Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
An hour before the annual investor pitch, the conference room was a total disaster zone.
Paige, the intern in charge of coordinating all our presentation files, stood in front of me with red, teary eyes.
"Chloe, I'm so sorry."
"I was double-checking the files just now, and your final pitch deck is gone."
Before I could even speak.
My ex-boyfriend, Tyler, stepped in front of her, scowling at me.
"Don't look at her like that."
"Paige is fresh out of college, and this is her first time handling such a massive pitch. It's totally normal for her to be overwhelmed."
"Aren't you usually great at whipping up decks? It wouldn't take you long to throw together another draft."
The rest of the team chimed in to smooth things over.
"Come on, Chloe, don't make a scene. The investors are pulling up right now."
"Yeah, you come from money anyway. The worst that happens to you is a smaller bonus. The rest of us literally need this deal to hit our quotas."
"Paige is on the verge of tears. Do you really have to back her into a corner?"
Everyone was telling me to suck it up and take the hit.
Until Paige plugged in her USB drive, ready to project the final combined slides for our department director.
Suddenly, bold red text flashed across the giant screen.
"The project cloud drive was wiped clean by the administrator yesterday at 11:47 PM."
Dead silence fell over the room for three whole seconds.
Then, utter chaos exploded.
"Wiped clean? What does that mean?!"
"I thought it was just Chloe's pitch deck that went missing!"
"If the entire cloud drive is empty, what are we supposed to pitch to the investors?!"
The door to the director's office slammed open.
Marcus walked out in his sharp suit, his face stormy.
"What's all this shouting about?"
"The investors just stepped into the elevator."
"Are the decks ready or not?"
No one dared to breathe.
Every drop of color drained from Paige's face.
Her fingers clutched the USB drive until her knuckles turned chalk-white.
"Marcus, I... I don't know why this happened."
"Everything was completely fine just a minute ago."
I leaned against the conference table, staying quiet.
Tyler rushed to jump in.
"Marcus, it has to be a system glitch."
"Didn't the company cloud update its servers last night?"
"Paige stayed late organizing files. There's no way she deleted anything on purpose."
Marcus's sharp gaze locked onto me.
"Chloe, didn't you lose your slides too?"
"You were the last person to leave the conference room yesterday."
"Did you mess with the main shared drive?"
I looked up at him.
"Marcus, are you asking me a question, or are you just convicting me?"
Marcus frowned, annoyed.
"This isn't the time to throw a tantrum."
"If you touched it, just admit it."
"Do you have a backup or not?"
Rachel, one of our teammates, immediately stood up clutching her laptop.
"I have some of the financial spreadsheets saved locally, but they're not the latest versions."
"Paige had all the final files."
Panic started ripping through the room.
"Paige, didn't you say you organized everything into the final folder?"
"You literally told everyone in the WhatsApp group yesterday that you'd make sure nothing went wrong!"
"How is the entire main database wiped out now?"
Paige's eyes welled with tears.
She bit her lip and looked at me.
"I really don't know."
"I was just following standard archiving procedures last night."
"Maybe... maybe there was something wrong with the format of Chloe's file."
I let out a cold laugh.
"My file format is so powerful it wiped out the entire team's database?"
Cut off by my words, Paige's tears spilled down her cheeks instantly.
Tyler's face darkened.
"Chloe, that's enough."
"Look at what time it is! Do you really have to be so sarcastic?"
"Paige is already terrified. Why are you trying to pin the blame on her?"
I stared straight at him.
"Tyler, you're getting dangerously good at playing her knight in shining armor."
His eyes flickered.
Then he got even angrier.
"I'm just being reasonable!"
"You're the most capable person here. Can't you just take on a little more responsibility?"
"Paige is just an intern, and her family is struggling. She needs this project to secure her full-time offer."
"What about you?"
"Even if you lose this bonus, you won't starve."Same old story.
My family has money, so I'm obligated to step aside.
I'm capable, so I'm obligated to clean up everyone else's mess.
I glanced down at my phone.
9:17 AM.
The investors were walking in at 9:30.
I placed my phone back on the table.
"Fine."
Everyone turned to look at me.
