Chapter 5 - The Final Audit
Lauren spun around, her eyes wide with sudden horror as she saw Marcus standing in the doorway, flanked by corporate authority.
“Marcus—no, wait, let me explain,” Lauren stammered, her hands fluttering desperately in front of her. “She’s twisting everything! She set me up, she used her husband’s corporate influence to rig—”
“We reviewed the high-definition security footage from the dining room floor, Ms. Pierce,” Marcus interrupted, his tone devoid of any professional warmth. He held up his tablet, displaying a frozen, crystal-clear frame of Lauren deliberately tipping her wineglass forward while looking straight into my eyes. “We also reviewed your compliance logs for the past three quarters. It appears your aggressive handling of the Bennett portfolio wasn’t an isolated incident of bad judgment.”
Lauren staggered backward until the back of her legs hit the edge of my visitor’s chair, forcing her to sit down heavily. “What... what are you talking about?”
“Internal audit discovered that three smaller corporate accounts assigned to you over the last year mysteriously pulled their business following sudden, unexplained disputes with your department,” Marcus continued, tapping the screen of his tablet. “When we cross-referenced your personal expense reports with those accounts, we found undeclared commission kickbacks routed through a third-party shell company registered in your maiden name.”
The color drained from Lauren’s face until she looked translucent. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water, the monumental collapse of her entire life happening in real-time right across my desk.
“You’re... you’re firing me?” she whispered, the words sounding hollow and broken.
“Firing you would be a kindness,” Marcus said coldly. “We are turning these audit findings over to the federal prosecutor’s office for corporate fraud, alongside a formal ethics complaint to the state financial licensing board. You are finished in this industry, Lauren.”
Marcus turned his attention away from her, offering a respectful nod in my direction. “Mrs. Bennett, please accept the firm’s deepest apologies for this individual’s conduct. We will issue a public statement clearing the restaurant of any operational fault by noon.”
“Thank you, Marcus,” I said, maintaining steady eye contact.
Without another word, the two compliance officers stepped forward, flanking Lauren on either side, and silently escorted the sobbing, broken former wealth manager out of my office, leaving the heavy oak door standing wide open to the bustling hallway outside.
I let out a long, slow breath, leaning back in my chair as the morning sun flooded the room with warmth.
May you like
My phone buzzed on the corner of the desk. I glanced down at the screen—a text message from Ethan: Lunch at noon? My treat. You choose the restaurant.
I picked up my pen, smiled, and began to write.
