Chapter 263: The Mole
Chapter 263: The Mole
(Sophia POV)
The reason I knew all this was because my brother told me.
I was on the phone with Owen at the time. He said he was investigating and told me to wait for updates.
After hanging up, I put my phone on the coffee table and stared at the ceiling.
Noah came out of the study with a water glass in his hand and glanced at me.
"Owen's looking into it?"
"Yeah. He said he'd tell me once he found something."
Noah nodded and didn't ask more. He sat down on the sofa and opened his phone, like he was looking at some documents. After a while, he looked up.
"Robinson got some information too."
I looked at him.
"This afternoon, he met with one of the bosses who called you." His tone was flat, like he was reading a report. "The guy's name is Wade, runs a soft furnishing business. Small company. He admitted he paid five hundred dollars to get your phone number from a middleman. He wasn't targeting you specifically—he wanted to use you to connect with Daniel."
I froze for a second. "Daniel?"
"Word's going around that you and Daniel have some kind of special relationship. The Cooper Group has several commercial complexes opening in the second half of the year, and the soft furnishing contracts are big deals. He wanted to use you to get in with the Cooper family."
I leaned back against the sofa cushion and said nothing. Rumors. Always rumors. My thing with Daniel had been talked about over and over since the divorce, and people were still using it as leverage. They didn't care what the truth was—only what they could get out of it.
"Did Wade say anything else?" I asked.
"Yeah. According to him, besides Evelyn, there were other people inside the Mitchell Group selling your information too."
My fingers paused. Besides Evelyn, there were others selling my information too.
Those colleagues I used to work with, attend meetings with, chat with in the break room—they'd put a price tag on my phone number and sold it.
Noah looked at me. "Owen should have results soon."
I nodded.
Around nine that evening, my phone rang. It was Owen.
"Sophia, I found them." His voice was low, like he was holding something back. "Besides Evelyn, there were three people from HR, two from design, and the receptionist. Six people working together. They used their system access to pull phone numbers, addresses, and emergency contacts for over a hundred employees and sold them through a WhatsApp account. Three hundred to eight hundred dollars per entry."
I gripped my phone and said nothing. Six people. Over a hundred pieces of information. I didn't know their names, but they must have passed me in the company hallways. Maybe they even smiled at me, said "Good morning, Ms. Parker."
"I've compiled all the evidence." Owen's voice dropped lower. "I'm turning it over to the police first thing tomorrow morning. Those six people will be taken in. Sophia, I'm sorry. This was a failure in my management, and it affected you."
"Owen, it's not your fault. You've already done more than enough." My voice was soft, but I knew he heard me.
The call ended. I put down my phone and stared at the water glass on the coffee table.
Noah was still sitting beside me, not speaking, not looking at me. He just sat there, like a wall.
The next morning, Chloe sent me a message.
【Chloe: Sophia! Something huge happened at your old company! Several police cars showed up this morning and six people were taken away! They walked from the third-floor hallway all the way down to the first floor—the whole company saw it!】
I didn't reply. I knew.
I knew they'd walk down from that floor, past every colleague's desk, being pointed at and whispered about. Just like when Evelyn was taken away.
The Mitchell Group wasn't big. This kind of thing couldn't be hidden.
But whether it could be hidden didn't matter anymore. What mattered was whether they'd thought about being taken away by police when they were selling information. They probably did, but figured it wouldn't happen to them.
My phone buzzed again. A message from Owen.
【Owen: All six have been turned over to the police. The company will conduct a comprehensive data security audit. The source of your phone number leak has been identified. No one will be able to get your information through this channel again.】
I replied with one line.
【Sophia: Thank you.】
The sunlight outside was bright. I leaned back on the sofa, staring at that beam of light.
People had watched me from the shadows, called me, sent me messages.
But those people weren't the scariest part. The scariest part was that the people who sold me out were the ones I used to greet every day.
They sat at desks next to mine, used the same break room, had my phone number stored in the same system, and then put a price on it. A few hundred dollars. A person's information was worth a few hundred dollars.
My nose didn't sting, but my heart went cold for a moment. Not cold—it was that empty feeling of being pushed from behind, turning around, and finding no one there.
Noah stood up and held out the water glass to me.
"The water's gone cold. Let me get you a fresh one."
"No need." I took it and drank a sip. The cold water slid down my throat, and my stomach tightened.