Nerina fished out a coin and scratched the first ticket. "This one's a dud."

She casually tossed it aside and picked up the second one. "Oh, we won five dollars. We're off to a great start!"

More and more employees gathered around the stage, and their expressions were dark and grim. Five hundred thousand dollars had turned into tens of thousands of useless pieces of paper.

Nerina scraped away until she was dripping with sweat, mumbling incessantly under her breath. "I'm a lucky charm. Come to me, good fortune. The next one is definitely 100 thousand dollars. I can feel it!"

Alistair stood beside her, offering her water and wiping away her sweat. "Take it easy, Nerina. Slow down. We have all the time in the world."

Two hours passed, and the floor was covered in a mountain of debris. There were only a few winning tickets in the cardboard box in front of Nerina. Most of them were for five or ten dollars.

Mr. Wellington rose to his feet once again. His voice was shaky as he said, "Mr. Kingsley, you've already scratched through half of them, and the total winnings don't even add up to three thousand dollars. At this rate, everyone won't even have enough money for a bus ticket home!"

Without looking up, Alistair snorted. "What's the rush? The grand prize is always at the end. Nerina hasn't even gotten serious yet. Stop jinxing it!"

Nerina was getting a little antsy as well. So, she shouted at the livestream camera, "Guys, hurry up and tap the like button for me! Help me gather more luck. I'm a lucky charm with big aspirations. God won't let me down!"

I sat below the stage, leisurely sipping my coffee. In my previous life, she had said the exact same thing. She had claimed she'd dream of winning the jackpot, and that was the reason she'd dared to use our company funds.

Alistair had believed her without a shadow of a doubt. He'd thought it was fate. Now, that fate was being chipped away, one useless ticket at a time.

Just then, a longtime employee snapped and rushed onto the stage to grab the remaining scratch cards. "Refund the rest of them! We can still get some of the money back if we refund them now! This is for my son's medical treatment; you can't just squander it on scratch cards!"

Alistair shoved him away. "Get lost! This is our company's decision; you don't get a say in this! Who are you to question Nerina's luck?"

The longtime employee tumbled to the floor and couldn't get back up. The crowd below grew even more restless, and curses broke out one after another.

Far from being intimidated, Nerina felt aggrieved instead. Tears welled up in her eyes as she demanded, "Why are you all being so mean to me? I'm doing this for your own good! If I hit the jackpot, won't you all be rich? People like you don't understand the value of dreams at all."

Then, she turned to me for help. "Hurry up and say something, Ms. Carlisle. These people are going to hit me!"

I set down my coffee mug and slowly stood up. "Calm down, everyone. Since she claims she's a lucky charm, I'm sure she has her reasons.

"However, it's going to take ages to scratch them one by one, Nerina. Why don't we spice things up? Let's distribute all the remaining tickets to the employees here.

"Whoever scratches a winning ticket keeps the prize. As for the losses, you and Mr. Kingsley can cover them. How does that sound?"

Nerina's eyes lit up as she thought this idea would help take the pressure off her.

Alistair, on the other hand, frowned. "What's the meaning of this, Zoe? Are you attempting to split up Nerina's luck?"

I smiled and waved my hand. "You've got the wrong idea, Mr. Kingsley. I'm helping her share the risk. What if she really doesn't scratch off a grand prize? How are you going to answer our employees? Do you really want everyone to show up at your doorstep on New Year's Eve to demand their unpaid wages?"

Alistair hesitated for a moment and looked at Nerina, who immediately nodded. "Fine, let's do it! I'll bless all of you with my luck. However, just so we're clear, if anyone wins the grand prize, I'm getting a cut!"

The remaining two burlap sacks of scratch cards were distributed to all employees.

Soon, the sharp scrape of coins against tickets echoed through the hall.

Nerina stood on the stage with a smug look on her face. "Hurry up and scratch them! Let's find out who luck is smiling on!"

Yet, gradually, the auditorium fell silent, and the atmosphere grew increasingly heavy.

"I didn't win anything."

"Me neither."

"I won ten dollars, but my year-end bonus was 500 dollars!"

More than three thousand employees were involved, yet the total winnings were less than 20 thousand dollars. 500 thousand dollars had been reduced to 20 thousand dollars. The remaining 480 thousand dollars had gone down the drain.

Looking at the useless tickets all over the floor, Nerina's face became ghastly pale, and her lips quivered. "T-This is impossible. I'm a lucky charm. You must have scratched them the wrong way, or you weren't sincere enough. So, you ruined my luck!"

Right after that, she pointed at the employees below the stage and yelled, "That's right. It must be your fault. You were all badmouthing me earlier, so you drove my luck away!"

The employees completely lost it.

"Nerina, give me back my hard-earned money!"

"Alistair, you dim-witted tyrant. I can't believe you actually let this madwoman pull this stunt!"

Alistair shielded Nerina with his body and yelled at the crowd, "Silence! It's just 500 thousand dollars. We can afford it! Anyone who keeps causing a scene won't have to bother showing up for work next year!"

As soon as his words fell, the crowd grew even more agitated.

"Fine, I'm out! This shithole of a company is going to crash and burn because of you!"

"We're going to report you to the Department of Labor! You misused company funds!"

Nerina shrieked and threw herself into Alistair's arms before breaking down into soft sobs. "I'm so scared, Alistair. They're so frightening. I was just trying to help everyone. Why are they so ungrateful?"

