2: 2

Less than five minutes later, the elevator doors slid open.

Emma Lambert, the lobby manager, came hurrying down the hall with a female doctor carrying an emergency kit, two security guards trailing behind them with a stretcher.

Watching her plan fall apart, Marina rushed forward and threw herself in front of Room 302.

"Wait! You can't go in!" She flung both arms wide, blocking the doctor.

Manager Lambert's face went blank with confusion.

"Miss, didn't you say someone was bleeding badly? Let the doctor through, quickly!"

"The doctor doesn't know emergency care!" Marina gritted out, jabbing a finger at the woman.

"Jill Lambert isn't just bleeding. When I went in to check on her just now, her neck had gone stiff. She must have broken it in the fall!"

She whipped her head around and shouted at me.

"Mr. Delgado, I heard you earned an advanced international first-aid certification overseas! If someone who doesn't know what they're doing moves her, she could end up paralyzed from the neck down, or dead!"

Alma chimed in right behind her.

"Yes, yes! Mr. Delgado, this is one of your own employees. Can you really stand there and let her spend the rest of her life bedridden? You have to go in and direct this yourself!"

To force me into that room, they were willing to invent something as outrageous as a broken neck.

Hearing "broken cervical spine," the doctor hesitated too, and turned to look at Manager Lambert.

Manager Lambert spoke up, clearly uncomfortable.

"Mr. Delgado... maybe, since you know what you're doing, you could go in and lend a hand?"

I ignored her and walked over to the single armchair by the window and sat down.

"They say something and you just believe it?" I crossed my legs and looked at all of them.

"If it really is a broken neck, then moving her is the last thing anyone should do. Call 911, get the emergency center on the line, and have a proper orthopedic paramedic come out."

"I'll sit right here and wait."

"Tonight, no one gets me to step one foot through that door except a doctor or the police."

Seeing how firm I was, Manager Lambert didn't dare push it and quickly pulled out her phone to dial 911.

Marina panicked outright, cold sweat beading on her forehead.

If 911 actually showed up, not only would the plan be finished, the false alarm would be exposed for certain.

Watching the standoff, Lucas turned and walked over to the vending machine and bought a bottle of water.

With his back to the crowd, he twisted off the cap, his fingers moving just slightly, then put on a peacemaker's smile and came toward me.

"Come on, Saul, don't get so worked up. The staff don't know any better. Don't take it to heart."

He held the water out in front of me.

"Here, drink something, cool off. Leave the rest to me."

The comments blew up all at once.

【Heads up! Don't take it! Don't take it!】

【The old fox spiked the water! It's a high-concentration, powerful hallucinogen!】

【One sip and you'll lose your grip on reality. He'll use it as an excuse to help you back to your room and shove you straight into 302!】

If it weren't for these comments, given how much I trusted Lucas, I'd have drunk it without a second thought.

I looked up at him. His face was all sincerity, but there was something urgent hiding in his eyes.

I reached out and slowly closed my hand around the bottle. The corner of Lucas's mouth twitched up before he could stop it.

The instant he was about to let go, I let my fingers slip on purpose.

The bottle hit the floor and splashed up Lucas's pant leg, soaking his leather shoes through.

"Oh, sorry about that." I pulled out a tissue and wiped my hand.

"Slipped right out of my grip. Lucas, when did your hands get so soft? Can't even hold on to a bottle of water."

The smile on Lucas's face couldn't hold. The corner of his eye twitched twice.

"It's fine..." He forced out the two words.

【He's rattled! The drugging failed and Lucas just signaled Marina!】

【Marina's going to try the rough way now! She's going to throw herself at you and rip your clothes to fake an assault!】

Almost the instant the comments flashed past, Marina shoved Alma away from the door and came charging out, hair wild and loose.

"Boss, I'm begging you!" she screamed, hurling herself straight at me.

Using the momentum of the lunge, her hands went right for the collar of my shirt, trying to tear the buttons clean off.

I'd been ready for it. I planted both feet and shoved off hard, sliding half a meter to the left, chair and all.

Marina caught nothing but air. Unable to stop herself, she slammed full force into the hard baseboard of the hallway wall.

3: 3

Marina let out a shriek as her forehead cracked hard against the corner of the wall, swelling into a lump. She curled up on the carpet, writhing in pain.

The commotion in the hallway had woken the whole floor.

Doors opened one after another, dozens of employees poking their heads out to watch.

Seeing the corridor packed with people, Marina decided she had nothing left to lose.

She jerked upright, grabbed the collar of her thin silk pajamas with both hands, and tore it wide open.

A broad expanse of pale skin was suddenly bare, and she hunched into the corner, hugging her shoulders as she wailed.

"Help! Somebody help me!!"

"Boss, I only begged you to help Jill, so why would you take advantage of me like this! Why would you make that disgusting demand to me!!"

The whole scene went dead silent.

Every set of eyes turned toward me at once, full of shock and suspicion.

Alma rushed out, threw a coat over Marina, and pointed at me, screaming.

"Saul Delgado! You animal in a suit! I heard everything!"

"Just now, out by the door, you threatened her! You said if she took care of you tonight you'd promote her to department manager, and if she dared refuse, you'd make sure she couldn't survive in this company!"

"Marina wouldn't give in no matter what, so you tried to force yourself on her, and even ripped her clothes! Are you even human!"

She was shouting and snapping photos with her phone like a madwoman.

The crowd erupted in murmurs.

