I'm no Scapegoat, I'm Your Boss

Gold prices had recently crashed, and five hundred thousand dollars' worth of purchase reserves had vanished from the branch's accounts. Jane Lynch, the department manager, threw a report in my face. "Mavis Gomez! We sent you to buy equipment, and you used the money to trade gold? The chairman is inspecting the branch this afternoon. Sign this confession now, and the company might still put in a good word for you." Thomas Jones, the branch manager, stood beside her and tapped the table. "You're an intern with no connections. Where did you find the audacity to do such a thing?" My coworkers were already blaming me in the company group chat for costing them their year-end bonuses. [Interns these days have some nerves! She always looked so meek, but to think she would steal company money!] I knew Jane and Thomas had used the money to trade gold. They just wanted to use a nobody like me to take the blame. I looked down at the report bearing my forged signature and burst out laughing. They had no idea that the chairman everyone described as ruthless and merciless had made me a sandwich that morning and begged me to cut my internship short and come home to take over the family business. Chapter 1 I pushed the papers back to the center of the desk and pointed to the signature in the lower right corner. "This isn't my handwriting. Even the first stroke is wrong. Five hundred thousand dollars isn't a small amount. The person who took it knows where it goes the best. All we need to do is to check the transaction records, and it'll show you where the money went." I reached for my phone as soon as I finished. At the same time, Jane's expression changed. She lunged across the desk and snatched it away. "Mavis, you're nothing but a poor country bumpkin! You still have the nerve to argue with me!" I tried to grab it back, but her nails dug into the back of my hand. I let go and turned my wrist away from her, using this chance to press the button on the side of my smartwatch. The audio recording began. Last Friday night, I stayed late to organize the reports. When I passed by the office, I caught Thomas and Jane on the sofa with their clothes unkempt. The panic on their faces as they scrambled to fix their clothes told me everything. I had seen too much, and they wanted me gone. And now, they were trying to pin a five-hundred-thousand-dollar shortfall on an intern with no connections. As soon as Jane had my phone, she switched it off. "Trying to call the police? Trying to record us? Not a chance!" Thomas sat behind the desk and took a sip of coffee. "Mavis, since you have no one backing you, you should just give up and admit what you did. The chairman hates corruption. He's personally leading an inspection this afternoon. "Sign the confession. Since this is your first offense, the company may be able to help you get a lighter sentence. Refuse, and I'll have the legal department act immediately. I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life in prison." From my perspective, his feigned anger was almost comical. Before sending me to the branch, my father had warned me repeatedly not to reveal who I was. He said the only way to understand how the company really operated was to start at the bottom. I hadn't expected my first lesson to uncover corruption this deep. "Sir, the legal department needs a complete chain of evidence before it can act against anyone. Do you really think this fake report will fool the legal team at headquarters? Do you think they're that gullible?" I asked. Jane sneered. "Evidence? I'll show you evidence right now." She opened her laptop, logged into the company network, and began typing. Two minutes later, an official notice appeared on the office's main screen. [Companywide Notice Regarding an Intern Suspected of Major Embezzlement] The notice accused me of using my position to divert five hundred thousand dollars in purchase reserves into gold trading, costing the company a fortune. A second line appeared below it in bold red letters. [Because of this serious incident, all year-end bonuses at this branch are canceled pending further review.] That dragged everyone down with me. The employees who were simply watching the drama went berserk as messages raced across the screen. [Were you so desperate for money?! Why should our bonuses pay for what you stole?] [She messed us up! I was looking forward to that year-end bonus for my mortgage! She needs to go to prison!] [Call the police and have her arrested! Make her family sell their house and pay back the money!] Several coworkers passing the conference room stopped to point at me through the glass. I said nothing. Nothing I said would matter now. Anger had taken over their minds, and they needed someone to blame. When Jane saw that I stopped talking, she thought I was getting afraid. She picked up the intercom and called the finance department. "Hello? Howard? Check the system and see if it shows Mavis's employee ID approving every