Tyler let out a visible sigh of relief.
"You have a backup?"
I said.
"Yes."
Paige's head snapped up.
There was no relief in her eyes.
Only pure, unadulterated panic.
I pretended not to notice.
Marcus barked immediately.
"Then what are you waiting for?"
"Copy it over right now!"
I didn't move an inch.
"Marcus, I can pull it out."
"But before I do, I want one thing made crystal clear."
"If this cloud drive was wiped intentionally, who takes the fall?"
Marcus's expression soured.
"Is holding people accountable really productive right now?"
"Of course it is."
I held his gaze.
"Ten minutes ago, when it was just my deck missing, you were all lining up to tell me to swallow it."
"Now that the whole team's work is gone, suddenly holding people accountable isn't 'productive'?"
The conference room went dead silent.
Paige began to sob quietly.
"Chloe, I know you don't like me."
"But the project comes first. Can't you just save the pitch first?"
"After the investors leave, you can chew me out all you want."
Tyler backed her up immediately.
"Paige is right."
"Stop bringing your personal baggage into work."
A slow smile spread across my face.
"Personal baggage?"
"Fine, let's talk purely business."
"I uploaded my final deck yesterday at 6:00 PM."
"Once uploaded, only the shared drive administrator can move or delete files."
"Who was the administrator?"
Every pair of eyes in the room shifted to Paige.
Her shoulders trembled.
"It was me."
"But I swear I didn't delete anything!"
"I barely even know how to use the admin portal."
I nodded coolly.
"Then we'll wait for IT to pull the audit logs."
Marcus slammed his hand on the table.
"Chloe!"
"The investors are walking down the hall!"
"Are you really going to gamble the entire team's future over a petty grudge?"
I looked at his hand on the table.
Then I looked him dead in the eye.
"Marcus."
"Before you say another word, you'd better remember something."
"Ten minutes ago, when you expected me to solo-scramble a whole new deck in thirty minutes, none of you gave a damn about my future."
This hadn't started today.
Two months ago, Paige joined the team as an intern.
She wore a faded white button-down and carried a battered canvas tote.
When HR introduced her, she stood by the doorway, her voice squeaking like a frightened mouse.
"Hi, everyone, I'm Paige."
"Please go easy on me."
A few guys on the team melted right on the spot.
"Aw, don't be nervous."
"Relax, our team culture is super chill."
Tyler was sitting diagonally across from me.
He looked up, glanced at Paige, and casually cleared the empty desk next to him.
"You can sit here."
"If you don't know how to do something, just ask me."
Paige flashed him a look of overwhelming gratitude.
"Thank you so much, Tyler."
I was reviewing a contract at the time, and my hands paused for half a second.
Tyler and I had broken up less than three months prior.
His reason was that I was "too dominant."
He had said:
"Chloe, you always know exactly what you want."
"Being with you is exhausting."
I hadn't begged him to stay.
All I said was:
"Then don't exhaust yourself."
Later, I figured out what his so-called "exhaustion" really meant.
He just preferred someone who looked up at him in awe.
And Paige was an Olympic champion at playing the damsel in distress.
When the printer jammed, she would flutter over in a panic.
"Tyler, am I totally stupid?"
When she messed up an expense report, her eyes would brim with tears.
"I've never used a corporate tool this complex before."
When she mispronounced a VIP client's name, she'd bow her head repeatedly.
"I'm so sorry. I've had terrible public speaking anxiety since I was a kid."
Every single time, Tyler swooped in to save the day.
"It's fine. I'll walk you through it."
"Guys, stop laughing at her."
"Everyone starts out like this."
I never laughed.
I only gave direct feedback.
"Mispronouncing a client's name once is a slip-up. Three times is unprofessional."
"Incorrect expense amounts screw up the entire finance closing cycle."
"Printing materials isn't a college club project. Don't keep clients waiting."
Every time I spoke, Paige reacted like I had slapped her across the face.
Her eyes would instantly turn red.
"Chloe, I know you think I'm dumb."
"I'll try harder."
And Tyler would scowl at me.
"Do you really have to be so blunt?"
I'd look back at him.
"What do you want me to say?"
