Rise to Power: The Miraculous Liam Regan.

Chapter 20

Even as the attendant kept her head respectfully lowered, a slow smile crept across her face where no one could see it.

She could already feel it the promotion. The recognition. The elevation in status that came with doing something remarkable on the job. Because the woman now standing on the other side of the counter was not just any senior staff member. She was one of the most powerful figures in this entire institution a Senior Director, no less. A woman of top B-class citizen, respected, feared, and connected in ways most people could barely imagine.

And the attendant had been the one to call her here.

She had been the one to spot it. To flag it. To act.

In her mind, the reward was already as good as hers.

Because this was exactly the kind of thing the system celebrated catching a lower-level citizen attempting to game a world that was never built for them.

A citizen of Liam's standing had no business having that kind of money. None whatsoever. And the fact that she had been the one standing at the right counter at the right moment felt nothing short of fortunate.

She kept her head down, but she could not stop the quiet satisfaction blooming inside her chest.

Meanwhile, the Senior Director Mrs. Penelope stood with the poised stillness of someone entirely unbothered by urgency. She did not rush. She did not need to. Her presence alone was enough to alter the atmosphere of any room she entered.

Her sharp eyes moved slowly, deliberately, until they landed on Liam.

She studied him for a moment with the kind of measured gaze that dissected rather than observed.

Then she cleared her throat.

“So,” Mrs. Penelope said, her voice calm and precise as a blade, “your account received five hundred million dollars.”

Immediately Liam’s mind blanked for a second at the sound of her voice. It was as if everything inside his head had been wiped clean by fear.

Then he snapped out of it and nodded quickly.

“Yes—yes, I’m the one,” he said at once. “But I promise you, there’s a misunderstanding somewhere. I didn’t steal from anyone. There has to be some mistake. Please, you need to check. I can explain I mean, I will be able to explain if I know who sent the money. Please, just find out who transferred it into my account.”

The words rushed out of him in uneven breaths, desperate and unsteady.

Mrs. Penelope did not interrupt. She simply looked at him.

From head to toe.

Her gaze was cool, assessing, and painfully thorough. Liam looked exactly like what his file had already told her he was an ordinary man, plainly dressed, with nothing about him that suggested wealth, influence, or access to anything remotely close to five hundred million dollars.

And she had already checked his background before walking over.

E-level citizen.

That alone was enough to make the whole situation absurd. An E-level citizen did not stumble into that kind of money. They did not inherit it. They did not earn it. They certainly did not receive it without setting off alarms all the way to the top.

So yes something was wrong.

Whether it was fraud, coercion, clerical error, or some hidden transaction buried beneath layers of false trails, Penelope intended to find out. But not here. Not in the middle of the banking hall, with clerks watching, customers listening, and panic thickening in the air.

If there was truth to uncover, it would be uncovered in private.

At last, she spoke.

“Well,” Penelope said evenly, “since you insist there is a misunderstanding, then you will have to come with us so we can conduct a thorough investigation into this matter.”

Before Liam could fully process that, she turned slightly toward the guards.

“Escort him to the vault room,” she ordered. “Take him there.”

At once, the security guards bowed their heads in acknowledgment.

Liam froze.

The words hit him harder than the accusation itself. The vault room. He did not fully understand what was happening, but instinctively, he knew that was not the kind of place people went casually. There was something final about the way it had been said, something that made his skin go cold.

And behind the counter, the attendant felt a dark thrill ripple through her.

She knew exactly what that meant. In this bank, anyone taken to the vault room was someone being investigated for serious fraud high-level fraud. It was not an ordinary interrogation room. It was where dangerous cases disappeared from public sight.

And as far as she knew, no one who went in there ever came back.