Chapter 4

At breakfast, Fiona set down her fork.

“Nina, I can teach you everything I’ve learned about running the foundation. I’ll walk you through the finances, the procedures, all of it.”

Mom put one helping of food on my plate, then gave Fiona three.

“Fiona has such a big heart.”

Ethan glanced at me.

“She’s doing everything she can to help you. You’d better appreciate it.”

Still, he had replaced my hard plastic chair with a padded leather one.

As Dad got up, he patted me on the shoulder.

“Do a good job.”

I nodded around a mouthful of biscuit.

“Sure, sure.”

When I arrived at the foundation, the accountant slid a banking security token and a stack of account documents across the desk.

“Miss Bennett, please check everything and sign the handover form.”

“Sure. I’ll do it right away!”

Then I turned around and locked the token and documents in the safe.

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

'Nina, did you see the emergency fund transfer scheduled for tonight?'

'I’ve already completed the approval process. You just need to confirm it.'

Curled up on the couch watching videos, I replied without much thought.

'Got it.'

'Okay.'

A little while later, several notifications appeared saying that messages had been unsent.

I glanced at them and thought nothing of it.

The next day, Fiona suddenly offered to take me out.

“Nina, I know a new dessert place that makes amazing strawberry cake.”

“Sure!”

The moment she mentioned cake, I got into the car.

But when we arrived, there was no cake shop.

There wasn’t even a strawberry stand.

All I saw was an unfinished commercial building.

Fiona led me into an empty room.

“Nina, wait here for a minute. I’ll go find the shop.”

“Oh, okay.”

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

But when I turned around, I noticed that the balcony still didn’t have any windows or railings installed.

Using the same climbing skills I’d developed raiding birds’ nests as a kid, I stepped onto a stack of cement bags and climbed out.

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

The moment I got home, all hell broke loose at the foundation.

The finance manager stormed into the Bennett residence.

“Eight million dollars in earmarked funds is missing! The transfer was made using Miss Nina’s staff account!”

Ethan dug the banking token out of my purse and slammed it onto the table.

“Nina Bennett, you money-hungry little hick! What do you have to say for yourself?”

Just then, a housekeeper helped Fiona into the room.

There was a bandage wrapped around her forehead, and her neck was covered in bruises.

“Mom, Dad, Ethan, please don’t call the police.

“Nina has never seen that much money before. She just made a mistake.

“I can sell my jewelry and handbags to replace it.”

Dad stood and looked at me.

That very morning, he’d told me to do a good job.

Now his expression slowly turned cold.

“I was wrong about you.”

He picked up his phone and dialed 911.

Mom’s voice choked with emotion.

“If you call the police, her whole life will be ruined.”

Dad glanced at me.

“That eight million came from charitable donations. It wasn’t our family’s money.

“She doesn’t deserve to call herself a Bennett. If we cut ties with her now and have her turn herself in, we can at least preserve the family’s reputation.”

Then he made the call.

Mom walked toward me with red-rimmed eyes.

Smack!

My cheek burned.

“Your father is right. We never should’ve brought you home. The Bennett family has no daughter like you!”

Fiona dissolved into tears.

“This is all my fault. Two days ago, I noticed something wrong with the accounts and privately asked Nina about it. She told me to meet her outside the city.

“She locked me in a room and grabbed me by the throat to keep me quiet.

“She even brought in several construction workers to assault me.”

Ethan’s eyes went red.

He lunged at me and grabbed me by the collar.

“Nina Bennett, what kind of monster are you?”

Before I could speak, he slapped me hard.

The force sent me crashing to the floor. My temple hit the coffee table, and warm blood trickled down past my eyebrow.

He didn’t stop.

He grabbed my hair and forced me to look up at Fiona.

“Apologize! Taking everything from Fiona wasn’t enough for you? You had to destroy her too?”

I instinctively covered my head, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.

Whenever my adoptive father lost his temper, he used to grab me by the hair the same way.

He’d beat me until I confessed to things I’d never done.

But this time, I didn’t want to confess.

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

“What time?”

She froze.

“What?”

“What time did I hurt you?”

Her eyes flickered.

“Around three in the afternoon.”

“How did I hurt you?”

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

I turned on my phone’s voice recorder.

“Keep going. Tell me exactly what happened.”

Ethan punched me.

One of my front teeth felt loose.

“You almost got her killed, and now you’re making her relive it?”

Fiona pulled out several screenshots of our messages.

The fund transfer, the payment, the cover-up. Every message that showed how she’d led me into those responses had been carefully edited.

Beneath each question were my replies.

'Got it.'

'Okay.'

The evidence looked airtight.

When Fiona glanced at me, a flicker of triumph finally appeared in her eyes.

Then she lowered her head.

“I’m sorry, Nina. I never wanted things to come to this.”

Ethan clenched his fists as he glared at me.

“What excuse could you possibly have now?”

I didn’t look at him.

“Can I borrow a computer?”

“You still won’t admit what you did?”

Ethan was about to continue when the butler suddenly handed me a laptop.

I took it, opened the cloud archive, and pulled up the complete message history.

Every original message and every deletion record was there, each with its exact timestamp.

Then I opened the photos I’d taken on the day of the handover.

“The banking token stayed in the finance department’s safe the entire time. I never signed the handover form. You can check the foundation’s security footage to see who put it in my purse.”

Finally, I pulled up the construction site footage.

“There are security cameras outside that building. See for yourselves.”