“Mr. Black, don’t be angry. Peter’s in the wrong, but I’ll immediately get my workers to get rid of these bricks. Tomorrow, I’ll personally pick the best marble for you.”

Walter snorted, showing that he was not buying it.

“John, don’t sweet-talk me! I don’t care how you do your business with your cousin, but you have to give me an explanation today! A hundred thousand dollars’ worth of material turned into a truckload of bricks. Do you really think I’m an idiot?”

Walter was extremely furious as he yelled at John, who endured the scolding without refuting. Then, he turned around and lashed his anger out at me.

“Peter, what are you standing here for? Apologize quickly to Mr. Black and give out the money that you’ve taken!”

I looked at John’s shameless face, and I felt numb. I spent these few years working hard for his company. Every time he transferred me money, he paid me way less than due.

Sand and concrete that were worth three thousand dollars, and he only paid me thirty dollars. The customized doors and windows that were worth five hundred thousand dollars, he only transferred me one thousand five hundred dollars.

I viewed him as family, so I forked up money from my pocket to pay for materials that were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When things went wrong, he did not feel bad. Instead, he pushed the responsibility onto me.

He wanted me to be his scapegoat. I took a deep breath and suppressed my anger.

I stared into his eyes and said firmly but calmly, “John, do you really want me to pay back the differences in money?”

John was momentarily stunned before he started to avoid my gaze.

Rory immediately yelled.

“Of course! You stole money from the company! Are you actually planning to just keep it? You have to tally the account before Mr. Black and the rest of the workers today!”

I sneered. “Alright, then let’s look into the account.”

Rory heard that I agreed to her request and immediately brightened up. She pointed at me as her voice became higher.

“Let’s do that! If you can’t show me the receipt of the hundred-thousand-dollar purchase, then you’re an embezzler! I’m going to call the cops on you! And you’re going to jail!”

The workers discussed even louder on the second floor.

“It’s game over for Mr. Smith. His greed was too obvious.”

“A hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. It’ll result in a few years of jail time.”

“He seemed pretty generous recently, and he always paid for our meal. It turned out that he was just using Mr. Anderson’s money!”

The workers were gossiping in disdain, and Rory looked extremely smug.

John pretended to sigh too.

“Peter, it’s not too late to own up to your mistake. Just hand us the money. I won’t call the cops on you. We’re family after all.”

Walter crossed his arms and stared at me coldly as he waited for my explanation.

I ignored John’s and Rory’s words.

I immediately took out my phone from my pocket and clicked on my text messaging app to pull up the conversation of transaction details with John from the previous night. Then, I turned up the brightness of my phone and passed it to Walter.

“Mr. Black, have a good look at this. This is the money John transferred me last night when he requested me to purchase your imported marble.”

Walter glanced at the phone.

Then, his eyes immediately widened in disbelief.

“A thousand dollars?”

Walter immediately looked up and glared at John.

“John! You took my hundred thousand dollars, and you only transferred a thousand dollars to your subordinate to purchase imported marble?”

After he said that, everyone became quiet.

Rory’s smug expression froze.

Blood drained out of John’s face. He frantically rushed over, clearly wanting to snatch my phone. I dodged his hand and then showed my screen to the workers upstairs.

“Everyone, take a good look at this! Mr. Black wanted imported marble worth a hundred thousand dollars, but John only transferred me a thousand dollars! What can I buy with a thousand dollars? I went to every supplier, and I couldn’t even afford to buy a broken piece of marble! I had no choice but to go to the countryside bricks factory and get these bricks that were used to build pigpens!”

When the workers saw the transaction amount, they exploded.

“What? It’s really only a thousand dollars!”

“He only gave a thousand dollars for materials worth a hundred thousand dollars! This is crazy!”

“Mr. Smith had no other choice!”

“If it were me, I would’ve bought bricks too. A thousand dollars is not even enough for logistics!”

Their opinions immediately switched. They started looking at John with disgust and anger.

John started to sweat.

He stammered, “It’s a misunderstanding! It’s just a misunderstanding!

“Mr. Black, hear me out! My wife’s the one who did the transfer last night. Her eyesight is bad; that’s why she missed out on a couple of zeros!”

In order to clear his name, John threw Rory under the bus.

Rory’s eyes widened and was about to defend herself, but John glared at her and pinched her forcefully. She felt pain and had no choice but to reinforce John’s lie.

“That’s right! My eyesight’s bad; that’s why I missed out on a couple of zeros! I initially wanted to transfer a hundred thousand dollars!”

Walter sneered.

“Key in fewer zeros? Do you think I’m three years old?”

John immediately took out his phone.

“Mr. Black, don’t be angry. I’ll immediately transfer the rest of the money! I’ll do it now!”

