Chapter 4

Leo and I closed the deal.

The day we returned, I walked into Accounting holding a thick, heavy stack of expense receipts.

The Finance Director glanced up and gave her habitual frown.

"Back from your trip, Chloe? Drop the receipts in the tray."

Cynthia pointed carelessly to an inbox bin, her voice clipped.

"Cynthia, this report is urgent. It ties into our petty cash replenishment for the next phase. I'll need you to audit and approve it right now."

I laid the thick packet squarely on her desk.

Irritated, Cynthia picked up the summary sheet. The moment her eyes landed on the grand total, her jaw dropped, and her voice turned into a shriek:

"Chloe! Forty thousand five hundred dollars for two people?! Do you think company money grows on trees?!"

She grabbed the stack of receipts like she was holding evidence of a felony, stormed straight past Richard's assistant, and barged into his office without even knocking.

Moments later, my desk phone buzzed. It was Richard, his voice shaking with fury:

"Chloe, you and Leo, get in here right now!"

When we stepped into Richard's office, the air was freezing cold.

Richard sat behind his mahogany desk, his face an ugly shade of purple. Brad looked equally pale and rattled.

Cynthia stood off to the side, waving the expense sheets in the air, her face a sickening mix of rage and malicious glee.

Leo stood right behind me, his knuckles white.

"Chloe! Leo! You better have a damn good explanation for this!" Brad slammed his palm onto the desk.

"Forty thousand five hundred dollars for two people! And you had the nerve to claim you stayed within policy? What twisted policy were you reading?!"

Cynthia chimed in shrilly, "Exactly! Nearly ten thousand dollars on local transportation alone! What did you do, charter a private jet?!"

I tapped open the GPS logs and rideshare receipts on my phone, walked over to the presentation display, plugged in my adapter, and mirrored my screen.

"Richard, Brad, Cynthia. Company policy clearly dictates: non-executive employees on domestic travel may not stay at star-rated hotels.”

“The only lodging that met our per diem cap was located in a rural township eighteen miles outside the client’s tech park."

A complex map showing highway routes and ride histories lit up the monitor.

"We stayed at an approved, non-star accommodation eighteen miles away. To avoid missing our daily 8:00 AM standups and to handle the client's round-the-clock emergency requests, we relied on on-demand rideshares.”

“Here are all the itemized receipts: a total of seven thousand eight hundred and sixty-five dollars. Every single mile perfectly matches the company policy for full transportation reimbursement."

Cynthia choked on her words, her cheeks flushing bright red.

"Then... what about the lodging?! A middle-of-nowhere motel cost you twenty-seven thousand two hundred and sixty dollars for two people?!"

Leo spoke up, his voice steadying after the initial nerves:

"Cynthia, we didn't stay at a chain hotel. We rented an upscale private farmhouse boutique on Airbnb.”

“ The nightly rate rivaled a five-star presidential suite, but rest assured, it has zero star ratings. It is purely classified as residential lodging, which fully complies with our non-star lodging clause."

"And the rest of this?!" Brad demanded sharply.

I swiped to the next slide, displaying rental invoices for high-end hardware and IT repair slips.

"To win back the account, we had to run complex on-site data stress tests. However, the legacy laptops issued by our IT department overheated and crashed within minutes."

"Company procurement rules state that project personnel cannot purchase new hardware exceeding two thousand dollars without a thirty-day board review."

"Therefore, to comply with the policy, we leased two high-performance enterprise mobile workstations from an outside vendor. Rental fee:”

“ four thousand two hundred and twenty-five dollars. In addition, we expensed emergency diagnostic repairs on the company laptops, totaling one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars."

I paused, looking directly at Richard, whose face had turned the color of a bruised plum. I offered him a polite, razor-sharp smile.

"As for meals, to save the company as much money as possible, we canceled the five-star banquet reservations.”

“During our very first formal dinner with the client's executive board, we served them ninety-nine-cent instant Cup Noodles that we brought from home."

"You did WHAT?!" Richard lunged out of his seat, his finger shaking violently as he pointed at me. "Do you have any idea how that makes our company look in this industry?!"

"They praised your visionary leadership, Richard," I replied without missing a beat.

"Once I explained our company's ironclad commitment to fiscal austerity, they laughed, finished every drop of their noodles, and said they'd buy me a real dinner on their own dime as soon as my expenses cleared."

"And more importantly—didn't we close the fifty-million-dollar deal?"

I straightened my posture, my voice turning crisp and formal.

"Every single expenditure is backed by itemized, legal invoices and strictly complies with the clauses in our employee handbook. Please authorize the reimbursement, Richard."

"After all, Director Lewis and his team made me promise to let them know the exact moment the funds hit my account."