"He wanted to test everyone."

Samuel answered quietly.

"Yes."

"Then he already decided we were guilty before giving us a chance."

"No," Samuel said. "I gave everyone a chance to show me who they were."

Richard shook his head.

"You've been running this company from a distance. You don't know what it's like anymore."

Samuel leaned forward.

"Maybe you're right."

Richard looked surprised.

Samuel continued.

"Maybe I forgot what it feels like to stand on the showroom floor."

He paused.

"But that doesn't excuse what you did."

Richard's eyes dropped.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then Samuel said,

"You're suspended pending a full investigation."

Richard stood abruptly.

"You can't do this."

"I can."

Richard looked at Ethan.

"You think you're going to replace me?"

Ethan said nothing.

Richard walked toward the door.

Before leaving, he stopped.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into."

The door closed.

Ethan looked at Samuel.

"What did he mean?"

Samuel didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he opened another file.

Inside were financial records.

"Richard wasn't acting alone."

Ethan's eyes widened.

"Who else?"

Samuel pushed the file toward him.

"We don't know yet."

Ethan looked at the names.

Several senior employees appeared on the list.

One was from finance.

Another from regional management.

Another from corporate operations.

The problem was no longer limited to one dealership.

It reached higher.

Much higher.

Then Samuel pointed to the final page.

"There's something else."

Ethan looked down.

At the bottom of the report was a transaction history.

Large sums of money had been transferred through several internal accounts.

The payments had been disguised as marketing expenses.

Ethan stared.

"What's that?"

"We believe someone has been paying managers to manipulate customer leads."

"For what reason?"

Samuel's expression became grim.

"To steer customers toward certain financing packages and partner dealerships."

Ethan slowly understood.

It wasn't only about rude behavior.

It was about money.

A hidden network inside the company had been deciding which customers deserved attention, which vehicles they should be shown, and which financing deals they should receive.

Samuel closed the folder.

"This is bigger than Harrison & Cole."

Ethan looked at him.

"What do we do?"

Samuel stood.

"We find out how far it goes."

Outside the conference room, the dealership continued operating as normal.

Customers walked through the doors.

Salespeople smiled.

Cars gleamed beneath the lights.

Nobody on the showroom floor knew that the company was standing on the edge of a crisis.

And Ethan had no idea that the next name they would uncover would be someone he trusted more than anyone else.

Someone who had been beside him from the beginning.

Chapter 7

The following morning, Harrison & Cole opened exactly as it always did.

The doors unlocked at eight.

The lights came on.

The polished vehicles stood beneath the ceiling lamps.

Customers arrived with questions, appointments, and expectations.

From the outside, nothing had changed.

Inside, everything was different.

Richard Mason was gone.

His office had been sealed.

Victoria had instructed employees not to discuss the investigation.

But people talked anyway.

Whispers moved through the showroom.

Some believed Richard had stolen money.

Others believed he had simply manipulated customer leads.

A few employees quietly defended him.

Ethan stayed away from the rumors.

He had learned that morning that suspicion could be as dangerous as certainty.

At nine thirty, Samuel called him upstairs.

Ethan entered the conference room and found Victoria, Samuel, and Helen Brooks waiting.

There was another person there.

Ethan had never seen her before.

She was in her early fifties, dressed in a dark blue suit, with short silver hair and a serious expression.

Samuel introduced her.

"This is Eleanor Grant."

Ethan nodded.

"Nice to meet you."

Eleanor didn't smile.

"I'm leading the internal audit."

Ethan took a seat.

Eleanor opened a thick folder.

"We have reviewed the financial transfers you discovered."

"And?"

"Someone created a secondary payment structure inside the company."

Ethan frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"Certain dealerships were receiving incentives for directing customers toward specific financing products."

Ethan leaned forward.

"Who was paying them?"

"We're still tracing the source."

Samuel interrupted.

"But we've identified something important."

Eleanor placed a document on the table.

"The payments weren't random."

Ethan studied the page.

"They were connected to customer profiles."

Eleanor nodded.

"Customers considered financially vulnerable were often steered toward high-margin financing packages."

Ethan felt his stomach tighten.

"So people were being targeted."

"Yes."

"And managers received bonuses for it?"

"Some did."

Ethan thought about the woman whose father had been humiliated.

He remembered how easily someone could walk into a showroom believing the salesperson was helping them.

Now he understood that, behind the scenes, someone might already have decided what kind of deal they were going to receive.

"How many dealerships?"

Eleanor looked at Samuel.

"Twenty-three."

Ethan stared at her.

"Twenty-three?"

"At least."

Silence followed.

Samuel looked toward the window.

"This isn't a single bad manager."

Ethan asked,

"Then who is behind it?"

Eleanor closed the folder.

"We have a name."

She slid a photograph across the table.

Ethan looked down.

His heart stopped.

It was Charles Reed.

One of the board members who had sat beside Samuel two days earlier.

Ethan looked up.

"Charles?"

Samuel nodded.

"His name appears in several payment records."

"But he was in the meeting."

"Yes."

"Then why would he—?"

"Because he knew we were looking."

Ethan felt a chill.

Samuel had suspected something.

Charles had known Richard was under investigation.

Yet he had sat calmly in the conference room.

Eleanor continued.

"We don't have enough evidence to accuse him publicly."

"What about the transfers?"

"Indirect."

"The account?"

"Hidden behind two intermediary companies."

Ethan stared at the photograph.

"What do we do now?"

Samuel answered.

"We wait."

Ethan frowned.

"Wait?"

"If Charles knows we're investigating him, he'll destroy evidence."

Eleanor nodded.

"We need him to believe we're still searching."

Samuel looked at Ethan.

"And that's where you come in."

Ethan pointed at himself.

"Me?"

"Charles doesn't know what you found."

Ethan understood.

They wanted him to continue working normally.

To observe.

To listen.

To see who contacted whom.

It made him uncomfortable.

"I'm not an investigator."

"No," Samuel said.

"You're a salesperson."

Ethan waited.

"That makes you useful."

For the next several days, Ethan returned to the showroom.

He behaved normally.

He greeted customers.

He handled appointments.

He answered questions.

But he also watched.

He noticed things he had never noticed before.

Employees disappearing into private offices.

Managers receiving calls and immediately lowering their voices.

Customer files being moved between departments.

One afternoon, Ethan saw a finance officer named Martin Blake carrying a folder into Charles Reed's office.

Martin noticed him.

Their eyes met.

Martin quickly closed the door.

Ethan kept walking.

That evening, Victoria asked whether he had noticed anything unusual.

"Martin."