Chapter 86: Forged Contract
I hung up the phone and quietly closed my eyes, thinking I'd fall asleep quickly. But because of Atlas's call, I tossed and turned sleeplessly. Just as dawn was breaking and I was about to close my eyes, the phone rang.
I answered, and York's anxious voice came through, "Helena, something's happened!"
Instantly wide awake, I rushed to the company.
"Helena, over here!"
In the company stairwell, York quietly waved at me. I walked up to him, out of breath, "What's going on?"
York nervously glanced behind me a few times, and only after making sure no one was around did he pull me into an office.
The office was full of dust and piled with miscellaneous items - clearly no one had been here in ages.
"What on earth is going on?"
On the phone, York's voice had been urgent, but now that I was here, he focused on rummaging through boxes without saying a word.
"Don't worry, almost there."
York said as he pulled out a copy of a contract from a pile of boxes and handed it to me, "Take a look at this."
I quickly scanned it, "What's this about? Isn't this a sales contract from the sales department? What's wrong with it?"
I remembered these two contracts clearly - they were the ones I'd seen in Lyndon's office when I first started working.
One was for car sales, and one was for new energy equipment sales. These two sales contracts were worth over ten million dollars.
Why was York showing me this?
Seeing my confused expression, he pointed at the seal, "There's something wrong with these two companies."
"What do you mean?"
York said nervously, "Remember when I told you about the inappropriate relationship between Clementine from sales and David from production?"
I nodded. There had been something like that, but after York told me, I hadn't paid much attention to it.
But now I understood. My face went pale. "Don't tell me Clementine signed this deal?"
York said reluctantly, "Yes."
"What about the workshop? How was it arranged?"
"It's been produced. When I checked yesterday, the goods were almost ready for warehousing."
"What? That fast?"
Hearing York's words, I slumped onto a nearby cardboard box, looking up somewhat dazed, "Why so fast?"
York said helplessly, "If we followed normal procedures, this batch wouldn't be scheduled for at least half a month. But David moved up the schedule. They must have been afraid someone would find out, that's why they rushed."
I said somewhat absently, "Where are Clementine and David now?"
"They ran!"
York said through gritted teeth, "A few days ago, these two resigned at the same time. I felt something was off, and when I checked, sure enough, there was something fishy. What do we do? We can't keep this hidden anymore. Let's tell Mr. Lockwood right away."
"We need to let Dad know."
I quickly took out my phone and called Henry.
The moment he saw the contract, Henry's brow furrowed deeply. "If I'm not mistaken, they must have someone in the legal department, too."
As soon as Henry said this, I broke out in a cold sweat of fear.
"Dad, what should we do next?"
"Call the police!"
Henry made the decision decisively.
The company had time for handover procedures, and fortunately, York was alert enough to discover the problem before these two had completed their resignation procedures and left the company.
Soon, Clementine and David were taken away by the police, along with someone from the legal department.
But all of this was done quietly, and even the company executives were kept in the dark.
After everyone was taken away, Henry reviewed all the recently signed agreements and indeed found problems.
The problem was with the loan agreement signed with the Pemberton family.
Henry angrily slammed the agreement on the desk.
"Xavier, Knox!"
Seeing Henry gnashing his teeth in hatred, I quickly asked, "Dad, what's wrong?"
Henry snorted coldly, "The Pemberton family is playing word games with me."
Henry pointed at the clauses in the agreement, "See this? Just a few words different, and not only can't we get our money back, we might have to pay tens of millions of dollars in interest."
How could this be?
I looked at the agreement in disbelief. What should have been money lent to the Pemberton family had been changed to a loan from them - just a few words different, and it became us borrowing money from the Pemberton family instead.
Seeing this, I lost hope.
Despite all our calculations, we never expected the Pemberton family to bribe the company's legal department and tamper with the contract terms.
I panicked for a moment but forced myself to calm down.
"Dad, I have a recording of our conversation at the restaurant that day."
Hearing my words, Henry looked up in surprise, "How do you have a recording?"
I pressed my lips together, "I was afraid you wouldn't accept their collateral, so I prepared in advance."
"Good. I've lived all these years, but my judgment of people isn't as good as yours."
Henry shook his head and sighed.
Seeing him like this, I quickly said, "That's because you're kind-hearted, Dad. You don't want to judge others with a mean spirit."
But I was different. In my previous life, I'd witnessed the Pemberton family's ruthlessness, so naturally, I was extra careful dealing with them.
"Is the recording enough to overturn this contract?"
"Not quite enough."
Henry shook his head, then, seeing my worried expression, said, "But fortunately, we have transfer records. We can only try, but after the company goes through this turmoil, I'm afraid we'll face some difficult times ahead."
"I'm not afraid. As long as we can get back what belongs to us, no matter how hard it is, I'm not afraid."
I had underestimated the Pemberton family after all.
I never expected this family to be so shameless, planning to take over the Lockwood family's business so early on.
"Could those two orders also be related to the Pemberton family?"
Hearing my words, Henry's expression turned cold.
"You stay home and wait. I'll be back soon."
After Henry finished speaking, he strode away.
It wasn't until the afternoon that Henry returned, looking exhausted.
"How did it go?"
Seeing Henry, I rushed up to him.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, "You guessed right. The Pemberton family did this, too."
Damn it!
I slammed my fist on the desk. This was my fault. I'd already noticed something was wrong, but I was still careless.
Tens of millions of dollars worth of goods, plus a billion-dollar loan - for the company, this was a life-or-death challenge.
"Helena, what do you plan to do next?"
Hearing Henry's words, I knew he wanted to hand this matter over to me.
After thinking, I said, "Call the police and pursue the Pemberton family for contract fraud and deception."
"But not now. I want to save this for the wedding day."
On the wedding day, I not only wanted Knox to be completely disgraced, but I also wanted the Pemberton Group to have no place left in the business world!
Seeing that I hadn't lost my head to anger, Henry nodded with satisfaction, "Good, you're truly my daughter. Let's plan this out carefully."