Gerald's sudden appearance behind them had the couple instinctively shift to the side. Ignoring their presence, he went to his granddaughter and wrapped his arms around her, consoling her.
"Don't cry anymore," He said to her tenderly, "I'll handle everything from here. You go up to your room now."
"Ok grandpa." She responded softly and left the dining room.
Waiting till he was sure she had left, Gerald turned to the two people before him and sighed in disappointment.
"Explain yourself Lionel." He said as he took a seat.
"Father, this is all a huge misunderstanding. You see we-." Abigail started but Gerald raised in his hand silencing her.
"I believe I was speaking to my son."
"I'm sorry sir." She said fully chastised.
"Father," Lionel began clearing his throat, he was thinking of what he could say to clear up this huge mess that Michelle had caused, because although his father looked calm he could tell it was all just an act and that he was furious, "I don't know what Michelle may have told you but-"
"That's how you choose to start this?"
"My wife and I feel it would be better that Michelle came back-"
"Try again."
Lionel was starting to get frustrated, what exactly did Gerald want him to say. Taking a deep breath, he tried again.
"I deeply and truly apologize for the horrible we treated Michelle." He began expecting an interruption, when there was none he continued, "It was wrong of me to not take her along on this trip and make her feel like she wasn't a part of our family. I am sorry father"
There a pause in the room, the silence thick. Then Gerald sighed.
"I'm glad that you've understood where you went wrong. You can go now."
"But father. I came all this way to take Michelle back with me. So we can make up for the way we treated her." Lionel said urgency in his tone.
"There's no need for you to make it up to her. Same way there is no need for her to return with you and your wife."
"Father? Really there's no need for all of this."
"You have made it very clear that you consider Michelle to be a nuisance. I should have taken her away from your family a long time ago. In my old age, it seemed I overlooked a lot of things. This was only because you were my son and I so desperately wanted to believe you would change. Now you do not need to worry anymore about anything."
"I'm not sure that is the best course of action, father. We can still take good care of her back home, just give us another chance." Lionel pleaded.
"Need I remind you that the girl in question is an adult? She is capable of making her own decisions and she has decided to stay here with me in this house. There will be no more chances. Short of coercion, I don't see her changing her mind anytime soon. Now take your wife and leave my house. This conversation is over." Gerald responded with an air of finality in his tone.
Lionel, with obvious reluctance, grabbed his wife and they left the Hart residence fuming, driving away at an alarming speed.
Gerald watched as his son left and shook his head in disappointment. After a while, he also left the room.
Confirming that the dining room was empty, Michelle came out of the little corner she had hidden in, where she had heard the whole conversation go down. The whole conversation had her baffled- why was it so important to Lionel that she returned to their place. One would think they would be happier she was gone, but it was not. The whole situation was a conundrum and she was going to get to the bottom of it.
The week of the presentation rolled around and Michelle was back at work. Two days before the presentation day she received a text from Caleb asking to meet with her and Meg. He had news for them.
"Was there really no other place for us to meet? This place is really cold." Meg said.
The venue he had picked for their meeting was the Junk server room, his reasoning was that it was the one place that did not have people there, thus reducing the risk of them being overheard or spied on.
"That's smart." Michelle said. "So what do you have for us?"
"Ok so these guys are extremely sloppy at covering their money tracks."
"So you found something then?" She asked excitedly.
"I found a lot of things. I got receipts of everything they used the money to buy and I was also able to find the accounts they stashed the rest. That was a bit difficult as they bot registered it under their wives' maiden names and once I figured that out for one of them it didn't take time for me to find the account for Penn."
"Did you find anything under Peter or Penn's relative?"
"Nope, but it could be possible that they withdrew from the accounts though."
"Hmm. So all we have now is enough to get Freddy and Penn but not Peter and Parker?" Meg asked confused.
"Parker? His name is Parker Penn? How original." Caleb said chuckling.
"It would seem so." Michelle said responding to Meg's question, "But that doesn't matter now. Just because we haven't found anything for them doesn't mean there isn't anything. Let's just deal with these ones first. We'll catch them later." Suddenly realizing she was making future plans without confirming if they'd be willing to still help later on she said, "That is, only if you're willing. But I don't think I could do it without either of your help."
Grabbing her arm in a hug Michelle said, "You can count on me."
"Same here." Caleb said, "Plus this is so much better than telling people they have to make sure their computers are plugged in before it can work."
