Chapter 3

The next morning, an email from the CEO summoned everyone to an emergency all-hands meeting.

The moment I stepped into the main conference hall, a wave of silence washed over the room. It was the kind of quiet that feels loud.

The CEO, a man I' d always respected, looked at me with cold disappointment.

Then, Matthew took the stage.

"As you all know, we've suffered a major security breach," he began, his voice filled with fake gravity.

A slide appeared on the giant screen behind him. It showed a complex data trail, a series of logs and IP addresses. My name and employee ID were highlighted in red.

"Our investigation has unfortunately uncovered a painful truth," Matthew continued, his eyes sweeping the room before landing on me. "The data was leaked to a competitor by our own Head of Data Integrity, Jennifer Johns."

A collective gasp went through the crowd.

"The evidence is clear. The transfer was made using her encrypted credentials from a terminal registered to her home network."

He clicked to the next slide, showing doctored screenshots of the system logs. They were good fakes. To a layman, they looked completely authentic.

"I protest!" I stood up, my voice ringing out in the silent room. "Those logs are fabricated. I demand a full, deep forensic audit by an independent third-party team. The raw data will prove my innocence."

The CEO looked at me, his expression grim. "Jennifer, we will conduct a full investigation."

Then, Molly stepped forward, her face a mask of sorrow. She took the microphone.

"I... I didn't want to believe it," she began, her voice trembling. "But I saw things. For weeks, Jen has been acting strange. Secretive phone calls, working late on files that weren't part of her projects. I asked her if everything was okay, but she just brushed me off."

Her words were poison, painting me as a deceptive conspirator. The crowd murmured, their suspicion turning into conviction.

The CEO held up a hand for silence. "Jennifer Johns, you are suspended, effective immediately, pending the results of our internal investigation. Your access to all company systems is revoked."

Security guards, men I recognized from the lobby, moved to stand near me.

I looked at Matthew. He had a faint, triumphant smirk on his face. Molly stood beside him, her head resting on his shoulder, the picture of a supportive partner.

They had won. Publicly, completely.

I was escorted out of the meeting, the whispers of my colleagues following me like a plague. I was no longer a respected department head. I was a pariah.