After hearing Mr. Watson's conversation with Liliana, I quietly returned to my desk. Turning on the computer, I transferred all the data I had kept away in a hidden folder, then I thoroughly emptied the folder and reformatted the computer.
In truth, I could've told Theodore Luther, my husband, about how ugly these people truly were. However, I didn't have any concrete evidence, so even if I did tell him about them, these shameless people would just vehemently deny it.
Besides, Theodore happened to be on a business trip overseas for the next few days. I didn't want to burden him with such an insignificant matter, especially since it was a trip for a huge, multinational project.
At that moment, my phone rang. It was a call from an old client who wanted to meet face-to-face to discuss a new collaboration.
With that, I took my purse and left the company.
The talk went smoothly, but just as I was about to leave the coffee shop, my phone screen suddenly lit up with a notification from my surveillance camera app.
Tapping into the app, I immediately saw real-time footage of my workstation. It was being transmitted to me by a tiny hidden camera I had placed in the potted plant on my desk.
Lucy and Liliana were rummaging frantically through my drawers and file cabinets. As I watched, Lucy turned to work on cracking my computer's password, and once she had, she attempted to use some software to recover the lost data from my hard drives.
"Just where the hell did that bitch hide the draft?" Liliana cursed while continuing her search through the cabinets.
I couldn't help but let out a light laugh as I watched how anxious they were, forced to slink away in defeat when they failed to find anything.
Calmly pressing the button to save the footage, I then sent it to my personal encrypted cloud storage.
However, with their plan to steal the draft failing, Mr. Watson and Lucy dropped all pretense.
They changed the time of the project status meeting that I was supposed to lead without my permission and deliberately kept it from me. Besides that, my personal assistant was forcibly transferred to another team, with Lucy claiming they were understaffed there.
What was even more ridiculous was the finance department flagging all my claims, not even reimbursing me for the taxi fare.
They seemed determined to sideline me, using workplace ostracism to pressure me into backing down and handing over the project.
"So what if a certain someone is incredibly capable? Right now, she's nothing more than a general without an army. She doesn't even have an assistant to help her run errands like printing documents! How is she going to run the project now?"
Liliana strutted around the office smugly, purposely stomping her high heels loudly when she walked by my desk, even rolling her eyes at me.
I simply sat at my desk, not even bothering to spare her a glance. Did they seriously think I made my way to senior investment banking manager by luck?
I swiftly contacted Galaxy Corporation's overseas legal counsel and conducted a video conference despite the time difference.
30 minutes later, I had finalized all the additional clauses and singlehandedly completed the proofreading for dozens of pages of the contract, which was in the international language of Atlurian.
Everything had gone smoothly without a hitch, and there was nothing at all to nitpick.
Lucy had been stealthily observing everything from nearby, and when she realized what had happened, she ground her teeth so hard that her jaw creaked.
Seizing the opportunity, while I headed to the pantry for some water, she shot Liliana a pointed look.
Liliana immediately brought over a steaming cup of coffee. When she walked past my desk, she pretended to slip and spilled half the cup of coffee right over the secondary documents I had just printed.
"Oh no! Lena, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that," Liliana cried out in a saccharine-sweet voice, her tone goading.
I returned to my desk and eyed the stain. Instead of growing angry or throwing a hysterical fit, I simply calmly sat down and checked my phone for the camera footage.
I made sure to save several videos, one of which showed Lucy digging through my drawers yesterday. Another showed the entire process of Liliana purposely spilling the coffee on my documents earlier. Besides that, I even had a voice recording of a meeting where they had discussed how they were going to ostracize me.
Soon, the day of the project handover arrived.
Since early that morning, everyone at the company had been tense and nervous. When news came that the CEO of Galaxy Corporation was coming personally for the inspection and project handover, Mr. Watson was so anxious that he was sweating buckets.
If they failed to submit the final draft, they wouldn't even get to meet the CEO. They would be blacklisted immediately.
Mr. Watson's eyes never left the encrypted digital tablet I held as he repeatedly checked in with me. He was deathly afraid of something going wrong.
"Selena, there's no problem with that draft, right? We can't afford for anything to go wrong at this juncture!"
I tightened my grip on the device and nodded coolly at him.
Off to the side, Liliana was practically boring holes into my hand with the force of her staring. She didn't even bother hiding the greed in her eyes. Nonetheless, there was nothing she could do now but squirm with anxiety while chewing on her lip.
I swept a glance over her and Lucy, not letting my guard down for even a second.
As a precaution, I decided to head to the conference room where we would be signing the contract to check the projection equipment one last time.
However, when the elevator came to a stop on the 14th floor, the corridor was eerily silent and empty. Not a single employee was in sight.
Frowning, I walked toward the conference room door and stopped to inspect it. It was a thick metal door with soundproofing, and the room inside was completely sealed off from the outside, with not even a window for airflow.
I instinctively paused, but that brief moment of hesitation was all Liliana needed.
She abruptly lunged at me from around the corner, one hand reaching out to grab the hand I had tucked into my pocket, while the other yanked the bag holding the encrypted digital tablet.
I tried to snatch the bag back, but Liliana used the momentum to shove me in the shoulder.
Losing my balance, I tumbled into the dim records room next door. My right foot twisted under my weight, causing a sharp pain to shoot from my ankle.
A pained shout left my lips as I crashed to the floor hard. At the same time, the door swung shut with a loud bang, followed by a click as Lucy locked it.
"Hahaha! We finally got the device! Selena, I bet you never expected your own caution would end up being your downfall, right? Fortunately, we switched conference rooms in advance."
Liliana's triumphant cackle reached my ears through the door.
Following that, Mr. Watson's voice rang out as well, the excitement in his voice barely suppressed.
"Quick, bring that hacker here! No matter the cost, I want that damn code cracked within ten minutes!"
I sat on the icy floor, trying to ignore the throbbing pain from my ankle, and laughed coldly. In a voice loud enough that they could hear, I called out, "Do you seriously think that you'll be able to get the core data once you crack that code? I assure you that you'll regret it."
Liliana replied mockingly, "Selena, stop trying to act tough! Even at this point, you're still being so stubborn!"
It wasn't long before the sound of rapid clacking came as the hacker typed away at his keyboard furiously, shortly followed by his confident report. "Mr. Watson, this kind of encryption isn't difficult to crack. I've already succeeded in breaking through the first firewall."
Subsequently, a series of beeps sounded, followed by a crisp system alert.
"You cracked it!" Liliana yelled gleefully.
Lucy spoke to me, her voice dripping with malice. "Selena, just stay there and reflect on yourself! Oh, I heard that you have claustrophobia, right? Then let me help you create the perfect atmosphere! Aren't I so kind?"
With a click, the already dim records room was plunged into darkness.
Lucy had turned off the lights.
An endless sea of black immediately swallowed me. The narrow, enclosed space seemed to close in on me further, the pitch-black darkness pressing in on me from all sides.
My breathing sped up, and it felt like there was a massive boulder crushing my chest, making it incredibly difficult to even pant. Cold sweat trickled down my back, drenching my clothing.
I bit down hard on my tongue, using the pain in an attempt to stay conscious. Still, the dizziness from the lack of oxygen was relentless, battering my senses withou
Ten minutes passed by.
Then, 20…
Just as I thought all the air in my lungs was about to run out, as despair threatened to drag me down into unconsciousness, a burst of chaotic, panicked cries blared outside the door.
Following that, there was a flurry of heavy footsteps before a thundering boom rang out.
The thick steel door flew off its hinges, bringing with it the doorframe, as someone violently kicked it open from the outside.
