After I Saved the Company, My Parents Framed Me for Their Adopted Son

The company was in trouble, and Father said whichever of us saved it, my brother or me, would be the one to inherit it.

My brother spent his days drinking and chasing women, sunk in one soft distraction after another.

I ran the R&D team day and night until we cracked the hardest technical problem we'd faced, and the new three-piece serum and moisturizer set seized the market the moment it launched.

In a single month, it sold out completely.

On the day of the company's celebration banquet, I put on a custom evening gown, ready to stand there while my parents named the heir in front of everyone.

But when the big screen lit up, what it played was a recording.

"Simmons' new product line was developed by my team, under me."

"Twenty million, and I'll hand you the core technology!"

My own voice sent a shockwave through the room.

I fought to explain that I hadn't sold anything out.

But Father, furious, slapped me across the face.

And announced, right there, "The future heir of this company is my son, Connor Simmons!"

"As for Kathy Simmons."

"She sold the company's secrets."

"She deserves to face the full weight of the law!"

...

The whole room erupted.

No one had imagined that I, the one who'd pulled the company back from ruin, the sure heir in everyone's eyes.

Could turn out to be the traitor who'd sold its secrets.

The company's old guard.

One after another, they smashed their glasses on the floor.

The curses coming out of their mouths were vicious, ugly to hear.

Some called me greedy for wealth.

Some called me short-sighted.

My brother, Connor Simmons, came toward me with a glass of wine in his hand.

The corner of his mouth lifted, just slightly.

Then he sighed.

"Sis, you were too greedy."

With that.

He poured the whole glass over my head.

And as he watched the cold wine drip down my cheeks.

He scoffed. "You need to sober up!"

"I didn't sell out the company!"

"Someone framed me!"

I ground the words out through my teeth.

"Heh..."

Connor sneered again.

"Sis, the evidence is right there. You still want to argue your way out?"

I fixed my glare on my parents.

"You don't believe me?"

Father was shaking with rage. He jabbed a finger at the screen and roared, "The proof is right here. How do you expect me to believe you?"

"Call the police."

The words out of Mother's mouth left me unable to believe them.

"You... you're calling the police to arrest me?"

All at once the cold sank all the way through me.

This cold.

It spread from the inside out.

"The company isn't ours alone."

"We owe an answer to everyone who has supported it!"

Mother said, her face cold.

"That's right."

"As for whether someone framed you."

"Let the police look into it."

Soon enough, someone called them.

The celebration banquet became the scene of an arrest.

With every eye on me.

The police took me away.