CHAPTER 54: CHAPTER 54: CLARA, YOU’RE IN TROUBLE

Clara has been taking leave from work lately to stay in the hospital with Yvonne. When she gets back, she still needs to carve out time to work on her graduation thesis.

Fortunately, Yvonne’s surgery was successful, and the doctor has said she can be discharged in two weeks.

Isaac doesn’t know where Clara lives, and his phone calls have been blocked.

Lately, Clara hasn’t been bothered by him, and she’s enjoyed some rare, peaceful days.

Clara has finished the draft of her thesis and sent it to her advisor for guidance.

Her advisor provided some suggestions, which Clara noted down, planning to revise them slowly.

This morning, the IT department was bustling with activity.

As Clara walked in, she noticed many eyes staring at her.

People were whispering about something.

Clara sharply sensed that she might be in some sort of trouble.

Indeed, as soon as she sat down at her desk, Lisa came over and whispered, "Clara, you’re in trouble, because the other day..."

Before Lisa could finish, Julian walked over.

He lightly knocked on Clara’s desk, "Come to my office."

Clara stood up and followed Julian into the office.

"Open this and take a look." Julian tossed her a document.

Clara picked up the document and opened it to flip through a few pages, suddenly frozen.

"How could this happen..." She couldn’t believe it, so she looked at it twice more.

"How could you make such a basic mistake?" Julian, who is usually gentle, now had eyes chilled with a thin layer of frost.

Clara’s face turned pale, "President Hawthorne, I thoroughly checked the contract three times before submitting it, there’s no way there’s an issue."

"But the fact is the contract has an issue, this is a mistake in your work." Julian emphasized his words, "A serious mistake."

Clara’s expression turned serious, "President Hawthorne, there must be some misunderstanding here. Give me some time, I will definitely get to the bottom of this."

"This was an urgent contract, and we signed it quickly. I trusted you, so I didn’t check again. Now the contract is signed, and if executed per the contract, our company will not only make no money but also lose five million."

Julian knocked on the table, his gaze sharply fixed on Clara Sterling, "How will you compensate for this five million?"

"I..." Clara lowered her gaze, "President Hawthorne, may I review the surveillance footage from the last couple of days?"

Julian replied coldly, "I’ve already reviewed the footage; there’s nothing unusual found."

Clara frowned, looking at the contract in her hands, "Can I take the contract to investigate?"

"How will you investigate?"

Clara flipped to the problematic page and pointed at the altered section.

"I clearly remember it was six point five percent, now it’s sixty-five percent, but there’s no trace of an amendment, which means the entire page must have been replaced."

Julian leaned back in his office chair, "Go on."

"If someone edited the document on the company’s computer and printed it using the company’s printer, it’s easily traceable."

"But if someone prepared this page outside the company and then snuck it in to replace it, it won’t be easy to trace."

Julian: "What’s your solution?"

"If someone intentionally sabotaged me by swapping the contract, they must have touched this page and the contract envelope, I can do fingerprint analysis."

Julian raised his eyebrows.

Clara continued, "The company has everyone’s fingerprints recorded. If I commission a testing agency to analyze the fingerprints on this document and narrow it down one by one, I’ll find out who tampered with the contract."

"That’s a good approach." Julian nodded, a hint of appreciation in his gaze, "Looking at your confidence, it seems like it wasn’t your mistake."

Clara shook her head, "No, failing to safeguard the contract and allowing someone to tamper with it is also my mistake."

Julian hadn’t expected her to say this, showing a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"President Hawthorne, although you’ve already viewed the footage, I still need to review it again, meticulously check everything."

Julian stood up, "Alright, I’ll take you to the surveillance room."

"Okay."

Clara followed Julian out of the office.

Outside in the office area, colleagues stared at her inquisitively.

Clara first followed Julian to the surveillance room to check the footage.

She reviewed the footage of her workspace from the days she was on leave, repeatedly, no less than five times.

Finally, she excitedly grabbed Julian’s shirt sleeve, "President Hawthorne, something’s off here!"

Julian paused for a moment but didn’t pull his hand away; he bent down, leaning in, "Where?"

Clara pointed at the screen, "Look here..."

...

Returning to Prospect Hill Villa after work, Clara couldn’t stop thinking about the contract issue from today.

She was absent-minded even during dinner.

The surveillance had been tampered with.

She already pointed it out to Julian today, and Julian hired technicians to fix the surveillance.

The results won’t be known until tomorrow.

As for the document, Clara also commissioned a testing agency for fingerprint analysis.

However, the agency is busy, and her document needs to wait in line.

The agency informed Clara that the earliest results would be out by Wednesday next week.

Clara was weighed down with worries, her mood sinking like cotton soaked in water.

Silas reached out to stroke her face, "Why do you look so pale, something on your mind?"

Clara came back to her senses, "Yeah, some issues at work today."

"What issues?"

Clara didn’t hide, she shared the whole story with Silas.

Silas asked, "Do you suspect anyone?"

Clara nodded, and in her mind, Jonah’s annoying face immediately surfaced.

Since joining the company, only Jonah has had conflicts with her.

"Who?"

"Hmm?" Clara looked at Silas, "What are you going to do?"

Silas replied coldly, "Fire him."

"You can’t just fire him like that."

Clara said, "According to labor laws, the company must compensate if an employee is fired without cause. If it turns out he intentionally sabotaged me, then we’ll have a reason to fire him, but first we need to uncover the truth."

"Good point." Silas patted Clara’s head, "Clara’s clever, keeping a well-run household, and even saves money for her husband."

The word "husband" made Clara blush.

She hadn’t called Silas husband before.

It was also Silas’s first time referring to himself as a husband.

Even though they were married, she was too shy to call him husband.

"Let’s eat first." Silas served Clara some of her favorite salt and pepper shrimp, "What’s the name of the agency you commissioned?"

Clara told him the name of the agency.

Silas immediately made a phone call, saying a few simple words.

After hanging up, Silas said calmly, "The results will be out tomorrow."

"That fast?" Clara was surprised, "They said I’d have to wait in line when I went there, and the earliest results would be next Wednesday."

Silas’s eyes were filled with a smile, "You can cut in line by paying extra."

Clara murmured, "Money really can make the world go round."

Silas pinched her cheek, "Can you eat obediently now? Hmm?"

Clara smiled, her beautiful eyes curved like crescents, "Thank you, President Sheffield, for helping me cut in line."

"A verbal thank you?"

Clara wiped her mouth with a napkin, then leaned in to plant a gentle kiss on Silas’s cheek.

"Mr. Sheffield, this is my token of thanks."