Chapter 172 Find Out the Truth
Bella nodded, stood up, and knocked on Micah's office door before entering. "Did you need something from me?"
Micah immediately closed the door and said, "Yes, it's urgent. Take a look at this."
Micah handed a document to Bella.
"Isn't this the Phillips Group contract? What's wrong?" Bella asked as she flipped through the contract.
Bella was familiar with the contract since she had led the team to sign it, and its contents were confidential, known to no one else.
Micah, with a serious expression, said, "This contract has been leaked, and the Phillips Group called this morning to terminate it."
Bella was shocked. "What? Terminate? But we've already signed the contract. How could it have been leaked?"
Bella looked at Micah, and Micah looked back at her.
Finally, Micah said, "I had you sign this contract, and only you and I have it. My copy is in the company's safe, untouched. Where's your copy?"
The contract had both an original and a duplicate. The original was with Micah, and the duplicate was with Bella. Bella's face changed. "I'll go look for it right away."
Bella left the office and went to her desk to search for the contract. She searched everywhere but couldn't find it.
Bella had originally locked the contract in her drawer, but now it was nowhere to be found.
Pale-faced, Bella returned to the office and said, "My copy is missing. But isn't it too much for the Phillips Group to back out? After all, the contract is already signed."
Micah, in a lowered voice, said, "Setting aside the Hughes family, our Skyline Group is just a mid-sized company. This contract is crucial for our orders in the second half of the year. Now that the information has been leaked, the Phillips Group has the right to choose not to work with us, so it's normal for them to terminate."
"We just have to pay a penalty, which I can afford. I just think it's unnecessary to pay this money, especially since I'm about to leave. It's just a pity I didn't earn the last bit of money, and the employees' overtime was for nothing. But I'll still provide the necessary compensation."
Hearing this, Bella felt a pang of regret, thinking she had let Micah down.
Bella lowered her head in frustration and said, "I really don't know what happened with the contract. I'm just a designer; I shouldn't have taken on this task in the first place. What should we do?"
Micah, also anxious but trying to stay calm, said, "Forget it. We can't recover the Phillips Group's order anyway. Elijah will take over the company soon. I accept it. Just finish the work you have. I don't have the energy to investigate this."
Bella immediately retorted, "No, we have to investigate. Even if Elijah takes over, do you want to leave with the reputation of leaking client information? That wouldn't be good for you or for me. The contract was leaked from my end. If word gets out, what will I do? What will Sterling do? No, we must investigate this."
Micah sighed, "I do want to investigate, but I don't have the energy. Let's just let it go. Losing the Phillips Group's order is a loss, but I didn't plan to take much with me anyway. I just wanted to bring a few trusted people. I know this isn't your fault."
"Don't worry, I don't think you're the one who leaked the contract. Even if you did, given my relationship with Sterling, I'd just have him compensate me, and he wouldn't say anything. So don't worry about it."
Bella knew Micah trusted her, but she couldn't let it go. She had to find out the truth. After discussing a bit more with Micah, she left the office.
She reviewed the events and concluded that someone in the office must have stolen her contract.
But the office had 24-hour surveillance, so how did they do it?
The person who stole the contract must be familiar with the office, so it had to be an insider.
With this in mind, Bella went to the security room to check the surveillance footage.
After reviewing the footage countless times, Bella found that no one had entered or left the office after hours.
Bella was puzzled. Her contract was locked in a drawer, and the lock was intact. The person must have stolen her key and returned it without a trace. Quite a feat.
"Is this all the surveillance footage?" Bella asked the security guard, frowning.
After receiving a positive answer, Bella felt a bit deflated but then heard the guard say, "However, there was a power outage for about 20 minutes last night. Miss Grey, did you lose something important?"
Bella's heart raced. A power outage? Could the contract have been stolen during those 20 minutes?
The more Bella thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. But she didn't tell the guard what was missing, only that it was a personal item.
Back in the office, Bella kept recalling the past few days' events and finally suspected Clara.
Clara had been acting strangely, especially yesterday when she insisted on helping Bella with her work. So Bella's first suspicion was Clara.
The more Bella thought about it, the more she was convinced Clara was involved.
In the afternoon, Bella seized an opportunity to corner Clara in the break room.
Clara seemed impatient. "Bella, it's work hours. Can we talk after work?"
Bella decided to test Clara. She immediately put on a stern face and said, "I know the order didn't go to the Hughes family. You used to help the Hughes family, but I don't understand why you didn't give the order to them this time. But now you're working for Micah, and you've betrayed him. Why?"
Clara's face changed, and she gripped her water cup tightly, her voice trembling. "This is clearly your mistake. You lost the Phillips Group contract. Why are you coming to me? Are you trying to pin this on me? This has nothing to do with me, right?"
Seeing Clara's righteous indignation, Bella suddenly smiled and said, "Clara, I haven't mentioned what the issue is. How do you know it's about the Phillips Group contract?"
She paused, then continued, "And Micah called me to his office; he didn't tell everyone it was about the Phillips Group contract, did he? How do you know? Clara, are you still denying it?"
Realizing she was exposed, Clara didn't panic. She ignored Bella and turned to leave.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
