Nobody in the meeting room moved.

My grandfather’s voice was still coming through the speaker.

“Richard, answer my question.”

Richard Liu wiped his forehead.

“President Song, the external research budget was temporarily unavailable, so Emily volunteered to—”

“I didn’t volunteer.”

Every eye turned toward me.

I opened my laptop.

“I submitted three reimbursement requests.”

Richard froze.

I continued.

“All three were rejected by Director Liu.”

My grandfather’s voice became colder.

“Reason?”

I clicked the first document.

Richard’s written response appeared on the projector:

NONESSENTIAL EXPENDITURE. EMPLOYEE SHOULD DEMONSTRATE INITIATIVE.

Someone at the table quietly inhaled.

The second request had the same rejection.

The third too.

But underneath them was something I hadn’t noticed until that morning.

The Riverside project had already been charged for external research.

Forty-eight thousand yuan.

I frowned.

“Wait.”

Richard immediately reached for the projector remote.

“We can review accounting later.”

I picked it up first.

“No.”

Chloe suddenly stood.

“I don’t feel well.”

“Sit down,” my grandfather said through the phone.

She actually obeyed.

I enlarged the expense record.

Vendor:

ZHAO STRATEGIC CONSULTING.

My eyes moved toward Chloe.

The surname could have been coincidence.

Her face told me it wasn’t.

I asked:

“Is this your family’s company?”

“No.”

Too quickly.

One department manager cleared his throat.

“Chloe, isn’t your brother named Zhao Ming?”

She turned toward him.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

I searched the corporate registry.

It took less than a minute.

Legal representative:

Zhao Ming.

Chloe’s older brother.

The room changed.

This wasn’t about stealing my project anymore.

The department had been billed forty-eight thousand yuan for research I had personally completed and paid for myself.

My grandfather said:

“Emily, send that file to internal audit.”

Richard’s chair scraped backward.

“President Song, this can be explained.”

“Wonderful.”

Grandfather sounded almost cheerful.

“You’ll have plenty of time to explain.”

Then another voice came through the speaker.

Female.

Calm.

Professional.

“President Song, Audit is already in the room next door.”

I looked up.

Richard did too.

For the first time, genuine panic appeared in his eyes.

My grandfather had known.

Maybe not everything.

But enough.

The conference-room door opened.

Three people entered.

At the front was Evelyn Chen, head of internal audit.

She carried a black folder.

Richard tried to smile.

“Director Chen, this is only a misunderstanding involving a junior employee.”

Evelyn looked at me.

Then at him.

“A junior employee?”

“Yes.”

“She has been with the company three months.”

“That is correct.”

Evelyn opened her folder.

“And in those three months, Riverside is the fourth project in your department where the employee who completed the work was replaced immediately before the performance bonus was calculated.”

Silence.

I turned toward Richard.

Fourth?

Evelyn projected a spreadsheet.

Project after project.

Different employees.

Same pattern.

Junior staff handled research.

Budgets were charged to outside consultants.

Recognition was later transferred to Chloe or one of Richard’s preferred employees.

Bonuses followed.

Promotions followed.

The original workers received nothing.

One young supervisor sitting beside me slowly lowered his head.

I recognized one project.

He had worked on it for six months.

Richard had publicly praised Chloe for closing it.

I looked at him.

“You knew?”

His eyes reddened.

“I complained.”

“What happened?”

“They said my performance evaluation could become complicated.”

Richard snapped:

“Don’t exaggerate.”

The supervisor finally looked directly at him.

“You cut my bonus by seventy percent.”

No one defended Richard anymore.

Chloe suddenly pushed her chair back.

“I had no idea about any budget manipulation.”

Evelyn turned toward her.

“Then perhaps you can explain why Zhao Strategic Consulting received 1.7 million yuan from Everstone during the last eighteen months.”

Chloe stopped breathing.

“And,” Evelyn continued, “why your personal account received three hundred and twenty thousand yuan from that company.”

Richard closed his eyes.

Chloe stared at him.

That was interesting.

Not teamwork.

Fear.

“You said those payments were legitimate,” she whispered.

Richard looked at her sharply.

“Be quiet.”

Wrong decision.

Her expression changed immediately.

“You told me President Song knew about everything.”

My grandfather’s voice came through the speaker.

“I assure you, President Song did not.”

Chloe’s face went white.

Then she looked at Richard as if seeing him clearly for the first time.

“You said my aunt was listed through a trust.”

Richard slammed his palm against the table.

“Chloe!”

I leaned forward.

“What aunt?”

She bit her lip.

Too late.

Evelyn asked:

“Who told you that your family had shares in Everstone?”

Chloe hesitated.

Then pointed at Richard.

“He did.”

Richard’s face became terrifying.

My grandfather spoke quietly.

“Continue.”

Chloe swallowed.

“When I joined the company, Director Liu said my aunt had invested years ago through an offshore structure.”

“And you believed him?”

“He showed me documents!”

That surprised everyone.

Even Evelyn.

“What documents?”

Chloe opened her phone.

Richard stood abruptly.

“Those are confidential company materials.”

Evelyn stepped between them.

“Sit down.”

Perhaps Richard finally realized that the room no longer belonged to him.

He sat.

Chloe sent the files.

A shareholder certificate appeared.

Company seal.

Registration number.

Signature.

At first glance, it looked genuine.

Then I noticed the date.

My grandfather’s voice came through the speaker.

