Arthur flinched as if he had been struck across the face. “No. God, no. Ms. Davis, I assure you—”
“How did you get that information?!” Chloe suddenly shrieked.
The sound was jarring, a sharp burst of panicked static cutting through Arthur’s desperate apologies.
Chloe pushed past Arthur, her fuchsia blazer bright and aggressive against the somber business attire of the men around her. The first sliver of genuine, terrifying doubt had finally pierced through her thick armor of arrogance, but her pride absolutely refused to let her back down in front of a lobby full of her peers.
If she was wrong, her career was over. So, she had to be right. The woman had to be a criminal.
“How do you know my ID number?!” Chloe demanded, her voice shaking now, pointing a trembling finger at Evelyn’s phone. “Are you a corporate spy? Did you hack into our servers? That is highly confidential information!”
She took a fast, aggressive step toward Evelyn, reaching out with her right hand. “Show me that screen! Show me what you’re looking at right now!”
Evelyn didn’t flinch. She didn’t step back.
With a smooth, elegant flick of her wrist, Evelyn shifted the phone out of Chloe’s reach and tapped the side button. The screen instantly went black, locking the encrypted database away.
Evelyn looked down at Chloe’s outstretched hand, then slowly raised her eyes to meet Chloe’s frantic, panicked stare.
“Middle management,” Evelyn said quietly, her tone dripping with absolute, lethal authority, “does not have the security clearance for what is on this device.”
Chloe’s hand hung in the air for a long, agonizing second before she slowly let it drop to her side. She looked at the blank screen of the phone, then at Evelyn’s unwavering, unbothered expression, and finally, she looked at Arthur.
She expected Arthur to back her up. She expected the Chief Operating Officer to demand the phone, to call the tech department, to validate her suspicions.
Instead, Arthur Vance looked like he wanted to murder her.
All of the fear, all of the panic, all of the terror that Arthur had been directing toward Evelyn suddenly pivoted and locked onto Chloe. The blood rushed back into his face, turning his pale cheeks a dark, mottled red. His hands balled into tight fists at his sides, the veins in his neck bulging against the crisp white collar of his dress shirt.
He realized in that moment that Chloe wasn't just digging her own grave. She had rented an excavator and was actively trying to drag him into the pit with her.
“Chloe,” Arthur said. His voice was no longer trembling. It was a low, dangerous growl, barely contained fury vibrating in his chest.
Chloe swallowed hard. “Sir… she hacked our system. We need to—”
“Shut up,” Arthur hissed, taking a step toward her. “Shut your damn mouth and listen to me very carefully.”
Chloe recoiled, her mouth snapping shut. The few employees who were still whispering in the background went completely silent.
Arthur pointed a shaking finger at the phone in Chloe’s pocket.
“Take out your phone,” Arthur ordered, his voice echoing in the dead quiet of the lobby.
Chloe blinked, completely lost. “My… my phone?”
“Take it out!” Arthur roared, the sudden volume making the receptionist behind the desk physically jump in her chair.
With trembling hands, Chloe reached into the pocket of her pink blazer and pulled out her company-issued smartphone. The screen lit up with her lock screen—a picture of her golden retriever.
“Open your email,” Arthur commanded, his chest heaving. “Open your corporate email right now.”
Chloe’s thumbs moved clumsily over the glass. She unlocked the phone and tapped the blue mail icon.
“Now,” Arthur said, his voice dropping back down to a venomous whisper, “open the company-wide digital memo that was sent out by the Board of Directors at 6:00 AM this morning. The one marked Urgent.”
Chloe’s breath hitched. She had seen the notification that morning while she was in a taxi, but she had swiped it away. She never read the board’s morning memos; they were usually just dry financial updates about quarter-over-quarter growth or minor executive shuffling that didn't affect her marketing department.
Her finger hovered over the screen. She scrolled down past three emails from her team, finding the bolded subject line from the Board of Directors.
URGENT: Finalization of Corporate Acquisition and Leadership Restructuring.
Chloe tapped the email.
The message opened.