Five Bucks for a Million-Dollar Lunch

I didn't bother waiting around to see how they replied after saying my piece. I directly opened my contact list and called my lawyer. "I need you to look into Julia Hall's background. Give me a full sweep of her family history going back three generations—direct line, extended relatives, everything.

"I also need you to dig up everything you can on whoever is running things between Grand Epoch Capital and our branch here—the more detailed, the better."

I finally felt my anger ease up slightly once I finished giving the orders.

I went straight to the nearest police station the following day. I explained everything that had happened the day before and handed over the receipts for the ingredients along with proof of my nutritionist's wages.

Though the police officers were shocked that a single meal could be expensive enough to meet the threshold for a criminal case, they still dutifully accompanied me to the company.

Upon arriving at the reception desk at the company, the police officers presented their credentials and requested access to the surveillance footage.

I decided to head over to my desk first to pack up my belongings. After everything that had gone down, I really didn't have any desire to stay with the company anymore.

I had just arrived at the entrance of the office when someone suddenly threw a bowl of gooey liquid in my face, causing the clumpy, muddy sludge to drip from my hair. I wiped my face, immediately choking on a sharp, pungent odor of cheap, artificial chemicals mixed with powdered peanuts.

"Oh, my bad, Emma! I just whipped up this peanut sauce, and it accidentally slipped out of my hands!" Julia stood in front of me, holding the empty bowl and covering her mouth as she shook with laughter, though her eyes flashed with pure malice.

"Didn't you say you have an inherently allergic constitution and would die if you ate even a single bite of food that wasn't cooked at home? I was just curious to see if you were faking it to build up some fragile, high-maintenance image, Emma."

I immediately started gasping for air, as out of all my allergies, peanuts were the absolute deadliest. It wasn't long before my exposed skin started to break out in hives and itch fiercely.

I felt as if someone were strangling me as the peanut residue traveled down my nasal passage and into my throat. I stumbled backward against an office desk as the sudden lack of air made me lose my balance.

"Oh, my—look at you faking it! You missed your calling as an actress, Emma!" Julia, without a shred of remorse, pointed and laughed in my face. She even stepped forward and violently kicked my fallen handbag with the sharp heel of her shoe.

"You're truly a pathetic, orphaned old hag. You're surviving on scraps every day, yet you still dare to pretend like you're some kind of wealthy heiress. You're just jealous that I'm younger than you and have a better background!"

In that instant, the colleagues nearby, led by Karl, just stood by and whispered among themselves while enjoying the spectacle instead of stepping in to stop it.

"Emma is such a drama queen! She just got splashed with a bit of the peanut sauce, yet she's already gasping for air!"

"I know, right? She brought this on herself for crossing Julia! She totally deserves this!"

I was trembling all over with fury. I exerted my remaining strength to take out the emergency medicine I carried with me and swallowed it down raw, not caring about how much it hurt to swallow.

It was then that the office door swung open. "Hold it right there! What's going on here?"

Gilbert Lowe, the department manager with a protruding beer belly, entered briskly with the two police officers who had just taken my statement earlier.

Upon seeing Mr. Lowe, Julia instantly turned on the waterworks to beat me to the punch. She then turned to the police officers and said, "You came just in time! Emma is so obsessed with framing me that she's risking her own life with her allergies just to make me look bad!"

Having spotted the situation, the police immediately intervened to separate the parties, frowning as they asked, "What's going on here? How did a fight break out when we're just here to investigate a theft case?"

I let out a cold chuckle and pointed at the glaring red rashes covering my body. "It was Julia Hall's doing. She intentionally stole and destroyed my meals worth thousands of dollars. She knew exactly how severe my allergies are and still intentionally threw an allergen at me. That's a clear case of aggravated assault!"