Chapter Five: The First Crack

By Wednesday morning, Emily had almost convinced herself that the file she had found was nothing more than an overprotective background check, but the photograph of herself outside Sterling Group still bothered her. Someone had been watching her before she even became an employee.

She pushed the thought aside as she entered the office. Today was the executive presentation, and she had no intention of allowing her personal worries to interfere with her work. She spent the morning reviewing the presentation one final time. Every figure was correct, and every page was in order. Once she was done, she saved the completed file and sent it to the executive department, and then she leaned back with a relieved breath. For once, everything seemed to be going according to plan until her computer screen flickered.

Emily frowned.

The presentation disappeared for a few seconds before returning. She opened the file again, and what she saw made her stomach drop. Several figures had changed, so she immediately checked the original reports, and they were still correct. The document had been accessed while she was away from her desk. Her heart began to race as she looked around the office. Everyone appeared busy. No one seemed interested in her, so she quickly corrected the figures and saved another copy. Then, a notification appeared,

File deleted.

Emily stared at the screen with disbelief. Someone had just erased the corrected version, so this wasn't an accident. The person behind it was trying to make her fail.

The executive meeting began shortly after noon. Emily sat quietly as Alexander stood at the front of the conference room. The presentation appeared on the large screen.

For several minutes, everything went smoothly, and the first incorrect figure appeared. Emily's heart sank, another followed then another.

Whispers began to move around the room as one of the executives looked directly at her.

Emily felt her face grow hot. She knew exactly how it appeared, and she was responsible for the presentation. But before anyone could question her, Alexander stopped the meeting.

He walked toward the screen and studied the figures. His expression remained calm, but his eyes had hardened. He then requested the original documents. Emily handed them over.

He compared them with the presentation and saw that they didn't match. Alexander looked at the room.

“These figures were changed.”

The tension immediately shifted. Emily looked at him, surprised. He hadn't blamed her, nor did he even ask for an explanation.

He had just simply checked the facts.

The meeting was postponed while the IT department was asked to investigate the system. Emily quietly left the room. She returned to her desk and stared at the documents in front of her. Her eyes burned with frustration. She had wanted to prove herself, but instead, someone had made her look incompetent in front of the company's senior executives. She blinked quickly, refusing to cry.

A shadow appeared beside her desk, and it was her boss. He placed the original report in front of her.

“You didn't make the changes.”

Emily looked up.

The certainty in his voice caught her off guard.

“I thought everyone believed I had.”

“They did, but I didn't.”

Something about those words made her chest tighten. She looked down, scared to look at his face.

“I just wanted to prove that I deserved this job.”

“You don't have to prove that to me.”

Emily looked at him again. For a moment, neither of them spoke, and the noise of the office seemed to fade. Alexander noticed the tears she was trying to hide, and without thinking, he lifted his hand as though he wanted to comfort her. Then he stopped midway. His gaze lingered on hers before briefly dropping to her lips.

Her breath caught, and for one suspended moment, she thought he might pull her into his arms. Neither of them moved, then Alexander stepped back.

The distance between them returned, but the tension remained.

“Take the rest of the afternoon if you need it.”

Emily nodded.

“Thank you.”

Alexander turned and walked away while Emily watched him disappear down the corridor. She touched her chest lightly since her heart was still beating too fast. She didn't know what almost happened between them, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Later that afternoon, Alexander called Daniel into his office. The IT department had finished checking the system and found out someone had accessed Emily's files using an employee security account, but the account belonged to someone in the executive division.

Daniel placed the report on Alexander's desk while he read it carefully.

“Can you identify who used the account?”

“Not yet.”

Alexander's expression hardened.

“Find out.”

Daniel nodded, but then he paused.

“There is something else.”

He placed another document on the desk for Alexander to look at it. It was Emily's original recruitment record.

He frowned.

“What's this?”

Daniel explained that Emily's application had been flagged in the company's recruitment system before Alexander had personally approved her employment.

Alexander looked up.

“Who flagged it?”

Daniel shook his head.

“That's what we're trying to determine.”

Alexander picked up the document as his eyes moved over the information.

Emily Carter.

Candidate.

Status: Priority Review.

His expression changed. He had never marked her application that way, which means someone else had, and whoever had done it had access to the company's internal recruitment system. Alexander looked toward the glass wall overlooking the office. Emily was sitting at her desk, unaware of what was happening upstairs.

He lowered the document.

“Don't tell her.”

Daniel nodded.

“Understood.”

Alexander remained silent. He had hired Emily because he wanted to understand the mystery surrounding the briefcase, but now, it seemed there was a problem he hadn't anticipated. An anonymous person had wanted Emily inside Sterling Group before he ever decided to hire her.

That evening, Emily was preparing to leave the office for home when she noticed something strange. Her desk drawer was slightly open, of which she was certain she had closed it. She looked around, but nothing looked unusual, and the office was nearly empty.

Slowly, she opened the drawer, but everything appeared untouched. Just as she was about to close it, she noticed a small white envelope beneath her notebook. It had no name on it, and neither was there an address.

Emily hesitated before opening it. Inside was a single photograph of herself standing outside Sterling Group on the morning of her interview. The same photograph she had seen in Alexander's file, but this time, something was different. Below the photograph had some written words, five words precisely

You were chosen, not hired.

Emily stared at the message. Her pulse quickened, and her hands began to tremble.

A cold feeling settled in her stomach. She slowly looked toward Alexander's office. The lights were still on, but Alexander wasn't there, and she wondered where he was.

Emily looked back at the photograph, and for the first time since she started working, she wondered whether her job at Sterling Group had ever really been an opportunity or maybe it had been a trap. She felt insecure, and somewhere inside the company, someone had been waiting for her to arrive.