John immediately started to key in information on his phone.

A few seconds later, my phone buzzed.

There was a notification indicating that I had received a hundred thousand dollars.

John looked up and wiped the sweat on his forehead.

“Peter, I’ve transferred you the money. Quick, get someone to take these bricks away! Go to the suppliers and get the best imported marble!”

I looked at the hundred thousand dollars in my account, then immediately transferred the amount back without hesitation.

The hundred thousand dollars went back into John’s account.

John was stunned.

“Peter, what are you doing? Are you crazy?”

I stared at him coldly.

“John, the lie that you told may have confused others, but not me. These few years, you have been giving me a lot less money. Sand that was worth three thousand dollars, you only gave me thirty dollars. Doors and windows that were worth five hundred thousand dollars, you only transferred me one thousand five hundred dollars. I don’t want the one thousand dollars you transferred me earlier. I quit.”

Rory got furious and started yelling at me, “Peter, stop accusing us! You’re the one who stole the company money, and now you want to flip the narrative? You purposely got a truckload of bricks to embarrass John. It’s obvious what you’re trying to do!”

Rory sat on the floor and started to throw a tantrum.

“We have to look into the accounts today! To look into every expense you had for the past few years! If your account’s perfect, I’ll change my last name to yours!”

John saw that Rory was trying to blow up this matter, so he stomped over furiously and grabbed Rory’s arm.

“Enough! Stop making a scene!

“Mr. Black is still here! Let’s only discuss our family matters in private!”

John lowered his voice and tried to hint at Rory to stop pushing. He knew that if the accounts were looked into, he would be the one exposed.

Alas, Rory did not take the hint.

She flung John’s hand away and stood up.

“Why would we do it in private? We have to clear it out right here right now!”

“John, if you dare to protect him, I’ll go back to my parents’ place!”

Rory pointed at me and spoke through gritted teeth.

“Peter has been the project manager for a few years; I bet he has embezzled at least seven to eight hundred thousand dollars! If he doesn’t pay us back, no one is leaving here today!”

Walter stood aside and watched coldly. He was no longer angry. He just wanted to see how this would end.

John was forced into a corner by Rory. He glanced at Walter and the workers upstairs. Then, his eyes turned vicious as he clenched his teeth.

Since Rory wanted to blow this up, then he had no choice but to make sure I would be the one in the wrong.

He cleared his throat and put on a helpless look.

“Peter, since Rory insists, I won’t hide the truth from everyone.”

John turned around to face the workers as he said loudly, “Everyone might not know that Peter has indeed paid some material fees on behalf of the company.” John suddenly raised his voice. “But I gave him an allowance of a million dollars in private!”

Everyone was shocked.

One million dollars.

That was a lot of money to the workers.

John looked at the workers’ shocked expressions and continued his lie.

“Since he’s family and since he works hard, I decided to fork up my own money and pay him in cash instead of going through the company’s account. I didn’t expect him to be so greedy and feel unsatisfied with one million dollars. He’s even trying to embezzle a hundred thousand dollars from Mr. Black!”

John turned around to look at me and put up a generous front.

“You’re still my cousin, Peter, so I’ll play nice. As long as you pay us back eight hundred thousand dollars, I’ll forget about today and not take any legal actions against you.”

Rory immediately agreed.

“That’s right! Refund! Immediately refund us eight hundred thousand dollars!”

The workers believed John’s words. Suddenly, the situation favored John again.

A few seasoned workers came down from the second floor and advised me.

“Mr. Smith, Mr. Anderson is very kind to you. He even gave you a million dollars in private.”

“You have to be grateful. Don’t be too greedy.”

“That’s right, quick, return his money to him. It’s not good to get the cops involved.”

“Mr. Anderson is giving you a discount and only asks eight hundred thousand dollars from you. You’re still earning two hundred thousand dollars.”

I felt cold when I heard the workers’ words.

I felt extremely disgusted and wronged.

John was lying about the one million dollars in the first place. What discount was there to take from that? He was using all possible tactics he could use.

At that very moment, my phone buzzed. It was a text message from John.

I clicked on the message.

[Peter, I’m begging you, please just take the blame first to calm Rory and Mr. Black down. I’m simply talking about the eight hundred thousand dollars, I won’t ask you to actually transfer it to me. Once Mr. Black leaves, I’ll give you twenty thousand dollars to compensate you.]

I read the text messages and was immediately furious. He still wanted me to be his scapegoat? He was going as far as trying to buy me off with twenty thousand dollars!

I glared at John, who was trying to plead with his eyes.

I sneered and put my phone back in my pocket.

“John, did you transfer me the million dollars in your dream?”