Chapter 81 Deduction of Commission
Arabella first greeted department manager Theo, then politely nodded to the two unfamiliar faces.
Theo said, "Arabella! Please sit."
Arabella pulled out the chair across from them and sat down, directly asking, "Mr. Bell, did you need something?"
Theo interlaced his fingers, looking somewhat troubled. "Arabella, I've actually always thought highly of you. Setting aside your recent order explosion, I've seen all your past efforts. To be honest, even without this period's achievements, your replacing Ms. Murphy was just a matter of time."
Arabella felt a flash of foreboding—if this was really meant to praise her, it wouldn't start this way.
Sure enough, Theo's "but" quickly arrived. "But the company also has to consider the department's overall atmosphere. Recently many colleagues have been dissatisfied with you, especially after what Leila just did... If we give you a high performance bonus at this time, it might trigger public outrage."
Arabella asked, "So what's the amount?"
Theo smiled, picked up his coffee cup from the table, and slowly took a sip. "Regarding your orders from this week, after discussion, company leadership has decided to give you a one-time bonus of $100,000, with base salary unchanged."
Base salary unchanged—meaning her monthly salary would still be $4,000.
She'd signed orders this week equivalent to half a year's performance for the entire business department. According to company regulations, she should have received seven to eight million dollars in commission. But now, she was only getting a one-time bonus.
The performance commission was gone.
Arabella never expected this outcome. Though these orders had come mysteriously, she had indeed signed them and created profits for the company. She'd originally thought that even if they cut her commission in half, or even gave her just one-tenth, she could accept it. But she never imagined it would be zero.
Before she could speak, the middle-aged woman beside them pushed up her glasses and said expressionlessly, "Ms. Bourbon, after internal discussion, we believe your recent orders are of unknown origin. Withholding the commission is to protect you—we hope you won't be emotional about it."
Arabella frowned. "How is taking away money that belongs to me good for me?"
The woman's face darkened, her tone growing colder. "These orders appeared too suddenly. We reasonably suspect you used personal connections to forge orders and defraud company assets. Procedure would normally require reporting to police, but Mr. Bell, considering your past performance, hasn't pursued it. You'd better behave yourself."
Arabella couldn't help getting agitated. "I forged orders? The company requires a 30% deposit, but all my clients paid 70% deposits upfront. Even if they ultimately backed out, that seventy percent would still be in the company account. What would be my purpose in forging such orders?"
She took a deep breath and continued, "I don't have massive assets or connections at that level. Even if I did, why would I spend billions of dollars just to get one percent commission?"
The middle-aged woman hadn't expected Arabella to rebut so directly. Her name was Mandy Gomez, the company's CFO. After hearing Theo's report, she and general manager's secretary Billy Powell realized this money had "operational potential."
Learning that Arabella was gentle and didn't argue with colleagues, she quickly formed a plan—to withhold this eight million dollar commission. A new employee with a malleable personality—such things were too common in the workplace.
Mandy had originally thought this would be easy, after all, how could a small employee deserve such a large performance commission?
Even according to distribution principles, as a supervising leader, she should get the majority.
Seeing Mandy remain silent, Billy coughed and looked at Arabella. "Ms. Bourbon, I hope you understand we're notifying you, not seeking your opinion. If you can't accept this, we can only express regret—the company will lose an excellent employee like you."
Arabella felt disgusted—this was clearly a threat: either take the $100,000 bonus and give up the commission, or resign.
The people talking to her were company executives. Besides Theo, she didn't recognize the man and woman, but guessed they must be senior management.
Senior management, not the general manager, which meant the general manager was unaware of this matter.
So... were they conspiring to split this money?
She looked at Theo. "Mr. Bell, I want to see the general manager."
Billy's face immediately darkened. "Ms. Bourbon, do you know the general manager's status? You think you can just meet him whenever?"
Arabella quietly reached into her jacket pocket and turned on the recording function, but Mandy caught on. She stood up with a cold face, grabbed Arabella's hand, and snatched the phone away.
Arabella said coldly, "Give me back my phone!"
Mandy glanced at the recording interface on the screen, sneered, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and threw the phone directly out from the sixteenth floor.
"You dare to record? Want to go the legal route?" She crossed her arms mockingly. "Let me remind you—all business staff sign orders under their supervisor's name. You want to take orders signed by Ms. Murphy to tell a judge these were yours? Think anyone would believe you?"
Arabella felt like she'd fallen into an ice cave—the company indeed had this rule, established from the beginning to prevent frequent turnover of new employees. All the orders she'd signed bore Gillian's name.
When everyone got along fine, anything was acceptable. But at this point, trying to fight for her rights had become extremely difficult.
Theo looked at the silent Arabella, feeling somewhat sorry. Though he envied such a large sum, he hadn't intended to embezzle his subordinate's benefits.
But he hadn't expected that when he brought Arabella's payroll to the CFO, Mandy would have other ideas.
He'd been forcibly dragged into this conspiracy and had been anxious all along. Seeing Arabella being pressured now, he felt powerless to help.