"'Good job, sweetie, it's totally fine to mess up'?"
His face would sour.
"You know that's not what I mean."
Paige would whisper beside him, playing the martyr.
"Tyler, please don't fight with Chloe because of me."
"It's my fault for not being good enough. It's totally fine that she doesn't like me."
Such clever phrasing.
It sounded like an apology, but it painted a massive target on my back.
Gradually, whispers circulated around the department.
Chloe bullies the new girl.
Chloe is jealous that her ex is helping someone else.
Chloe comes from a wealthy family and is just working for fun, so she doesn't care about ordinary people trying to earn a living.
I overheard it once myself.
In the break room, Rachel was whispering:
"Her dad runs a massive construction firm, right?"
"She can afford to lose. We can't."
Another male colleague agreed:
"No wonder she talks so bold."
"If I had that kind of money, I'd talk back to the bosses every day too."I pushed the break room door open.
They shut their mouths instantly.
I poured myself a glass of water and asked evenly,
"Done talking?"
Rachel forced an awkward laugh.
"Oh, we were just talking about something else!"
"Keep your voices down next time," I replied.
"Otherwise, you just sound pathetic."
After that, Paige acted even more like a victim.
During lunch break, she bought coffee for the entire team.
Everyone got a cup.
Only my cup had a note scribbled on it: "Half Sugar."
I don't drink half sugar.
I'm allergic to coffee and only drink herbal tea.
I placed the cup back on her desk.
"Thanks, but I don't drink this."
Paige jumped up immediately.
"I'm so sorry! I had no idea!"
Tyler looked up.
"Chloe, it's just a cup of coffee."
I looked at him.
"Then drink it for me."
He hesitated for two seconds, took it, and drank it.
Paige's eyes welled up again.
By that afternoon, rumors spread that I had deliberately humiliated her over a coffee run.
I didn't bother explaining.
I was too busy.
The annual investor pitch was our company's biggest deal of the year.
If our team secured this funding round, everyone's bonuses would double.
I was responsible for the core presentation deck.
Tyler handled client relations.
Paige was assigned to coordinate the files.
Marcus had made that assignment himself.
I had objected right from the start.
"She doesn't even know basic file-naming protocols."
"Giving her admin access to the main drive is a recipe for disaster."
Marcus sipped his tea and dismissed me.
"We need to give junior talent opportunities."
"Stop fixating on people's weaknesses."
Tyler backed him up.
"Paige is very hardworking."
"She just lacks experience."
I sneered.
"Lack of experience means you assist."
"You don't use the team's most critical deal as a sandbox."
Paige stood by the door, tears rolling silently down her cheeks.
"Marcus, forget it."
"Chloe doesn't trust me. I won't do it."
Marcus waved his hand dismissively.
"You're doing it."
"I call the shots here."
"Chloe, focus on your deck."
"Stay out of the rest."
So, I stayed out of it.
But I kept an ace up my sleeve.
Because I never leave my fate in the hands of people who resent me.
Yesterday evening at 7:00 PM.
I had packed my bag and was ready to leave.
Paige walked over clutching her laptop.
"Chloe, could you send me your final deck one more time?"
"I'm worried the version on the cloud drive isn't the absolute latest."
I looked at her.
"The cloud drive has version control tags."
"Check the version number."
She lowered her head.
"I'm scared of messing it up."
"Marcus said nothing can go wrong tomorrow."
I shut my laptop.
"Then you'd better learn how to read version numbers."
She lingered, refusing to move.
Tyler walked back in from outside carrying two cups of boba tea.
He handed one to Paige and set the other on his desk.
Seeing us standing there, his brow furrowed instantly.
"What's going on now?"
Paige quickly squeaked,
"Nothing!"
"I just wanted to verify Chloe's deck."
"She probably thinks I'm annoying."
Tyler turned to me.
"Is it really that hard to just send it again?"
I replied:
"It's not hard."
"But she's the coordinator, not a messenger."
"If she can't even navigate version control on Google Drive, who takes the blame when something breaks at tomorrow's investor pitch?"
Tyler slammed his boba down onto his desk.
"Can you stop blowing everything out of proportion?"
"I'll send it to her."
