Ben's jaw tightened. He leaned back in his chair and fell silent for a few seconds. Then he laughed. Not the polite, practiced smile from before.
This time, it was the laugh of someone with nothing left to lose.
"Marcus, it looks like you came here determined to take me down. You've been auditing this branch for over ten years. Have you ever found anything? I built the South City operation with my own people. Without me, the real estate division would've never established itself here. Now headquarters cuts off our funding and leaves me to clean up the mess?"
"Fine. If that's how you want it, let's stop pretending."
He walked to his desk, grabbed a stack of papers, and dropped it onto the coffee table.
"This is a joint petition signed by employees across the South City branch. If headq
