Susan quickly denied it. “What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything!”
Rebecca chimed in, “Penelope, don’t make baseless accusations. Susan and I have a very pure friendship. We never discuss company business when we’re together.”
“This six hundred thousand that the Sullivan family just paid for her—I could see it as friends helping each other out. But I could also see it as a bribe,” Penelope said with a raised eyebrow.
“You set me up!” Susan cried out.
“Are you scared?”
“What do I have to be scared of? You really think you’re the young mistress of the Zenith Group? Even if it were a bribe, what does it have to do with you?”
Penelope smiled. “You’ll find out soon enough whether it has anything to do with me.”
The next afternoon, Penelope went to Theodore’s place for her usual dose of medicine. Theodore’s cold was gone, but hers had gotten worse, and she couldn’t stop sneezing.
“I’m giving this virus back to you!”
She threw herself at Theodore, trying to pass the germs back to him mouth-to-mouth. Theodore, unable to fend her off, gave in and kissed her a few times.
“So… how about I help you clean house?” she asked, her arms wrapped around his neck.
“What do you mean?” Theodore arched an eyebrow.
Penelope explained what Susan had planned to do—leaking competitors’ design plans and pricing to the Stone Group. The moment Theodore heard it, his expression turned grim.
“If other companies have their secrets leaked while competing for our projects, it could seriously damage our company’s reputation.”
Penelope could have waited until Susan actually handed over the files to report her, which would have guaranteed jail time. But considering the potential damage to both Zenith Group and the other companies, she decided to act preemptively.
“You can handle it for me,” Theodore said.
Penelope grinned. “Just you wait. I’ll handle this so cleanly and beautifully for you!”
The commercial street project belonged to SoC Corp., a subsidiary of Zenith Group. When she arrived at their offices, the general manager himself came to greet her.
“Mrs. Stapleton, after Mr. Stapleton called, I immediately had her brought to the conference room. We also had her computer checked, and sure enough, we found design proposals from several competing firms. Those files should only have been accessible to the project lead. She clearly stole them, but luckily, she hadn’t sent them out yet.”
“I find it strange myself.”
Mrs. Stapleton?
Susan’s mind flashed back to yesterday, when Penelope had claimed she was getting married on the twenty-sixth to the heir of the Zenith Group.
Could it be her?
Ha, no way!
The thought was so absurd that Susan herself chuckled.
Just then, the sharp click of high heels sounded from the hallway.
Click, clack, click, clack…
A moment later, the general manager of SoC Corp. personally escorted Mrs. Stapleton into the room.

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