I reminded him:
"You don't have my final deck."
He scoffed. "I have the one from noon."
I smiled.
"That one is missing three pages of financial projections."
Paige looked up sharply.
"Wait, what?"
The panic on her face was very real.
Tyler stiffened.
"Then just upload it again."
I opened my laptop and uploaded the final deck to the company cloud right in front of the three of them.
Looking them in the eye, I stated clearly:
"Look at this."
"File name: Investor_Pitch_Core_Deck_Final_v9."
"Upload time: 7:12 PM."
"Uploaded by: Chloe."
Paige nodded hurriedly.
"Got it."
I added:
"Do not touch the master file."
"If you need to compile, make a duplicate."
"Before deleting anything, confirm it in the WhatsApp group first."
Paige bit her lip.
"Chloe, you're making it sound like I'm definitely going to delete something by mistake."
I held her gaze.
"Last week, you deleted an executed legal contract."
"The day before yesterday, you overwrote the pricing matrix."
"Yesterday, you emailed our confidential client list to a rival vendor with a similar name."
Her face went deathly pale.
Tyler cut in defensively.
"Weren't all those issues resolved?"
"Do you really need to keep digging up the past?"I replied:
"Workplace disasters aren't the past. They're a risk log."
Tears gushed from Paige's eyes.
"I'm sorry!"
"I'm just not as smart as you!"
"I know I don't deserve to be on this team!"
Tyler glared at me, exasperated.
"Happy now?"
I snapped my laptop shut.
"Not really."
"Because she's still the admin of the master drive."
With that, I took my bag and walked out.
Just before stepping into the elevator, I received a text from an unsaved number.
"Don't think you can win everything."
No sender name.
I stared at the words for a few seconds.
Took a screenshot.
Saved it.
And forwarded it to my backup email.
At 11:50 PM.
I had just finished showering and was about to sleep when my phone chimed.
It was a security notification from the company cloud:
"Mass file modification detected in your watched folder."
I tapped the notification.
The alert vanished.
Because my access permissions had been revoked.
Sitting on the edge of my bed, I snapped wide awake.
I flipped open my laptop.
Logged into my private cloud backup.
Confirmed Version 9 was intact.
Confirmed the demo videos were intact.
Confirmed the raw financial models were intact.
Finally, I shot a message to Scott, a friend in IT.
"If our project shared drive goes down tomorrow morning, pull the audit logs for me."
Scott replied almost immediately:
"Your team playing office politics again?"
I replied:
"Likely corporate sabotage."
He sent a question mark.
I typed back:
"To ruin my bonus."
The next morning, I arrived early.
8:20 AM.
Paige was the only person in the conference room.
She was bent over, plugging her laptop into the projector.
Hearing the door click open, she whipped around like a startled rabbit.
"Chloe? Why are you here so early?"
I offered a faint smile.
"Couldn't sleep."
She hurriedly yanked a USB drive out of her port.
"I was just testing the projector."
I watched her hands.
"Did it work?"
She shoved the flash drive into her pocket.
"Yeah, all good."
I walked over to my seat.
Opened my laptop.
Sure enough, my pitch deck was completely gone from the company shared drive.
I wasn't surprised in the slightest.
I looked up at her.
"Paige, where's my file?"
She blinked innocently.
"What file?"
"Version 9," I said.
She opened the cloud drive, clicked around dramatically, and put on an act of sheer horror.
"How is it not there?!"
"Chloe, I'm so sorry!"
She stood up, tears on cue.
"I honestly don't know what happened!"
"Did the upload fail yesterday?"
Before I could answer, the door swung open.
Tyler walked in with a few colleagues.
Paige looked at him like he was her savior.
"Tyler..."
He rushed straight over to her.
"What's wrong?"
Marcus was pacing back and forth in the conference room, frantic.
"How much longer until IT gets here?!"
Rachel checked her phone.
"They said five minutes. They're checking the admin logs."
Tyler lowered his voice, comforting Paige softly.
"Don't cry. It's not necessarily your fault."
Paige's shoulders shook with sobs.
"But everyone is blaming me."
"I just wanted to keep the files organized."
I laughed out loud.
