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I still didn’t understand what any of this had to do with me.
He turned toward me.
“Two weeks ago, you accidentally sent me a report that contained three numbers no one else had noticed.”
I remembered.
It had seemed like an ordinary Excel spreadsheet.
“Those three numbers led us to start an internal investigation,” he said. “And yesterday, we needed one final piece of evidence.”
“That’s why you fired me?”
“Yes.”
The room fell silent.
He opened the folder.
“If the person stealing the money believed Emily was no longer working here—and believed she had some kind of personal connection to me—they might panic and assume I had told her something. We wanted to see who would be the first person to try to wipe the system or remove documents.”
My heart was pounding.
“And the photo?”
Mr. Wilson smiled faintly.
“Bait.”
At that moment, the company lawyer turned a laptop toward me.
At 2:17 in the morning, someone had logged into the company system and attempted to delete hundreds of files.
When I saw the username, I froze.
Karen Matthews.
The same Karen who had mocked me that morning.
But that still wasn’t everything.
Mr. Wilson placed another document in front of me.
“Emily, we didn’t actually fire you yesterday.”
“What?”
“We only needed everyone to believe we had.”
He signed the document and turned it toward me.
It was a new job offer.
Head of Internal Controls.
The salary was almost double what I had been earning.
I couldn’t speak.
“Why me?”
He remained quiet for a moment.
“Because for the last five years, a lot of people here have worked hard to impress me. You were the only one who worked as if no one was watching.”
Then he looked toward the photo hanging on his office door.
“And that picture is staying there until the end of the day.”
I laughed.
“People are thinking terrible things.”
He laughed too.
“I know. But at noon, I’m going to tell them the truth.”
When I walked out of his office, the same people were staring at me again.
Only this time, I wasn’t embarrassed.
Karen was no longer there.
And strangely enough, years later, I still keep that photo from the lake.