You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 583

With a quick flick, Patricia turned the photo face-down on the desk.

Tina watched her, dropping her voice on purpose. “Patricia, you should always leave people a little room. You never know who you’ll cross paths with again.”

“Who, Uncle Emerson? I doubt I’ll ever run into him.” Patricia met her gaze directly, eyes full of challenge.

Just then, Jackson’s voice came from the doorway. “Miss, the Golden Bay auditors are here.”

Patricia didn’t look away from Tina. “Set them up in the conference room across the hall. Make sure they’re settled in, and have them review every account from the last ten years. If they find anything off, I want to know about it. And tell HR—anyone at department head level or above who’s put in a resignation can’t leave until the audit is over.”

Her words fell like a hammer.

The whole office went silent.

The new boss had barely warmed her chair and she was already bringing in an outside audit? Was she really planning to dig up every skeleton from the past decade?

No one could hide their anxiety.

Officially, it was called “cleaning house.” But everyone knew what that really meant—people were going to lose their jobs.

The news spread through the company in minutes, and every manager and supervisor was suddenly on edge.

Even their hands were shaking.

“Golden Bay? That’s the top auditing firm. Everyone knows how hard they are to book.”

“Patricia just took over, and Golden Bay’s people show up right away? There’s no way that’s a coincidence. She’s been planning this.”

“If they find something, what are we supposed to do? I just came here for a job, not to risk my future.”

“Calm down. There are plenty of people above us. We’re just low-level managers. How much trouble could we really be in?”

Still, nerves rippled through the company.

Ruby was just as freaked out.

When Tina called her with the news, Ruby’s first thought was whether their own company would survive.

“Mom, what do we do?”

Tina rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. A big one.

Emerson’s mess still wasn’t sorted, and now Patricia was making things even harder.

“I’ll figure something out. Don’t panic.”

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