Chapter 2

“Mr. Black, don’t be angry. Peter’s in the wrong, but I’ll immediately get my workers to get rid of these bricks. Tomorrow, I’ll personally pick the best marble for you.”

Walter snorted, showing that he was not buying it.

“John, don’t sweet-talk me! I don’t care how you do your business with your cousin, but you have to give me an explanation today! A hundred thousand dollars’ worth of material turned into a truckload of bricks. Do you really think I’m an idiot?”

Walter was extremely furious as he yelled at John, who endured the scolding without refuting. Then, he turned around and lashed his anger out at me.

“Peter, what are you standing here for? Apologize quickly to Mr. Black and give out the money that you’ve taken!”

I looked at John’s shameless face, and I felt numb. I spent these few years working hard for his company. Every time he transferred me money, he paid me way less than due.

Sand and concrete that were worth three thousand dollars, and he only paid me thirty dollars. The customized doors and windows that were worth five hundred thousand dollars, he only transferred me one thousand five hundred dollars.

I viewed him as family, so I forked up money from my pocket to pay for materials that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When things went wrong, he did not feel bad. Instead, he pushed the responsibility onto me.

He wanted me to be his scapegoat. I took a deep breath and suppressed my anger.

I stared into his eyes and said firmly but calmly, “John, do you really want me to pay back the differences in money?”

John was momentarily stunned before he started to avoid my gaze.

Rory immediately yelled.

“Of course! You stole money from the company! Are you actually planning to just keep it? You have to tally the account before Mr. Black and the rest of the workers today!”

I sneered. “Alright, then let’s look into the account.”

Rory heard that I agreed to her request and immediately brightened up. She pointed at me as her voice became higher.

“Let’s do that! If you can’t show me the receipt of the hundred-thousand-dollar purchase, then you’re an embezzler! I’m going to call the cops on you! And you’re going to jail!”

The workers discussed even louder on the second floor.

“It’s game over for Mr. Smith. His greed was too obvious.”

“A hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. It’ll result in a few years of jail time.”

“He seemed pretty generous recently, and he always paid for our meal. It turned out that he was just using Mr. Anderson’s money!”

The workers were gossiping in disdain, and Rory looked extremely smug.

John pretended to sigh too.

“Peter, it’s not too late to own up to your mistake. Just hand us the money. I won’t call the cops on you. We’re family after all.”

Walter crossed his arms and stared at me coldly as he waited for my explanation.

I ignored John’s and Rory’s words.

I immediately took out my phone from my pocket and clicked on my text messaging app to pull up the conversation of transaction details with John from the previous night. Then, I turned up the brightness of my phone and passed it to Walter.

“Mr. Black, have a good look at this. This is the money John transferred me last night when he requested me to purchase your imported marble.”

Walter glanced at the phone.

Then, his eyes immediately widened in disbelief.

“A thousand dollars?”

Walter immediately looked up and glared at John.

“John! You took my hundred thousand dollars, and you only transferred a thousand dollars to your subordinate to purchase imported marble?”

After he said that, everyone became quiet.

Rory’s smug expression froze.

Blood drained out of John’s face. He frantically rushed over, clearly wanting to snatch my phone. I dodged his hand and then showed my screen to the workers upstairs.