Alistair drew her into his arms and turned around to look at me. "Zoe, why didn't you intervene earlier? Had you stepped in and taken charge of the situation, things wouldn't have turned out this way!"

I sneered, "Mr. Kingsley, you were the one who said Nerina had guts and told me not to be so inflexible. Now that you've lost the money, you finally remember me?"

Gritting his teeth, he lowered his voice and ordered, "I want you to withdraw 500 thousand dollars to plug this hole and calm them down. Nerina's still young; she can't handle this."

I met his gaze and spat out, "My money didn't fall from the sky either. Since she wanted to play this game, she has to face the consequences herself."

After hearing that, Nerina sobbed, "How could you be so heartless, Ms. Carlisle? To secure more benefits for everyone, I scratched those cards until my hands were swollen, and you're actually going to stand there and do nothing?

"I knew it. You're just jealous of me. You're jealous that Alistair treats me well!"

Pointing at my nose, Alistair yelled, "I'm ordering you to transfer the money right now, Zoe! If you don't, I'm calling off our engagement!"

I took in his contorted face and found it laughable. In my previous life, I'd paid the ultimate price to preserve our engagement, all for that ridiculous sense of responsibility. Now, I just couldn't wait for him to get out of my life.

"You want to call off our engagement? That's fine by me." I pulled out my phone and called the cops and labor officials. "Hello, I'd like to make a report. Someone has used a significant amount of company funds to gamble. The amount involved is 500 thousand dollars."

Nerina and Alistair were both dumbfounded.

"Have you lost your mind, Zoe? You actually called the cops?" Alistair rushed over to snatch my phone.

I took a step back, and my bodyguards immediately stopped him. "Mr. Kingsley, Nerina depleted all our employees' year-end bonuses. This isn't a family matter; this is a criminal offense!"

Nerina sank to the ground. Her eyes were wide with fear as she looked at me. "No… I'm not a criminal. I'm a lucky charm. I just wanted to help everyone strike it rich…"

I looked down at Nerina, a smirk playing on my lips. "Nerina, since you're such a lucky charm, let's see if God will grant you a miracle in prison."

Before long, the cops arrived.

When Nerina was dragged away, she kept struggling and shrieking, "Save me, Alistair! I don't want to go to jail! Zoe Carlisle, you fucking bitch, you'll die a horrible death!"

Alistair tried to stop them, but the cops gave him a stern warning. "Mr. Kingsley, please cooperate with the investigation. If you were involved in the decision-making, you'll also be held legally responsible."

The blood drained from his face as he could do nothing but watch Nerina being shoved into the police car.

The employees in the hall didn't get their money back, but they cheered as they watched Nerina being hauled away.

Alistair turned around and glared at me. "Are you happy now, Zoe? Nerina is such an innocent young lady, yet you just had to send her to prison! Do you have any idea what a criminal record will do to her? It'll ruin her whole life!"

I straightened my collar and responded calmly, "I'm not the one who ruined her. Her greed did, and so did your indulgence. This is just the beginning, Alistair. Do you really think you can walk away unscathed as the legal representative of the company?"

He snorted. "It's just 500 thousand dollars. I'll pay it back tomorrow! I'm going to bail Nerina out, and I'm going to show you that your little tricks are completely useless!"

I smiled and remained silent. Did he really think this was just about 500 thousand? To buy all those scratch-off tickets, Nerina had dipped into the reserve funds of several different departments.

Furthermore, to show off during her livestreams, she'd even forged my signature. I had already gathered all the evidence for these crimes.

…

Early the following morning, Alistair arrived at the police station with the money to bail Nerina out, only to be informed that she was ineligible for bail due to her involvement in multiple counts of fraud and the forgery of official documents. He caused a scene at the police station entrance and was eventually detained for disrupting public order.

I took this opportunity to call an emergency shareholders' meeting. "Fellow shareholders, as CEO, Alistair has indulged his subordinate's embezzlement of company funds, causing serious damage to the company's image. I propose we strip him of all duties and hold him legally responsible."

The shareholders, who had long been dissatisfied with Alistair, cast their votes in favor of the motion one after another.

When I delivered the dismissal notice to the detention center, Alistair looked utterly defeated. He stared at me through the iron bars and asked hoarsely, "Do you really have to go this far, Zoe? Does our relationship of so many years mean less than 500 thousand dollars?"

Meeting his gaze, I didn't feel a single thing. "When you killed me, why didn't you ever think about our relationship?"

He froze. "What are you on about? When did I ever kill you?"

Realizing I had slipped up, I sneered, "What you're doing now is no different from killing me, Alistair. Now, you can reflect on that properly while you're in there. After all, your little lucky charm is still waiting for you!"

I spun around and left. Behind me, he bellowed, "Zoe Carlisle! Don't get ahead of yourself! Nerina's a lucky charm; her luck will definitely turn around! When we get out, I'll make sure you lose everything!"

I stopped in my tracks and spared him another glance. "Sure, I'll be waiting. But before that, you might want to explain why another five million dollars is missing from the company accounts."

His expression froze, and his pupils contracted. He lunged forward and gripped the iron bars, demanding, "What the fuck are you talking about? Don't you dare frame me, Zoe Carlisle!"

I waved the USB drive in my hand. "Nerina didn't just buy scratch cards; she also opened an overseas gambling account under your name. Why don't you guess where those five million dollars are now, Alistair?"