Chapter 15

The student who got into trouble came from a humble background. He performed well in his studies and was a well-behaved person. He even took on several part-time jobs to help reduce his parents’ burden. Sadly, he never expected to be apprehended under charges of theft.

Vivian could hardly believe her ears when she got the phone call. She rushed to the company’s security department where the boy sat in the corner with his head hung low. When he saw her enter, his eyes immediately reddened. “Miss Carraway, I didn’t steal the phone. I don’t know how it got into my backpack.”

She nodded and tried to console him, “Calm down. I’ll talk to these people.”

The series of events was simple enough. The boy was working part-time at a nearby restaurant, delivering take-outs. Apparently, he was here on a delivery run and had stolen the customer’s new phone when the customer was not looking. He was caught red-handed. Vivian immediately caught the flaw in this version. “The other person just lost his phone and your keen eyes so happened to see my student committing the act? Sounds a bit too coincidental, don’t you think?”

The other person explained, “The customer who lost his phone immediately called his own number the moment he realized that it was missing. At that moment, this boy was still in the building, frantically searching for the phone in his backpack. We found him suspicious. That’s why we accosted him.”

Vivian gave a slight chuckle and said, “Perhaps the child has offended someone, or maybe this is just a prank among the staff that he was dragged into innocently. I’m telling you, this child had always been well-behaved in school.”

“Miss Carraway, I’ve shared my side of the story. We have a video recording as well. We have no intention of blaming anyone wrongly. We’re planning to call the cops and let them take over this matter.”

Then, he played the recording for Vivian. The boy was clearly nervous when he walked out of the office. He hurried out and his frantic search for the phone in his backpack was caught on camera. Even if the boy was truly innocent, the evidence was not in his favor.

Vivian had no choice but to soften her approach. She piled up the best smile she could muster and addressed the person-in-charge, “Let’s not rush things here. We can talk things through. After all, he’s still a student. Perhaps this was only a careless mistake. If you could just give him a second chance, we can settle this matter here and now. There’s no need to trouble the police for this. What do you say?”

“The security department has to take responsibility when one of our employees has been wronged,” the other person replied.

Vivian’s smile widened even more. “But we have the phone here! Honestly, I’d say that’s being responsible enough! I’ve never seen anyone more responsible than you guys. When it comes to the guys in our school, even if you carried the principal’s desk out of the school gates under broad daylight, they might not even stop you, let alone if it were a phone.”

When the person-in-charge laughed at this, she saw a window of opportunity and hastily continued, “How about this? I’ll bring my student to apologize to the employee and ask for his forgiveness. Then, I’ll take him back to school and teach him a proper lesson.”

The person-in-charge did not wish to make a mountain out of a molehill, thus he hesitated slightly and agreed to her proposal.

The elevator went all the way up to the top floor before halting. She could not help but ask the person-in-charge of the security department, “Don’t tell me that it’s your CEO’s phone?”

“No, it’s the CEO’s secretary’s” was the reply.

Vivian was slightly disappointed. To be honest, she hoped that the phone would have belonged to the CEO. A person of that position would usually be more magnanimous and valued their face. If she could sweeten her words, she was confident that she could settle this. However, a person such as a secretary would be more troublesome to deal with.