Chapter 29
Sophie's typing paused for a beat.
"What are you going to do?"
"Clear my name myself."
Sophie didn't ask anything else. The typing sounds started up again, three times more intense than before.
Evelyn hung up and opened her computer's file manager.
In her personal cloud storage was a folder labeled "Work Backup." She'd created this folder her first week at Ashford Group, with subfolders organized by year and project number. Inside each subfolder were proposal drafts, revised versions, and original client meeting notes.
She'd never touched the properties of any of these files. Creation time, last modified time, creator account name—all in their original state.
Evelyn opened every subfolder and saved screenshots of the key files' properties one by one.
When she finished the last screenshot, it was 1:14 a.m.
A message from Sophie popped up. A preview of a long graphic.
The timeline was crystal clear. Time axis on the left, corresponding work records on the right. Each entry was marked with a file creation timestamp and a thumbnail of the cloud sync log screenshot.
Evelyn downloaded the graphic and checked through it from top to bottom.
Nothing missing.
She opened her social media account.
Not many followers, just over a hundred. She'd only reposted a few industry news items before.
Evelyn created a new post.
The attached image was that timeline graphic.
She spent five minutes on the caption. The final version was just three lines.
[1. Below is my complete work record from over two years at Ashford Group. Every entry has third-party timestamp verification.]
[2. I have never seen the so-called 'internal communication records.' The forger is welcome to come forward for confrontation.]
[3. I have engaged legal counsel to pursue legal action against the anonymous poster.]
Evelyn checked it once and hit send.
1:37 a.m.
She leaned back in her chair. The office area was completely dark except for the glow from her screen.
Her phone buzzed.
Cedric.
Not a message forwarded by his assistant. From him directly.
[Saw what you posted. Legal is following up on their end.]
Evelyn replied with two words: Thank you.
Ten seconds later, a second message popped up.
[Have you eaten anything?]
Evelyn glanced down at the sandwich on her desk that she'd taken two bites of. Cold now, the edges of the bread dry and hard.
She didn't reply to that message.
At 2:15 a.m., Parker Group's legal team's official account reposted Evelyn's post with a statement stamped with Parker Group's official seal.
The statement was a single paragraph.
[Ms. Evelyn Kendall was hired through our company's formal recruitment process and passed non-compete agreement review, background check, and compliance audit before joining. The so-called 'Parker Group internal communication records' circulating online are forged documents. We have preserved evidence and will pursue legal action against the forger and distributors.]
Oliver Grey's electronic signature as Chief Legal Officer was stamped in the bottom right corner of the statement.
The tone on social media started shifting around three a.m.
Someone zoomed in on the file property screenshots from Evelyn's timeline and compared them one by one with the dates in the "communication records" from the post.
The first person to spot the problem was a blogger verified as an "internet security professional."
He posted a long thread.
[Just took a close look at that 'Parker Group internal communication records' attached to the post. The seventh entry on page three is dated August 14, a Sunday. Anyone who's worked at Parker Group knows their internal communication system is shut down on weekends. The server automatically goes offline every Friday at 10 p.m. and restarts Monday morning at 6 a.m. How could there be communication records on a Sunday?]
[Conclusion: This thing is fake. Whoever forged it didn't even understand the basic operating rules of Parker Group's system.]
That post got retweeted over three thousand times in half an hour.
By dawn, the comment section under the trending post had completely reversed direction.
[Where's the person who spread this rumor? Come out and explain.]
[That timeline Evelyn posted is insane. Every single entry has timestamp verification. If that's fake, she'd have had to start planning this two years in advance.]
[So who's actually going after her? Ashford Group?]
[Parker Group's legal team is involved now. Whoever's behind this is screwed.]
At seven a.m., Evelyn saw the data report on the public opinion reversal. It was an internal email from Parker Group's PR department.
Negative comments dropped from seventy-eight percent at one a.m. to eleven percent at seven a.m.
Positive and neutral comments rose to eighty-nine percent.
Evelyn closed the email and went to the restroom to wash her face.
The person in the mirror had obvious dark circles under her eyes. She hadn't slept all night.
She splashed cold water on her cheeks, dried off, and pulled her ponytail tight again.
As she walked out of the restroom, her phone buzzed.
A message from Sophie.
[The trending topic dropped to fortieth and it's still falling. The original post got tagged by the platform as 'suspected false information.' Eve, that was a brilliant play.]
Evelyn didn't have time to reply. A second message popped up right after.
From Cedric.
[There's a message you should see.]
A screenshot was attached below.
The screenshot showed a WhatsApp conversation Cedric had sent to Sebastian.
Just one sentence.
[Find your mole.]
The chat window showed the message had been read.
Evelyn stared at those four words for three seconds.
She didn't know what Sebastian's expression was when he saw that message. But she knew that forged "communication record" couldn't have appeared out of thin air. Someone forged Parker Group's internal documents. Someone handed those documents to someone with access to Sebastian. Someone got those documents into Sebastian's hands almost simultaneously with the post.
Every link in that chain required time, resources, and motive.
The person who could satisfy all three conditions—Evelyn had a pretty good idea who.
She locked her phone screen, walked back to her desk, and started prepping for the eight a.m. joint PR meeting.
Ashford Group headquarters, top floor.
Sebastian sat behind his desk.
Two things were on the desk.
One was the screenshot of Cedric's WhatsApp message, which he'd printed out and placed under a paperweight.
The other was the manila envelope Mr. Lewis had handed him two hours ago.
Four pages. Parker Group logo. Communication records.
Sebastian's gaze swept between the two items three times.
Find your mole.
He understood the subtext of those words. Cedric wasn't giving him a heads-up. He was giving him a warning. The warning meant: the source of that forged document is someone close to you.
And that document had been delivered by Mr. Lewis.
Mr. Lewis said he'd found it on Evelyn's old computer's hard drive.
Sebastian glanced at those four pages on his desk.
The date in the footer... page three was August 14.
He opened his phone's calendar and checked.
August 14. Sunday.