“That certificate is forged.”

Chloe began crying.

“I didn’t know.”

Richard said:

“She’s lying.”

She turned on him.

“You gave it to me!”

“You asked me to help you look important.”

“No!”

Their alliance collapsed in less than thirty seconds.

I watched quietly.

For three months, Richard and Chloe had treated me as the easiest person in the department to sacrifice.

No connections.

No status.

No ability to fight back.

Now neither could stop talking.

Evelyn closed the shareholder file.

“We’ll verify the document separately.”

Then she looked at me.

“Emily, there’s another reason we were reviewing Riverside.”

I frowned.

“What reason?”

She placed a contract on the table.

“The client complained yesterday.”

My stomach dropped.

“About what?”

“They received two versions of the phase-two proposal.”

I immediately looked at Chloe.

She stopped crying.

One was mine.

The other had been sent from Richard’s office.

Same commercial structure.

Same research.

Same forecasts.

But one important number had changed.

The acquisition price.

My recommendation:

2.85 million.

Richard’s version:

3.6 million.

A difference of seven hundred and fifty thousand yuan.

I stared at the screen.

“Why increase it?”

Evelyn answered:

“Because the client was instructed to pay the difference to an external ‘facilitation partner.’”

Another company name appeared.

Not Zhao Strategic Consulting.

Something else.

Golden Harbor Advisory.

Richard looked as though he might be sick.

Chloe frowned.

“I’ve never seen that company.”

I believed her.

This was new even to her.

Evelyn continued:

“We traced Golden Harbor.”

She clicked once.

The beneficial owner appeared.

Everyone looked at Richard.

It wasn’t him.

It was a woman named Linda Liu.

His wife.

Richard’s lips parted.

My grandfather finally said:

“So the imaginary shareholder was useful.”

Nobody spoke.

“You invoked a nonexistent shareholder to move staff, redirect projects and justify decisions that benefited your own family.”

Richard suddenly stood.

“I did not steal company money.”

Evelyn looked at him.

“No one used the word steal.”

He realized his mistake.

Too late.

My grandfather sighed.

“Richard, hand over your company badge.”

His face changed.

“President Song—”

“Now.”

“You cannot suspend me based on accusations from a trainee.”

My grandfather was silent for several seconds.

Then he said:

“Emily?”

“Yes?”

“How long have you been collecting copies?”

I blinked.

“Since Chloe first sent my report to Richard.”

A faint laugh came through the speaker.

“That’s my granddaughter.”

Richard stared at me.

“You planned this?”

“No.”

I closed my laptop.

“I planned to find out whether you were stealing my project.”

I looked at the financial records.

“You were simply doing much more than I expected.”

Security entered.

Richard removed his badge.

Before leaving, he turned toward me.

There was no longer any attempt to hide his hatred.

“You think you won because you’re Thomas Song’s granddaughter?”

I stood.

“No.”

I looked around the room.

“I won because Riverside was my work before anyone knew whose granddaughter I was.”

That silenced him.

Security escorted him out.

Chloe remained seated.

Her makeup was streaked.

Her expensive bag looked strangely ridiculous beside the evidence folder.

Evelyn told her she was suspended pending investigation.

As she stood, Chloe looked at me.

“You could have told everyone who you were on the first day.”

“Yes.”

“Then none of this would have happened.”

I shook my head.

“No.”

“It would still have happened.”

“Just to someone else.”

She had no answer.

After everyone left, only I remained in the meeting room.

My phone was still connected.

“Grandpa?”

“Yes?”

“You knew something was wrong.”

He sighed.

“I knew Department Three’s expenses had become strange.”

“And you put me there intentionally?”

A pause.

That was enough.

“Grandpa.”

“I wanted you to learn.”

“You used me as bait?”

“Bait is an unnecessarily dramatic word.”

I closed my eyes.

“You absolutely used me as bait.”

He coughed.

Then said:

“I also knew you wouldn’t ignore something once you saw it.”

I couldn’t decide whether to be angry or impressed.

Then he added:

“But Emily, don’t leave yet.”

“Why?”

“There’s one more problem.”

The meeting-room door opened again.

Evelyn returned carrying a sealed envelope.

Her expression was much more serious than before.

She placed it in front of me.

“What is this?”

“The original Riverside ownership file.”

I frowned.

“Ownership?”

My grandfather said:

“Open it.”

Inside was the client’s corporate structure.

I read the first page.

Then the second.

And stopped.

Riverside was not actually owned by the company we had been negotiating with.

That company was only a management vehicle.

The real controlling investor was hidden behind a trust.

I looked at the name.

Then at Evelyn.

“This can’t be right.”

She nodded.

“We verified it twice.”

The beneficial owner was David Song.

My uncle.

My grandfather’s eldest son.

The man who had supposedly withdrawn from Everstone ten years earlier after a family conflict and had never returned.

Grandfather’s voice became very quiet.

“Richard wasn’t the only person using a fake shareholder story.”

I stared at the document.

My uncle had secretly controlled the client in the exact project Richard was trying to manipulate.

And attached to the ownership file was an email sent six months earlier.

From David Song.

To Richard Liu.

Only one sentence:

When Emily enters Everstone, make sure she never gets close enough to discover who really controls Riverside.

For the first time that day, my grandfather stopped sounding amused.

And I understood that Richard hadn’t chosen my project by accident.

Someone in my own family had known I was coming long before my first day at Everstone.