purchase payment tied to the missing five hundred thousand dollars." Chapter 2 Howard, the finance manager, answered with eager obedience. "I'll bring someone over and check right away." Less than three minutes later, Howard entered the office with Kevin, the manager for the purchasing department. They closed the door behind them and lowered the blinds. Jane slammed the forged confession onto the desk and spoke quietly to Howard. "Transfer fifty thousand dollars into Mavis's account. Mark it as payment for gold so the money trail looks legitimate." Howard nodded and pulled out his phone. "Understood. I'll use a personal account so it can't be traced back to the company." Kevin joined as well. "I've prepared two different versions of the contract. Once she puts her thumbprint on the confession, she'll be personally responsible for the entire shortfall. The branch will have nothing to do with this, as it will be treated as her personal actions." I watched the three of them plot in front of me, stunned by the sheer ridiculousness of it all. "You're forging evidence right in front of me. How bold can you get?" "Forging it?" Jane laughed. "Once data in the system matches the paperwork, who's going to know this is forged?" I took a deep breath, then lowered my head as if I had no way out. My shoulders shake a little. "Fine, but give me a little longer to think..." I sobbed. "I can't hold it anymore. Can I use the restroom first?" Jane scoffed in disdain and waved me away, telling me to go. She clearly thought I was already under her complete control and no longer worth watching. I opened the office door and headed for the restroom. The receptionist was away from her desk. I hurried to the front desk, grabbed the landline, and called the compliance hotline at headquarters. "Hello, is this compliance? I need to report misconduct at the branch..." A hand reached over and ended the call before I could finish. As it turned out, Thomas had followed me out in secret. He grabbed my collar and shoved me backward. "Trying to report us, aren't you? Do you still not understand who runs this branch?" The receiver fell onto the desk, and all we could hear from it was the busy tone. Meanwhile, I stared at Thomas coldly and pulled his hand off my collar. "Thomas, you used the missing money to buy Jane that Hermes Birkin purse too, didn't you?" His expression instantly darkened, and his eyes narrowed. When we were paid at the end of the month, eight hundred dollars had vanished from my overtime reimbursement without explanation. When I went to finance to ask about it, I saw Jane showing off an orange purse to several interns. It was a limited-edition Hermes Birkin. It cost at least thirty thousand dollars with all the accessories. How could a department manager at a branch afford that? "What are you talking about?" Thomas asked through gritted teeth. Red with rage and humiliation, he swung his hand at me. I turned my head, and his hand missed my ear by just a few inches. "Don't push me and know your place!" Thomas pointed his finger at me, then shouted to Howard inside the office. "Change every step and every listed handler in the system to her name! Don’t leave any trace!" Howard rushed out with a tablet and swiped through the screens. "Thomas, it's done." He held the tablet out. The screen showed the company's internal records. The five hundred thousand dollar purchasing request had been changed. My employee ID now appeared as both the person who started and completed the inquiry, price comparison, and purchasing stages. I almost laughed. I had loved computer programming since childhood and had even won international competitions. However, my father had forced me to study business instead. He insisted that Gomez Group's only heir needed to understand its core operations, so I had not majored in computer science. These people knew nothing about programming. They certainly didn't know that the platform's low-level logs couldn't be altered at all. They believed changing the visible records would pin the theft on me for good. In fact, every change only created more evidence. Jane came out carrying an ink pad. "We have witnesses and proof. The system names you, and your account shows the transfer. You're signing it today, whether you like to or not!" I stared at the altered page on the tablet and said nothing. When Thomas saw that I still would not give in, his face hardened. He waved to the two security guards outside the door. "Lock her in the records room. Let's see how long she can stand this!" Chapter 3 The two security guards stepped forward and grabbed my arms, one on my left and one on my right. They dragged me down the hall roughly. Once they threw me inside the records room, they locked the metal door behind me. The sound of locks and chains echoed in the empty hallway. One guard shouted through the door. "Stay put! When the chairman gets here, you'll get what you deserve!" I pounded on the door. "This is unlawful imprisonment! You can't hold me