Chapter 68 Adeline
Adeline's POV
I stared at the notification until I fully comprehended what it meant. I could literally feel the blood slowly draining from my face.
It was a Friday night, and Vanessa had explicitly told the entire office earlier that afternoon that she had reservations at a trending five-Michelin-star restaurant with Julian to celebrate her return from London.
So it made me wonder how she could be opening a legal document on a Friday night while supposedly in the middle of a romantic dinner.
"Everything okay?" Percy asked, noting the change in my countenance.
"Fine," I quickly fixed my face, locking my phone and slipping it back into my pocket. "Just an automated server ping."
The elevator descended just as Percy wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me against his side, blissfully oblivious to the war that had just been declared upstairs, but my own mind was racing with questions on what Vanessa hoped to achieve.
I learned early on that predators rarely attacked when you were looking at them. They waited until you felt safe, until you put your guard down and turned your back.
Vanessa Sterling was exactly like that except in the corporate world. She didn't want to just critique my work. She wanted to humiliate me. She wanted to prove to her uncle, to the board, and to the entire firm that Percy’s judgment was compromised by a pretty face. She was going to alter that document. That had to be it. That was the only angle she could go after. Since she couldn't beat me fairly, she would do it sneakily.
I leaned my head against Percy’s shoulder, staring at our reflection in the mirrored doors of the elevator.
To her, she had set the trap, and I had taken the bait. All I had to do now was figure out a way to survive it.
Monday came around quickly. I had left Percy at home to quickly put some finishing touches on my work. Presently, it was past 6, and the office building was still fairly empty.
The TechStar presentation and meeting were scheduled for 9:00 in the main boardroom.
Over the weekend, Vanessa had sent a brief, incredibly polite email copying Percy and the senior partners. From her tone, one would think we were best of friends.
"Adeline, wonderful job on the preliminary drafting. I’ve completed the compliance review and approved the master file for printing. See you in the boardroom."
Lauren had come in a little bit before me to print and bind the massive booklets for the executives. They were currently sitting in a neat stack in the center of the conference room table, but I hadn't survived so far by trusting polite emails. There was no way she had simply decided to let me off the hook.
I sat at my desk with a cold cup of coffee by my elbow and opened the final, approved file that Vanessa had locked in the system.
I didn't read the whole thing. I didn't need to. I scrolled straight to page 142, where the most important clause in the document was. My eyes scanned it quickly, and at first glance, it looked untouched, but at my second read, I saw it. It was a subtle change in wording that would have changed the entire meaning of the clause to the opposite.
I chuckled. I had to give it to her; she was brilliant. Changing buyer to seller was genius level, but I guess I was smarter than her.
If this contract ever got to court in a suit, I would be in trouble that not even Percy would be able to dig me out of the hole the legal world would put me in. She literally made me sound like I was setting my clients up to inherit millions of losses in pre-existing lawsuits.
After I spotted the error, a wave of panic washed over me. What if I hadn't seen it?
My first instinct was to pick my phone and tell Percy what had just happened, what his brilliant lawyer Vanessa had done. I wanted him to fix it. I wanted him to unleash his fury and throw her out of the building, except I didn't do any of that.
I remembered the smug look on her face when she told her uncle I only got to my position by sleeping my way to the top. Running to Percy now would only prove her point.
So I took a deep breath and sat back down with a renewed fire in my chest. I wasn't going to let her know I was on to her trick.
I opened a new tab on my browser and logged into the firm’s administrative portal using the master clearance Percy had forgotten to revoke. I bypassed the standard user interface and dove straight into the server’s digital audit logs. Every keystroke, every file transfer, and every login on the firm's network was tracked and timed to protect client confidentiality.
I typed in the document ID for the TechStar master file. The screen was instantly filled by times I had logged in. I kept scrolling until I found V. Sterling. She had the right to access the file, so there was nothing suspicious about it until I saw the log where she deleted the original file I uploaded to replace it with a new version of hers.
"Caught you, bitch!" I whispered to myself and quickly printed out the screen. She had done it on a Saturday and didn't even bother to clear her tracks because she didn't think a junior associate had access to the network. That was the perk of sleeping with the boss, access to everything.
I waited patiently until the printer spat out three pages of undeniable proof of her sabotage. Then, I went back to my computer and pulled up my personal. offline backup of the correct contract and hit print on multiple copies of page 142.
By the time it was 8:45, the office was buzzing with the manic energy of a Monday morning. Associates were rushing past my desk, phones were ringing, and the scent of fresh coffee filled the air. The fact that everything went as normal calmed my nerves.
I felt invincible as I picked up my briefcase and put in both the corrected pages and the audit logs and walked down the hallway toward the main conference room.
As I approached the double glass doors, I could see them already gathering inside. Five TechStar executives in sharp suits. Three senior partners, including Vanessa’s uncle. Percy was sitting at the head of the table looking commanding and completely in his element before my eyes settled on Vanessa.
She was standing by the coffee cart, looking radiant in a white blazer as she chatted with the TechStar CEO. She looked over his shoulder and saw me standing outside the glass.
Her lips curved into a small smile, and I knew she was thinking that I was a dead woman walking.
Without breaking eye contact with her, I pushed the door open and stepped into the room with a secret smile of my own.