One Man Band System

Paul suddenly bolted upright and glared at Eric, his face flushed so dark with rage it looked like he was about to explode.

"I demand a re-audit! This is fraudulent! Someone is clearly trying to frame my brother and me! Whenever a corporate audit takes place, the two of us must be notified beforehand!" Paul shouted, pointing a finger directly at Eric.

The entire room fell into an instant hush, every eye turning to watch Paul as he stood there, staring at Eric with a fury so intense it was as if Eric had insulted his ancestors. But Eric remained perfectly calm, a slight smile on his face. He simply turned to look at Bryan.

"Please proceed, Mr. Bryan," Eric said smoothly, completely ignoring Paul’s outburst.

Without missing a beat, Bryan began calculating the grand total of the balance sheet discrepancies based on the evidence, revealing a deficit that amounted to nearly three million dollars.

Following that, Bryan explained that there were several wire transfers made to offshore companies that had no active partnership agreements, despite being logged into the database. Once the financial segment was wrapped up, Bryan moved to the next phase.

"The floor is yours, directors of IT and Legal," Bryan announced.

"Thank you, sir," the two male directors replied, standing up.

They immediately handed out a second bundle of files to everyone in the room, including Eric, Bryan, and Katie. This second set of data detailed unauthorized name changes on project files, the deletion of several blueprints, and the swapping of suppliers to cut costs without approval, along with various other infractions.

But the most damning part was that all of these modifications had been executed using administrator credentials, an access level restricted solely to the IT director and the head of the IT department.

"The individual who hijacked admin access was our head of IT, Mr. Harry. Based on the forensic analysis of his personal laptop, smartphone, and private email inbox, he was acting directly under orders from Mr. Paul. The email evidence can be found on page two, and the chat history log is displayed on page three," the IT director explained.

"Hmm... looking at this, the housing development project in the east was managed and proposed by your nephew in the sales department, Mr. Paul. But from what I understand... Mr. Victor was supposed to be the one handling this project. I know this because I was the one who submitted the project proposal, and the client specifically requested Mr. Victor to oversee it. The client hasn’t complained yet, but they definitely will the moment they find out someone else is running their project. Perhaps you could explain the meaning behind this change, Mr. Paul?" a board member who looked to be in his mid-fifties noted, staring directly at Paul.

"That is absolutely correct, sir. In the official contract signed by both companies, Mr. Victor’s name is explicitly listed, and he signed it alongside the legal team and our CEO. We hold the physical copy of the contract, and we will have a lot of explaining to do if a complaint comes from the client’s side. Right now, Mr. Harry is undergoing a deeper investigation, and he has been suspended in the meantime," the legal director added.

"Hold on a second. If I’m not mistaken, Harry is your wife’s brother, isn’t he, Mr. Paul?" the elderly board member asked, locking his eyes on Paul.

"That is correct, sir. He was hired through special accommodations and bypassed our standard screening process," the HR director stated, standing up.

They then moved on to discuss the remaining anomalies. Every single piece of evidence pointed squarely at either Paul or Mason, yet no one in the room had to openly accuse them, the paperwork was already doing all the talking.

Meanwhile, Eric, Bryan, and Katie sat back with smiles on their faces, thoroughly enjoying the show as the directors laid everything out for the three other board members, leaving Paul and Mason completely powerless to stop it.

After asking Paul and Mason for clarification multiple times, only to receive completely unsatisfying answers, or witness them panicking and hitting back with nonsensical arguments, the remaining directors and board members finally took matters into their own hands.

They collectively voted to subject both Paul and Mason to a comprehensive, top-to-bottom investigation and to suspend them from the board in the meantime. Furthermore, Mason, who also served as the director of marketing, would face a thorough investigation reaching all the way down through his entire department.

Finally, they turned the floor over to Bryan and Eric, asking for their approval. But Eric stood up, looked over at Katie, and gave her a nod. Then, he turned to face everyone in the meeting.

"Before we give our approval to suspend Mr. Paul and Mr. Mason, let’s take a look at what else they’ve done to damage this company. Ms. Katie, the floor is yours," Eric declared, glancing over at Paul and Mason, who were staring back at him with pure hatred.

