Chapter 4

At the breakfast table, Ezra set down his cutlery. "Wallace, I can teach you everything I know about running the foundation. The accounts, the procedures, everything. I'll walk you through it step by step."

My mother put some food on my plate, then turned and gave Ezra three times as much. "Ezra really is such a big-hearted boy."

Lilian glanced at me. "When someone gives you everything they've got, you should think carefully about how you're going to treat them."

But she had actually replaced my cheap office chair with a padded leather one.

When my father got up, he patted me on the shoulder. "Work hard."

I nodded as I chewed my toast. "Okay, okay."

…

When I arrived at the foundation, the finance department pushed the payment security key and account documents toward me. "Mr. Wallace, please check these and sign the handover form."

I immediately replied, "Okay, right away!"

Then I turned around and locked the security key and documents in the safe.

…

That evening, Ezra sent me several messages in a row.

Ezra: [Wallace, there's an emergency fund transfer tonight. Did you see it?]

Ezra: [I've already completed the approval process. Take a look and confirm it.]

I was curled up on the couch watching videos, so I casually replied: [Okay. Got it!]

A while later, several message deletion notifications popped up in the chat.

I glanced at them but didn't think much of it.

…

The next day, Ezra suddenly said he wanted to take me out. "Wallace, there's a new supercar exhibition nearby. I heard they've brought in several limited-edition models. I'll take you to see them. If you like one, Dad can buy it for you!"

"Sure!"

I genuinely loved cars, so I immediately got into the car with him.

…

When we arrived, there wasn't a single supercar in sight. There wasn't even a poster advertising a car exhibition. All that stood before us was an unfinished commercial building.

Ezra led me into one of the rooms. "Wallace, wait here for a bit. I'm going to find the car exhibition."

"Oh, okay."

After he left, someone locked the door from the outside.

But when I turned around, I noticed that the balconies of the unfinished building hadn't been sealed off yet.

Thanks to the skills I had picked up climbing trees and stealing bird nests as a kid, I scrambled over the construction materials and found my way out.

When I landed, I even waved at the construction site's security camera.

…

The moment I got home, chaos erupted over at the foundation.

The finance manager rushed into the house. "800,000 dollars in restricted funds are missing! The transfer was made using Mr. Wallace's work account!"

Lilian pulled the payment security key out of my bag and slammed it onto the table. "Wallace Bowie, you broke, uncultured hillbilly. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Just then, a maid helped Ezra inside. His forehead was wrapped in gauze, and bruises covered his neck.

"Mom, Dad, Lilian, please don't call the police. Wallace has never seen this much money before. It was probably just a moment of confusion. I can sell my watch and my supercar to pay the money back," he said.

My father stood and looked at me. The same man who had told me to "work hard" that morning now stared at me with eyes that grew colder by the second.

"I was wrong about you." He picked up his phone and dialed 911.

My mother's voice broke. "Victor, if you report him, he'll be ruined for the rest of his life..."

My father looked at me. "800,000 dollars in charitable funds isn't our family's money. This person doesn't deserve to carry the Bowie name. If we cut ties with him now and have him turn himself in, we can at least preserve the family's reputation."

With that, he made the call.

My mother walked up to me, her eyes red-rimmed, and slapped me,

A searing pain spread across my face.

"Your father is right. If I'd known this would happen, I never would've brought you home. The Bowies have no son like you!" she claimed angrily.

Ezra choked back a sob. "This is all my fault. Two days ago, I noticed something wrong with the accounts, so I asked Wallace about it privately. He lured me out to the outskirts of town...

"He locked me in a room and squeezed my neck, forcing me to keep quiet… Then he got several construction workers to surround me and beat me, forcing me to take responsibility for the missing money..."

Lilian's eyes instantly reddened. She rushed over and grabbed me by the collar. "Wallace Bowie, are you even human?"

Before I could say anything, she slapped me hard across the face.

She shoved me, and I stumbled into the coffee table. My temple struck the corner, and warm blood trickled down my brow.

She didn't stop. She grabbed my collar and forced me to look at Ezra. "Apologize! Was taking everything away from Ezra not enough? How could you push him this far?"

I instinctively covered my head as my body began to tremble uncontrollably.

Whenever Bobby got angry, he'd grab me by the collar and beat me just like this, forcing me to confess to things I'd never done.

But this time, I didn't want to admit to anything.

I clenched my fists, wiped the blood from the corner of my eye, and looked at Ezra.

"What time?" I asked.

He froze for a moment. "What?"

"You said I beat you. What time?"

His eyes flickered. "Around 3:00 p.m."

"How did I hurt you?"

"You shoved me against the wall and threatened me with a metal pipe."

I turned on the voice recorder on my phone. "Keep going. Tell me everything in detail."

Lilian raised her hand and punched me again. I felt one of my front teeth come loose.

"He almost died because of you, and you're still trying to hurt him?" she demanded.

Ezra pulled out several screenshots of our chat: the fund transfer, the money transfer, the cover-up. He had carefully edited every one of his leading questions.

Each question was followed by the same reply from me: [Got it.]

The evidence looked airtight.

When he looked at me, a trace of triumph finally appeared in his eyes. He then lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry, Wallace. I really didn't want things to come to this..."

Lilian clenched her fists and stared at me. "How are you going to explain your way out of this?"

I didn't look at her. "Can I borrow a computer?"

"You're still refusing to admit what you did..." Lilian was about to say more when Leonard suddenly handed me a laptop.

I took it and opened the cloud records. The complete message history was still there, along with the deletion records and original timestamps. Then I opened the photos I'd taken on the day of the handover.

"The payment security key was in the finance department's safe the entire time. I never signed the handover form. Check the foundation's security footage, and you'll see who put it in my bag," I said.

Finally, I pulled up the construction site's surveillance footage. "There are security cameras outside that commercial building... You can see for yourselves."