Chapter 117
Lucinda didn't answer his question.
She turned around, pulled up another file from her laptop, and projected it onto the large screen.
This time, it was a screenshot of a webpage.
The design was crude, the color scheme garish, but the logo at the top and the website name would be familiar to every veteran Ridgeway Tech employee.
"LuckyBreak Digital Casino."
It was an underground gambling site that had been circulating privately among company employees, disguised as "casual entertainment" to lure them into registering and depositing money.
Since its launch last year, over thirty employees had lost anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars on it—total losses exceeding three million dollars.
Some had been buried under online loans because of it. Some marriages had fallen apart. One person had nearly jumped off a building.
And the registration information, server hosting contracts, and profit-sharing agreements all pointed to the same name.
Joseph.
On the big screen, those documents flipped page by page. Every signature, every official seal, every bank account—crystal clear, impossible to deny.
Joseph's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. He sat frozen in his chair, unable to move. "Impossible... how could you possibly have these... who the hell are you?"
Lucinda turned around, arms crossed, looking down at him from above. "Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that you framed Gaia because she's close to me and talented. You thought pushing her out as a scapegoat would protect yourself and give me a warning. Two birds with one stone, right?"
Her voice was unhurried, calm and cold.
Joseph's pupils contracted slightly. His mouth hung open, unable to speak for a long moment.
"I..." His voice trembled. Just as he was about to say something, his gaze suddenly fell on Lucinda's pocket.
There, her phone screen was still lit—showing the red waveform of a recording interface!
His pupils shrank sharply. He snapped back to awareness.
"You're recording!" His voice shot up. "You want me to confess out loud! You want me to dig my own grave!"
His face flushed red, his finger pointing at Lucinda, trembling at the tip. "Dream on! I won't say anything! All this evidence is fake! Forged!"
Lucinda looked at him, her gaze calm.
"Won't talk?" She pulled her hand from her pocket, the phone spinning once in her palm, screen facing out. The red waveform on the recording interface was still jumping.
"That's fine." She spoke word by word, each one landing like a hammer on his chest. "You stole company data. Sold core company secrets. Ran an underground casino. Defrauded employees of millions of dollars. Sexually harassed female employees—"
She paused, her gaze falling on Joseph's now-twisted face, the coldness in her eyes thick and unyielding. "All of it, on record."
"Get ready for prison."
Joseph's face turned completely ashen.
He slumped against the floor-to-ceiling window like a puddle of mud, sliding down the glass.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
He jerked upright, finger pointing at Lucinda, voice trembling but carrying a kind of crazed triumph. "You can't touch me!"
He shouted, spittle flying onto the glass. "I'm a distant relative of the Douglas family! Wesley is my cousin! What are you? Some nobody who came out of nowhere—do you really think you can overrule the head of the Douglas family? What gives you the right to touch me?"
His face contorted, nearly hysterical. "Just wait! The Douglas family won't let you get away with this! Headquarters won't let you get away with this!"
Lucinda looked at him, her gaze unmoved.
She simply watched him for three seconds, then spoke, her voice cool and clear. "The Douglas family having a distant relative like you is a disgrace."
Joseph froze.
His mouth was still open, but all his words stuck in his throat.
Just then, rapid footsteps echoed from outside the door.
"Police! Open up!"
In that instant, Joseph's face completely collapsed.
Lucinda turned, walked over, and opened the door.
Three uniformed officers stood at the entrance. The lead officer showed his badge, his gaze moving past her to land on Joseph, slumped by the window.
"Joseph?" The officer's voice was steady. "You're suspected of corporate espionage, embezzlement, illegal operations, and fraud. You need to come with us."
Joseph's lips trembled, his gaze landing on Lucinda's face, his eyes churning with complex emotions. "You... you already called the police..."
Lucinda said nothing.
She pulled out her phone from her pocket and held it up in front of the officer. The recording interface on the screen was still pulsing. "The evidence is all here."
The lead officer nodded, took the phone, glanced at the screen, then waved his hand.
The two officers behind him stepped forward quickly, grabbing Joseph by the arms on either side. "Let's go."
Joseph's legs gave out completely.
The handcuffs clicked shut. The two officers hauled him toward the door, his legs practically dragging behind him.
As they reached the doorway, Joseph suddenly seemed to be yanked back by some force. "Let me go! Do you know who I am? I have people above me! One phone call and I'll have you stripped of those uniforms!"
He twisted his neck to shout behind him, his features contorted into a grotesque mask. "Lucinda! Just you wait! The first thing I'll do when I get out is come after you! You think taking me down is the end of it? You have no idea how dirty Ridgeway Tech really is! You've pissed off people in Phoenixia—you think they'll let you off? You're a woman with no roots, no foundation. Sooner or later, you'll die worse than me!"
His voice echoed through the hallway, growing more distant, more shrill, until it was finally swallowed by the corner.
The hallway fell silent for a moment.
Then, from the open-plan tech department, someone started clapping.
"Yes!"
"Ms. Wipere is amazing! That parasite should've been kicked out ages ago!"
"He scammed me out of thirty thousand dollars! Thirty thousand! That's half a year's rent!"
"I wanted to report him so badly, but I didn't dare... I was afraid of losing my job, afraid he'd retaliate... Ms. Wipere, thank you... thank you for standing up for us..."
Someone nearby handed her a tissue and patted her shoulder, their own eyes reddening.
Gaia stood at the edge of the crowd, watching Lucinda walk out of the office. Her figure was slender and delicate, yet somehow deeply reassuring.
"Ms. Wipere." She took a step forward, her voice catching. "Thank you for believing in me."
Lucinda stopped, turned her head slightly, and glanced at her.
Her gaze carried its usual calm detachment, but her lips curved slightly. She reached out and patted Gaia's shoulder. "The innocent will be proven innocent. Get back to work."
Gaia nodded hard, clutching her folder tightly, and turned back toward her workstation.
The applause in the hallway gradually faded. The crowd slowly dispersed, each person returning to their desk.