In my previous life, I'd paid the ultimate price to preserve our engagement, all for that ridiculous sense of responsibility. Now, I just couldn't wait for him to get out of my life.

"You want to call off our engagement? That's fine by me." I pulled out my phone and called the cops and labor officials. "Hello, I'd like to make a report. Someone has used a significant amount of company funds to gamble. The amount involved is 500 thousand dollars."

Nerina and Alistair were both dumbfounded.

"Have you lost your mind, Zoe? You actually called the cops?" Alistair rushed over to snatch my phone.

I took a step back, and my bodyguards immediately stopped him. "Mr. Kingsley, Nerina depleted all our employees' year-end bonuses. This isn't a family matter; this is a criminal offense!"

Nerina sank to the ground. Her eyes were wide with fear as she looked at me. "No… I'm not a criminal. I'm a lucky charm. I just wanted to help everyone strike it rich…"