"'Organized' all the way into oblivion?"
She snapped her head toward me.
"Chloe, why do you have to be like this?!"
"Did you already know something was going to go wrong?!"
The room went quiet again.
That was a poisonous accusation.
Tyler seized on it instantly.
"Wait. You're right."
"You just said you had a backup."
"Did you anticipate the files would go missing?"
"Chloe, what did you do?"
I stared at him.
"Tyler."
"Your logic is impressive. You should become a defense lawyer for con artists."
"Because the victim took precautions, that proves the victim is guilty?"
His face flushed crimson.Then he scoffed defensively.
"Then explain it!"
"Why are you the only one on the entire team with a complete backup?"
I replied:
"Because I'm the only one on this team with a functioning brain."
Someone snorted a laugh in the back, then quickly choked it down.
Marcus's face darkened further.
"Chloe, watch your attitude."
I looked at Marcus.
"Marcus, my attitude is saintly."
"Anyone else in my position would have already called the cops."
Paige flinched violently.
"The cops?!"
Her voice went shrill.
"These are internal company files! Why would you call the police?!"
I pinned her with my eyes.
"Because intentionally destroying commercial data to inflict corporate damages is a criminal offense."
"You know better than anyone how much funding is on the line today."
Her face turned whiter than paper.
Tyler stepped forward to block her from my view.
"Stop terrorizing her!"
"What does an intern know about corporate liability?"
I said:
"She didn't know when she hit delete."
"She'll figure it out when she's sued for damages."
"Chloe!"
Marcus roared.
"I'm saying this for the last time!"
"Save the pitch first!"
"Everything else will be dealt with afterward!"
I held up my hands.
"Fine."
"Under three conditions."
Marcus gritted his teeth. "Name them."
"First: Today's pitch uses my backup, and the deck attribution cannot be changed."
"Second: An incident report for this data loss is drafted right now, and everyone signs it."
"Third: Once the pitch is over, IT sends the audit logs to the entire team."
Paige shook her head, weeping.
"No... please don't."
"It's not that I'm afraid of an investigation."
"It's just that there are so many people here today."
"If the investors find out, it'll make Marcus look terrible!"
I looked at Marcus.
"Marcus, look at that."
"She's so thoughtful."
Marcus's face alternated between green and pale.
He didn't want to sign, of course.
He was the one who had insisted on giving Paige admin rights in the first place.
But the investors were pulling up.
He had no cards left to play.
"Sign it," he ordered the room.
"Sign the incident report right now."
"Anyone who wastes another second can say goodbye to their performance review."
Muttering broke out across the room.
"We never should have let Paige touch the files."
"I went home last night thinking everything was safe."
"What the hell did she actually delete?"
Paige's face twisted with humiliation.
She clamped a hand over her mouth and bolted out of the room toward the restroom.
Tyler moved to chase after her.
Marcus barked:
"Stay right where you are!"
"You're greeting the investors!"
Tyler froze.
He looked at me, his eyes brimming with silent accusation, as if blaming me for being heartless.
I didn't give a damn.
I plugged my laptop into the projector.
Opened my private cloud drive.
Every file appeared, crisp and complete.
The master pitch.
Financial projections.
Demo videos.
Client case studies.
Risk management blueprints.
A collective sigh of relief washed over the entire room.
Even Marcus breathed easier.
He leaned in and whispered to me,
"Chloe, wouldn't we have avoided all this drama if you'd just brought this out earlier?"
I looked at the screen.
"Marcus."
"If I had brought it out earlier, people would still be claiming I staged the whole thing."
"This way is much better."
"Now everyone knows exactly who can't survive without whom."
He choked on his words.
9:30 AM on the dot.
The investors walked through the double doors.
I stood up.
Grabbed the clicker.
Tyler stood by the doorway, looking miserable.
I didn't spare him a glance.
I looked across the table at the panel of investors.
"Good morning, everyone."
"I'll be walking you through our project pitch today."
At that moment, Paige was still hiding in the bathroom stall.
She honestly thought that crying her eyes out would shield her from the fallout.
She had no idea.
The real reckoning had only just begun.
Chapters (5)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Watch & Promotions
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