Moreover, with such a large sum of money—previously it had nothing to do with him, but now seeing he could benefit, getting at least two million, he didn't want to oppose money anymore.
At this moment, Arabella faced three ambitious company executives, and an absurd sense of powerlessness surged in her heart.
She pressed her lips together and said quietly, "Regardless, I'll do my best to fight for my interests." Then she turned and left the conference room.
She'd originally treated them as leaders, respecting and honoring them, but now they no longer deserved her respect.
Returning to the office, she walked straight to Gillian. "Ms. Murphy, could we talk privately?"
Gillian looked up with a smile. "Of course."
Arabella took her to the rooftop and told her everything about the conference room meeting, finally asking, "If I take them to court, could you testify that these orders were signed by me?"
Gillian's smile gradually disappeared. After a long while, she asked, "If you win the lawsuit, will they be fired?"
Arabella shook her head. "I don't know."
Gillian smiled bitterly. "They won't be. They're the CFO and the general manager's secretary—they have backgrounds and connections. Even if you win, their positions won't be shaken."
Arabella said, "I can resign, but I want justice."
Gillian fell silent. Arabella realized that if Gillian testified, her career might be ruined—she was transferring to headquarters at year-end, which was her opportunity.
They were just colleagues, and she'd only been in Gillian's group for half a month. What right did she have to ask someone to sacrifice their future for her?
Arabella sighed. "Forget it, pretend I never asked."
But Gillian gritted her teeth. "Arabella, let me think about it."
Arabella was about to refuse when she heard Gillian say, "I'm actually like you—from an ordinary family background, worked my way up step by step. I can't stand their behavior, but I've never had the ability to change it or dared to resist.
But today you stood before me saying you want justice for yourself, and I suddenly felt this world should have some fairness. Arabella, this decision is very difficult for me, but I'll seriously consider it. Can you give me three days?"
Arabella didn't know what else to say and could only nod silently.
Before leaving work, Leila returned from the hospital with her hands wrapped in gauze but her face rosy. She walked to Arabella's workstation and suddenly started crying. "Arabella, I already agreed to give you my clients. Why won't you leave me alone? How did I offend you?"
Arabella was bewildered. "What are you talking about? When did I ever ask for your clients?"
Leila cried more pitifully. "Now you deny it? Yesterday after work, you said if I didn't hand over all my clients to you, you'd make it impossible for me to survive in the company. You're throwing your weight around because of your recent order explosion, but unfortunately I couldn't record your ugly behavior for everyone to see!"
Arabella immediately understood—this was a frame-up.
She said coldly, "I never said that."
A colleague chimed in, "If you didn't say it, why would she cut her wrists at your workstation? Why would she accuse you now? She couldn't possibly be targeting you out of personal dislike and deliberately endangering herself to frame you, right?"
Arabella understood that without evidence, Leila had gained moral high ground through self-harm, making it difficult for her to fight back.
Just then, the sound of high heels approached, and colleagues exclaimed, "It's Ms. Gomez."
Arabella looked up to see the middle-aged woman from the conference room.
Gillian had guessed correctly—she was the company's CFO.
A CFO knowingly breaking the law, wanting to embezzle employee commissions—how disillusioning.
Arabella knew Mandy's appearance now wasn't with good intentions, and she prepared herself mentally.
But when Mandy spoke, Arabella realized she'd still underestimated her depths.
Mandy walked up to her, and her first words were: "Arabella, how many guilty things have you done to attract so much trouble?"
"Ms. Gomez, what have I done? Everything Leila said, I never did. You all say I did it—what evidence do you have? Just because she cut her wrists and I didn't, you say I'm lying and she isn't?"
As she spoke, she actually picked up a craft knife from the desk and placed it against her wrist, asking, "Do I need to cut my wrists too to stand on the same level as Leila and defend myself?"
Gillian nervously stepped forward and grabbed her hand. "Arabella, don't be impulsive!"
Arabella wasn't impulsive at all—she was very calm. She'd taken the knife only to intimidate them; she would never actually cut her wrists.
She looked at Leila, then at Mandy, and the colleagues who'd spoken for Leila earlier. Her voice wasn't loud but was very firm. "If you say I did wrong, please show evidence. I won't admit to things without proof."
After speaking, she pushed past Leila, grabbed her bag, and walked out.
She understood clearly that this company was probably no longer viable for her.
The withheld commission was already troublesome enough, and now there was Leila inexplicably targeting her.
Arabella returned home dejected, locked her bedroom door, and lay alone on the bed feeling somewhat sad.
She'd thought she'd found a good job and life would gradually improve, but hadn't expected to encounter such disgusting situations.
She calculated in her mind that no matter what, she had to meet the general manager and definitely fight for her commission.
As for Leila, she was at a loss.
Should she sue for defamation? But without any concrete evidence, such matters couldn't be clarified in court.
Her mood was terrible, and she lay there until the room was dark. Then she heard the door opening outside—Alexander was home.