"God, is this really the kind of man Mr. Delgado is?"

"No wonder he wouldn't let anyone into the room in the middle of the night. He had his eye on that girl."

"He always acts so upstanding, and behind it all he's this filthy? It's sickening!"

Seeing the moment was ripe, Lucas stepped forward and claimed the moral high ground.

"Saul, you've disappointed me deeply!" He pointed at me, the picture of anguish. "How could you do something like this to a new intern!"

"Every one of us has a family to feed, and we came to work for you. You pull a scandal like this, and if it gets out, our stock price will drop straight through the floor. Is this how you repay the brothers who built this company with you!"

Charles chimed in, fanning the flames.

"Mr. Delgado, there's really no walking this back. Marina is the victim here. She has to be given her due. We can't just let her suffer for nothing!"

The comments scrolled past my eyes at high speed.

【Look at Lucas's micro-expression, the corner of his mouth is about to split all the way back to his ears!】

【The whole company's already caught up in their narrative. Once this dirty water lands on you, you'll never wash it off.】

【The corporate coup is coming! Here's the main event!】

I leaned back in the chair and watched them perform.

"Her due?" I looked mockingly at Lucas's face. "And what exactly does Vice President Chavez think I owe her?"

Lucas heaved a long sigh, came over to my side, and lowered his voice.

"Saul, calling the police would be devastating for the company, and it'd ruin you too. To protect the company, we can only settle this quietly."

"You give Marina some compensation for emotional damages. And..." He drew a document out of his briefcase and handed it to me. "A young girl who's suffered a wrong this big needs a guarantee. You transfer your fifteen percent stake to her for free, and she promises tonight stays buried forever."

I glanced down at the document.

Voluntary Share Transfer Agreement. Even my name and ID number were printed on it in advance.

"Well prepared." I twisted my mouth into a smile. "Out in the middle of the night to watch the show, and you just happened to bring a share transfer agreement along."

Lucas's face froze, then hardened again. "I'm doing this to protect your dignity! Just sign it, before things blow up beyond saving!"

"And if I don't sign?" I asked.

Lucas peeled off the mask of the good Samaritan, leaned in close to my ear, and said in a low, sinister voice:

"I've already notified the local police. The patrol car will be here any minute."

"The second you're behind bars, the video shot in Marina's room and Alma's recording from the hallway will be all over the trending topics by morning."

"Think hard about how your wife and kids are going to hold their heads up out there after that!"

4: 4

The elevator doors opened again. Several uniformed officers came down the hall.

"Who called this in?" the lead officer asked, his voice low.

Lucas stepped forward at once.

"Officer, we did!"

Marina, clutching her clothes to her chest, stumbled toward them, sobbing.

"Officer, you have to help me! It's our boss. He came in the middle of the night trying to force himself on me, and when I flatly refused, he tore at my clothes right out here in the hallway! Everyone here can vouch for it!"

The officer glanced at Marina's disheveled state, then turned to me on the sofa.

"Is what she's saying true?"

"No, it isn't," I answered calmly.

"He's still trying to talk his way out of it!" Alma jumped in. "I recorded it on my phone. You can hear every word of him threatening her at the door!"

Lucas straightened his back and added,

"Officer, dozens of us employees saw him grabbing at Marina. Scum like this, we won't let it slide. Please, arrest him right now!"

The employees around them, worked up, took up the shout to arrest the scumbag and punish the boss.

The officer pulled out a pair of handcuffs and walked toward me.

"Since there are witnesses identifying you, I'll have to ask you to come down to the station with us."

Off to the side, the corner of Lucas's mouth curled into a smug, cold smile. He tossed the agreement and the pen into my lap and dropped his voice to a threat.

"Saul, last chance. Ten seconds. Sign it, and you'll get out sooner. Don't, and I'll make sure there's nothing left of you to bury."

The comments flashed wildly.

【Damn! This is killing me! Fight back already!】

【Male lead, pull out the evidence and smack these idiots in the face!】

I didn't look at the agreement in my lap, and I paid no attention to the officer coming closer.

I stood up, my gaze moving over Marina's face, then Lucas's.

"Marina, you're accusing me of trying to assault you." I looked her straight in the eye. "What actual evidence do you have?"

Marina lifted her chin without a trace of fear.

"The end of the hallway happens to be a blind spot for the cameras. You thought there'd be no proof, didn't you? Well, let me tell you, to guard against thieves I put pinhole cameras in the peephole and on the shoe cabinet by the door!"

"And the camera caught exactly the moment you closed in on me and put your hands on me! Once we're at the station, that's the ironclad proof that sends you to prison!"

"Is that so?" I let out a cold laugh.

I drew the mini remote control from my suit pocket and pressed the red button.

The LCD screen on the hallway wall, which had been playing a promotional video, flickered and switched to a crisp, multi-angle split-screen of surveillance footage.

I pointed at the screen and said, loud enough for everyone,

"Sorry. I have this habit. I take my personal security extremely seriously."

"So the moment I checked into this hotel, my bodyguards had already installed 360-degree miniature infrared night-vision cameras in every corner of this hallway. No blind spots."

I watched the color drain from Lucas's face and went on.

"Not only that. From the second you knocked on that door…"

"I used my backend access to feed this screen's live footage into our company's internal group chat, two thousand people, streaming it full-screen."

I walked to the screen and pressed play.

"Come on. Let's have all two thousand of our employees, and the officers here, watch together."

"And see exactly who set this trap."