The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 163

Lavinia had just sat down at her desk and opened her laptop when the office suddenly went completely silent.

A man and a woman, both dressed in sharp black suits, strode into the Industry Research Department and walked straight up to Lavinia's workstation. The man abruptly snapped her laptop shut and took it, while the woman looked at her with a stern expression.

"Junior Analyst Lavinia Joplin. We're from the company's Audit Department. Someone has reported you for violating conflict of interest rules and improperly voicing opinions regarding the investment in Joplin Adhesives Corp. Please come with us."

Lavinia froze. Before she could even process the situation, the female employee reached out to grab her arm.

Lavinia smoothly sidestepped the hand, her expression entirely composed. "I can walk myself."

The Audit Department operated independently from all other business divisions, reporting directly to the owner or the board of directors. Their job was to investigate loopholes and misconduct. If they found a problem, they could bypass management entirely and report straight to the decision-makers.

As they arrived at the Audit Department, Lavinia happened to see Jocelyn stepping out of an interrogation room, an audit staffer following closely behind her.

The woman beside Lavinia quickly warned, "No talking between the two of you. Come with me."

Lavinia and Jocelyn passed each other, exchanging a brief, knowing glance.

Clearly, they had both been hauled in by Audit over the Joplin Adhesives investment.

Lavinia took a seat in the interrogation room. Her interrogators were the exact same man and woman who had escorted her. They immediately came at her aggressively, accusing her of abusing her position to improperly influence the valuation report for Joplin Adhesives. They claimed colleagues had testified against her, and that Ms. Chandler had already confessed.

Lavinia's expression remained perfectly neutral.

Passing Jocelyn in the hallway earlier had most likely been a deliberate psychological tactic by the auditors. They wanted her to panic and assume Jocelyn had thrown her under the bus.

"I didn't violate any rules, nor did I improperly voice any opinions. If someone is testifying against me, please have them produce substantive evidence. Do you have audio? Video?" Lavinia challenged.

"You still want to lie? We have audio recordings. You were in Ms. Chandler's office speaking up for Joplin Adhesives, urging her to alter the valuation report. We have proof in black and white."

"Oh, really? Then please pull up the valuation report and point out exactly which line I forced the director to change?" Lavinia offered a polite, unwavering smile.

No, it wasn't betrayal. It was a complete frame-up.

Ethan, the head of the tech group, lowered his voice and whispered to Lavinia, "Those two idiots. Last night, Sigrid had an intern from the Quantitative Research Department take them out to dinner and deliberately fed them leading questions.

Those morons actually babbled that you were putting in a good word for Joplin Adhesives, and that the director took your advice and embellished the valuation report."

Another team lead strolled over, lowering his voice as well. "The one thing you can't survive in the corporate world is being a backstabber. Wherever those two go from now on, their careers are dead in the water."

"They're just too young. They got played and didn't even realize it." Ethan sighed. "Sigrid is ruthless. I can't believe she actually had her intern secretly record the conversation."

Lavinia was surprised. She had only just walked out of the Audit Department, yet everyone already knew exactly how the whole situation had played out behind the scenes.

It seemed there really were no secrets in the corporate world. If you didn't want anyone to know, your only option was not to do it at all.

Seeing Lavinia staring blankly, Ethan nudged her with his elbow. "Do you know why this got cleared up so quickly?"