Chapter 2

My phone buzzed violently in my pocket.

It was Ian.

I deliberately did not answer. I did not need to. I knew it was Ian trying to get me to rush back to the office, waiting for me to step into the trap.

I sniggered.

I hailed a taxi, but instead of heading to the office, I headed to the lottery center.

"Hello, I'm the one who won eight million dollars this morning. I need an official notarized certificate confirming my identity as the winner, right now."

In my previous life, I was so desperate to pay for my son's surgery that I had skipped the notarization completely.

That mistake cost me everything.

After I was framed, I thought about getting my winning notarized, but Mara and Ian had already bought off the staff at the lottery center.

They changed the personal details of the winner to a different person, so I could not prove that I had won the eight million dollars legally.

Once I had been notarized as the legal winner of the lottery, I even got the staff to print me the receipt of the transaction details of the money to my account.

I was not going to give Mara or Ian any opportunities to set me up in this life.

My phone rang once more. Still from Ian.

With a swipe, I answered the call.

"Jack! Why haven't you returned to the office yet? Don't you know something urgent has happened? This has to do with you. Mr. Madison has asked you to return right away!"

Ian sounded anxious, yet he would not explain what on earth was going on. Classic manipulation.

I knew he was trying to confuse me and make me feel worried, so that when I arrived at the office, I would be caught off guard by his plans.

I said calmly, "Sure, I'll be there."

I arrived at the office at my own pace. Ian looked at me with disappointment and furrowed brows, saying, "Jack, how could you do such a thing? You've really lost your mind."

I replied, "Stop speaking in riddles. Say what you mean."

Ian tried to suppress the smugness in his eyes and raised his voice on purpose, "Jack, you can stop the act. The company has found out about you secretly embezzling millions of their money!"

At that moment, the colleagues who were all working suddenly looked up at me in shock.

"Jack has always looked so honest and serious at work. How bold of him!"

"The company had found out someone was embezzling funds last week. Who would have thought that it was Jack!"

"You really can't judge a book by its cover. He looks honest, yet he was secretly such a greedy man!"

"Why does he need so much money? Is he having multiple lovers besides his wife?"

"It's hard to say. I heard that his son is sick and needs to undergo surgery. Maybe he's doing this for his son!"

"No matter what, embezzling company funds is illegal! A person with wrong morals like him will just end up in prison! Just watch!"

Everyone looked at me with condescension while murmuring among themselves.

Ian smiled smugly.

I remained calm, saying, "I didn't embezzle the funds. It wasn't me."

Richard Madison, the general manager, bellowed as he threw a stack of documents at me.

"Jack, there's cold, hard proof! You can stop lying! I trusted you! I was even going to recommend you for promotion last week. This is how you repay the company?"

I looked at them page by page.

They were financial audit reports, records of abnormal fund transfers from the company’s internal system. Every operation was logged under my name and employee ID.

Then, I saw the last page.

The most recent transaction was ten minutes ago.

Eight million dollars had been transferred from the company’s financial system into a bank account registered under my name.