Chapter 396

Vincent's mouth twisted into a cold,fleeting curl. He ignored the woman whom he assumed was wearing Hannah's face, pretending not to see her while keeping his attention fixed on the courteous exchange between the two elderly women before him. He wanted to gauge how long she could sustain her pretense. Any moment now, she'd try to "accidentally" run into him.

Yet, Hannah never once glanced at Vincent. She trailed Harold directly out of the terminal and slid into the waiting vehicle.

When Vincent eventually shifted his gaze back, the "fake Hannah" had vanished completely. Good. At least she knew when not to overplay her hand. His curl sharpened, cold and cutting, laced with quiet disdain. Meanwhile, Hannah turned down Claude's suggestion of residing at his manor. Instead, she returned to her old apartment in Sterling Heights.Her mother had not accompanied her, which eased the weight on her chest. Had her mother been present, these familiar roads would have torn open far too many buried wounds.

Swallowing the storm of feelings stirring inside her,Hannah focused on reviewing updates about Luminara Group. During her absence, the company had established a brand-new department-Data Analytics. It consisted solely of recruits hired after her departure, making it her prime suspect.

The following morning, at Luminara Group headquarters, Hannah entered the Data Analytics Department. To remain inconspicuous, she donned black-framed spectacles and signed in beneath a false name, "Natalie Preston."

The team leader of the Data Analytics Department,Leonard Yates, half-lifted his lids, skimmed the onboarding folder Hannah extended, and muttered

with thinly veiled impatience, "Natalie Preston,correct? There. That spot in the corner by the window is yours.

Hannah traced the direction of his stubby finger and found the desk he meant. It was piled high with junk.A film of dust blanketed the surface, a forgotten apple husk shriveled beside the keyboard, and the monitor looked like it belonged in a museum.

Around her, coworkers kept silent. A few sneered faintly behind their screens; others appeared numb with indifference.

Plainly, Leonard's ritual of humiliating newcomers was routine.

"Much appreciated, Mr. Yates." Hannah nudged her glasses upward, a sharp gleam flashing from behind them.How had this man ever risen to authority?

Hannah briskly cleared her desk. Just as she prepared to sit, a senior colleague strolled over, hips swaying with showy confidence.

"Hey there, newbie-Natalie, isn't it?" The woman,Marissa Vaughn, plastered on a sticky grin. "Quick hands, huh? Excellent. The company just dumped a load of raw experimental material-printouts,scribbled notes, even a couple of USB sticks. Mr.Yates says you're to sort and input it all. Here, all yours!"

She slammed a heavy bundle of scattered sheets and drives onto Hannah's freshly wiped desk with a loud smack.

"Marissa," murmured a younger female staffer close by, "shouldn't that material be verified before-"

"Oh, verified my foot!" Marissa snapped, her pitch rising sharply. "She's brand-new, right? Time for some fieldwork!"

She pivoted back toward Hannah, sing-songing instructions. "Arrange it all by division and date,compare the paper files against the PDFs on the drives, manually adjust any conflicting numbers on the base spreadsheets, then key the corrected data into the system. Understand? And yes, finish before

you punch out."

No one wanted the burden of that nightmare assignment. With fresh blood available, they finally had someone to dump it on.

The workplace settled into stillness once again.Everyone waited to see how the "new girl" would respond to the transparent trap.

Hannah regarded the messy heap on her desk briefly and then lifted her eyes with calm precision toward Marissa and Leonard. She voiced no protest. She didn't touch the pile. Instead, she reached for the desk phone and dialed the in-house IT helpline."Hello, this is Natalie Preston, recently added to Data Analytics.My station can't connect to the data-entry backend. It keeps displaying a permissions fault.Could you confirm my account configuration?"

Her tone was steady and crisp-cool to the point of razor-edge clarity. Nothing like a panicked first-timer,and certainly not like someone they could push around.

The room's air froze in place. An IT helpline? Access confirmation? This recruit was audacious.Unpredictable, even. Wasn't she supposed to come pleading to them instead?

Per regulation, a newcomer's account access required direct activation by their department supervisor. And Leonard, of course, had purposely skipped that step for Natalie.

Minutes later, the IT line rang back. Hannah pressed the speaker button, letting the clear voice echo across the space. "Ms. Preston, we checked your login. Your access has not been activated-the request has yet to be initiated by your department supervisor.You'll need Mr. Leonard Yates to finalize it."

They had named Leonard outright in front of everyone.

"Appreciated," Hannah replied coolly before cutting the line. Then, she fixed her gaze on Leonard."Mr.Yates,you heard them, correct?"