“Did you receive the white watch I chose for your birthday?”
A pause.
“What white watch?”
Shiaoza turned away.
Something inside me broke cleanly.
When I ended the call, he said, “I can explain.”
“Then explain.”
“Jang has been under enormous pressure. I gave it to her as a bonus.”
“A sixty-thousand-dollar bonus?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what was it like?”
He stared at me.
“I have never slept with her.”
That should have comforted me.
It didn’t.
Because I had never asked.
By noon, the audit team found the first irregularity.
The executive elevator policy did not exist.
Jang had invented it eighteen months earlier and instructed security to enforce it verbally, leaving no paper trail.
The financial records were worse.
Nine consulting vendors had received $18.4 million over four years.
All nine had been approved by the president’s office.
Four were tied to addresses associated with Jang.
At twelve-thirty, she appeared in my office.
Without an audience, she seemed younger. Still proud, but afraid.
“You’re investigating me.”
“I’m investigating the company.”
“You’re punishing me because of this morning.”
“If that were true, HR would already have your termination papers.”
I slid the vendor report toward her.
“Do you own Meridian Strategy?”
“No.”
“North Axis?”
“No.”
“Then why are they registered to addresses connected to you?”
Her face lost color.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“I said I don’t know.”
This fear was different.
Not fear of losing her job.
It was the fear of realizing the ground beneath you had disappeared.
She whispered, “He told me those were reimbursement entities.”
“Who?”
She glanced toward the door.
“President Shiao.”
My husband.
Then she said, “You think I’m his mistress.”
I said nothing.
“I’m not.”
“The watch says otherwise.”
Her face twisted.
“You really don’t know.”
“Know what?”
She opened her mouth.
The office door swung open.
Shiaoza walked in.
“Jang. Don’t.”
She froze.
I looked between them.
“What exactly am I not supposed to know?”
Neither answered.
So I called security.
Shiaoza laughed. “You’re having me removed from my own office?”
“My office. The board was clear.”
His expression hardened.
The husband vanished.