Katie stood up and introduced herself. She tapped a key on her laptop, and the projector displayed surveillance footage of the car crash Melissa had been in. That was immediately followed by the chat logs between Paul and Blake, along with wire transaction records showing transfers from Paul’s personal account to Blake, funds that were easily traced back to the company’s finances.

With that, Eric stood up next to Katie, and the two of them turned their gaze directly onto Paul and Mason. The entire room fell dead silent, everyone frozen in utter shock. Paul’s calm facade instantly shattered into pure panic, while Mason whipped his head around to look at his brother, his face draining of all color. Paul glared from Katie, to Eric, and finally to Bryan.

"What is the meaning of this?! I don’t know anything about this!" Paul stammered.

"Oh? Still denying it even with the receipts right in front of you?" Eric asked with a smirk.

"This is taken completely out of context! It’s all a coincidence! I actually had legitimate business with Blake!" Paul shot back, still scrambling for an excuse.

"Alright then," Eric said smoothly. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He gave Katie a look, and she immediately pulled up the rest of the files: the murder from twelve years ago, the murder Mason committed behind bars, the cover-ups of their sons’ crimes, and the bribery of witnesses and police officers, all funded through personal accounts using money funneled straight from the company’s bank accounts.

The expressions on the directors’ faces went from initial shock to sheer terror, finally twisting into disgust, anger, and darkness as they glared at Paul and Mason. The three remaining board members also stared at them in utter disbelief, clearly seeing the two men for the monsters they were.

"What do you actually want, huh?!" Paul shrieked, completely losing his mind.

"To lock you up, obviously," Eric replied casually.

Before Paul could do anything other than scream, the door swung open. Norman walked in alongside five police officers and headed straight for Paul and Mason.

"Mr. Paul, based on all the evidence gathered, you are under arrest for the attempted premeditated murder of Melissa Grant... Mr. Mason, you are under arrest for intentionally inciting a prison riot and for the murder of Mr. Benjamin Johnson... You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law," Norman announced.

Two officers stepped forward and immediately handcuffed Paul and Mason, their faces draining of all color. Paul snapped his head around to glare at Eric.

"This isn’t over! You hear me?! This isn’t over! My lawyer will be contacting you!" Paul screamed.

"Hmm... actually, it is over, so let’s not beat a dead horse," Eric said smoothly, offering a casual two-finger salute.

Following that, the police escorted them out of the conference room, Paul shouting at the top of his lungs like a lunatic, and Mason completely paralyzed by fear, unable to utter a single word.

Once Norman and his officers had taken them away to be processed, a quiet calm settled over the room. Suddenly, "slam!" Eric brought his hand down hard on the table, causing everyone to snap their heads around to look at him.

"Now it’s time to clean house. We flush out every single cockroach connected to them, and we do it immediately. The floor is yours, Mr. Bryan," Eric declared, before sinking back into his seat.

With that, Bryan took control of the meeting to discuss various matters, focusing primarily on purging the company of Paul and Mason’s lackees.

***

One and a half hours later, once everything was wrapped up, Eric shook hands with Bryan and Katie, then took his leave since his work here was done. However, he didn’t head straight home; instead, he drove to the hospital.

Upon arrival, he made his way directly to the intensive care unit for comatose patients in the right wing of the building. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, his eyes falling on Melissa, who was still lying there.

He walked over to the side of her bed, pulled up a chair, and sat down quietly. Eric looked at Melissa’s face; the swelling had gone down significantly, though dark bruises still mottled her skin in several places.

He studied her features, the face of a big sister who had always been by his side whenever he was lonely, who had helped him study, who had never stayed mad at him, and who had always defended him when he was right.

Yet, she was also the one who had wounded him to his absolute core, framing him and dragging his name through the mud until he was cast out, even if she had done it all just to protect him.

Eric smiled faintly. He gently picked up Melissa’s hand, holding it securely between both of his own.

"Melissa, you hurt me to save me, and now I’ve hurt you to save you, because I took your revenge for myself and you’ll have to find another purpose for your life. So now, we’re even. There’s no debt left between us. From this moment on, we are strangers. Goodbye Big Sister," Eric said, his voice completely calm.

Eric gently laid her hand back down, stood up, and walked out of the room without looking back a single time. As the door clicked shut and the room fell silent once more, a single tear slipped from Melissa’s closed eyes and rolled down onto the pillow. Her expression softened into complete serenity, as if silently saying, "thank you."