They all laughed at that.
The day of the presentation was quick to come after that. The financial department was abuzz, everyone was eager to know how the meeting would end even though it hadn't started yet. At her desk Michelle was organizing her files and confirming the PowerPoint presentation she'd done.
"It's too bad I can't join you for this. I wasn't chosen to join the team that would meet with the design team and the approval board. But I know you've got this."
"Thanks Meg. Keep an ear out for the ruckus that I am about to cause." She responded smiling mischievously.
Michelle entered the conference room where she saw everyone seated, the financial team and Freddy, the design team and Parker, according to his nametag and finally Penn with his design approval members, and were waiting for her. She scanned the room for her grandfather, he wasn't there yet. Taking a deep breath, she began her presentation.
"Good day everyone. I am Michelle Hart of the finance department, I was appointed the role of trying to convince the approval board not to approve this year's design done by the design team."
"Hurry up and get on with it." Freddy said, causing the rest of them to laugh.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "You said I have an hour and I plan on using said hour."
Turning back to the projection, she started with a slide show of all the previous designs that had been approved.
"Each year the design team say they've come up with an innovative new design, that design gets approved and each year that design fails costing Hart Industries billions in design cost, production cost and in discarded products." Just as she was about to continue, the door opened and in walked her grandfather flanked by Hank.
He nodded his head in greeting at everyone in the room and sat at the head of the table. It was obvious that his presence shifted the tone in the room and everyone suddenly sat up acting more serious than they were before. Freddy and Penn exchanged uneasy glances
"Please don't stop on my account," gesturing to Michelle he said, "You may continue."
Smiling and nodding, Michelle turned back to the screen and changed the slide.
"Why is it that despite the designs failing year after year, the design team keeps on submitting terrible designs that always gets approved? Someone ask me why." She said turning to them.
"Um, why?" someone asked obliging her.
"Thank you for that wonderful question. I'll tell you why. It's because the whole thing is a huge embezzlement scheme."
Voices were raised in outrage, everyone talking over the other about her audacity and her accusations and how she had no proof.
"Everyone, everyone please." She said quieting them, "You don't think I would have done all this and brought it before you without any proof now do you? I am not that stupid."
"Who exactly are you accusing of this embezzlement?" Gerald asked and all heads turned to him then back at her, it was obvious that they were also eager to know as well, who were the people, if any, that were bold enough to steal from the company.
"Good question sir. Mr. T.J Frederick and Mr. Callaghan Penn."
The room was shocked into silence and one could hear a pin drop.
"This is ludicrous!" Freddy yelled getting up from his seat and storming towards her.
"How dare you make such baseless accusations against us?" Penn said, he remained seated though his face was turning purple with rage.
"You have been nothing but trouble ever since you came here and now here you are making such accusations without any proof!" He yelled in her face.
"Mr. Frederick." Gerald said calmly, "It would be wise of you to step away from her and return to your seat."
"But sir!"
"If there is no proof as you claim then there is nothing for you to worry about now is there? Return to your seat and let her finish what she was saying. I am extremely curious to see what she has uncovered."
With great reluctance, Freddy returned to his seat and started to fidget as he sat there. Parker had broken into a cold sweat, his eyes darting between his uncle and the screen. Although his name was not mentioned, he was still worried.
"Thank you grandpa." Michelle said and she continued, "There are files going as far back as six years ago that contain records of the budget spent given by the finance team and the amount that was recorded as what was spent, the latter which was inflated insanely. Please look at the files before you." She gestured to the copies she had distributed to them.
With each flip of the page both Penn and Freddy got redder in the face.
"This is hardly enough proof that either I or Frederick had anything to do with this." Penn said pushing the file away from him.
"That is true," she said nodding her head.
"Then why did you say it was us?" Freddy asked.
"You didn't let me finish. True this is not enough to say you guys were involved, however these files were deleted."
"If they were deleted how did you find it then?" Freddy asked his tone almost desperate.
"With the help of an IT guy." She responded simply, "it was also with his help that we were able to find records of who deleted what file. If you would turn to page 15."
"We deleted some files. So what? That hardly makes us guilty." Penn said dismissively.
"That is true Mr. Penn. In fact this whole thing would be over if it weren't for the fact that with the help of this IT boy, his name is Caleb by the way, that the accounts you both made in your wives' maiden names was found."