here! This is against the law!" No one answered me. All I could hear was their footsteps fading down the hall. The records room had no windows to the outside, only one light bulb on the ceiling. I leaned against a metal shelf and checked my smartwatch. It was still recording. At noon, I could hear the sound of high-heels getting closer to the metal door. Jane held up a sheet of paper and waved it outside. "Mavis, your resume says your parents live far out in the countryside, right? I've already found their address." She pressed the resume against the glass and pointed to the address. "Hayville. It's so deep in the mountains. What a miserable little backwater town." Thomas stood beside her and lit up a cigarette. "I know a few people near your hometown. If you don't sign that confession and put your thumbprint on it before the chairman's inspection this afternoon, your poor parents may end up with a few broken ribs." My eyes immediately turned cold. There had always been rumors that Thomas was once with the gangsters. He had managed to get into his current position by using dirty methods to settle several disastrous accounts for the previous branch manager. He might dress like someone respectable, but beneath his suit, he was still the same thug. I stared at them through the glass. "Touch my family, and see what happens." Jane mistook my anger for fear and doubled over laughing. "If you're scared, sign the confession. Once you sign, the company will cover the shortfall. I might even leave you ten dollars for the trip home." She tossed the confession and a pen through the opening. "Think carefully." They turned and left. I spent three hours in the records room. That afternoon, hurried footsteps sounded outside. The head of security spoke over the radio, panic in his voice. "Thomas! The inspection team from headquarters is in the underground garage. The chairman is here personally!" Thomas's voice crackled over the radio. "Hurry! Drag her out! Get her thumbprint on that confession before the chairman reaches this floor!" A key scraped violently in the lock. Four guards rushed in with the ink pad and the confession letter. Jane followed behind them, her face twisted with rage. "Hold Mavis down! Break her hand if you have to, but get her thumbprint on that paper!" Chapter 4 All four guards charged me at once inside the record room. Two grabbed my arms, twisted them behind my back, and slammed me against the wall. "Stop moving, or I'll kill you!" Their hands clamped around my wrists and wrenched my arms higher. My wrists started bleeding, and my joints hurt from being squeezed as they almost popped. I fought back as best I could and drove my heel down on one guard's toes. "Get off me! You're helping them commit a crime!" The security guard cursed and tightened his grip. The confession letter fell to the floor, and they were even stepped on quite a few times. Jane walked forward, grabbed my hair, and forced my head back. With her other hand, she seized mine and dragged it toward the ink pad. "You don't have a choice! You're taking the blame today, whether you like it or not!" - The elevator indicator at the end of the hall lit up. Thomas straightened his tie and hurried over to greet the inspection team. Branch employees had packed the area around the elevator, as they were called to welcome the staff from headquarters. Thomas raised his voice over the crowd. "The chairman will be here any second! We caught the person who betrayed the company. Your year-end bonuses are safe. Stand straight and behave yourselves!" The employees shouted their agreement. "She deserves it! Send her to prison!" "Stealing from the company is disgraceful!" The elevator chimed, and the doors opened. The chairman stepped out, surrounded by senior management and bodyguards. He wore a tailored suit, and fury darkened his face. His presence silenced the entire floor. The moment Thomas and Jane saw him, their expressions changed. Jane gripped my arm and rushed to claim credit. "Mr. Gomez! We worked all night and found the person who stole the money! It was Mavis! We were just about to make her sign the confession and put her thumbprint on it!" She held out the confession, which bore half of my thumbprint. Eager to impress him, the head of security pressed harder on my shoulder and kicked the back of my knee to make me fall to the floor. "Stay still, Mavis! If you stole from the company, you should've known you'd get caught! How can you do something stupid when you're so young?" My knee gave out from the pressure, and I nearly fell on the tiles. That was the story they had prepared for headquarters. A scapegoat, a forged confession, and the same lie repeated by everyone at the branch. They assumed the chairman would never bother listening to an intern. Once my thumbprint was on the page, the five-hundred-thousand-dollar gap would simply disappear. I forced myself upright and looked straight at the one who had the highest authority in the company. "Dad, do you think so too?"