Chapter 4

Ava sent me another text on SnapChat, her words frantic:

"Summer, the system crash caused a massive failure in one of Nova's cross-border transactions! The estimated loss is over ten million dollars! Mr. Harrison is furious. He called Diana directly and demanded our company take full financial responsibility! The entire executive suite is losing their minds! Diana and all the VPs have just rushed down to our department!"

A second later, another text popped up: "Victoria is already spreading rumors. She's telling everyone that you secretly hid the encryption keys before you left to sabotage Sophie! She claims you knew about the vulnerability and stayed quiet just to watch Sophie fail!"

I looked at my screen and let out a cold laugh. Their ability to shift blame was truly unparalleled.

But before they could even handle the first fire, another broke out. The order database for another VIP client suddenly turned into corrupted code, and the office printers began frantically spitting out pages of gibberish. Ava's live updates kept coming:

"Sophie completely panicked and ordered the tech team to force-reboot the main servers! They did it multiple times, but the data is still corrupted! She even pointed the tech guys to the wrong backup directory, and when one of them tried to correct her, she screamed at him! The lead engineer says they have no choice but to activate the Disaster Recovery System. It's our absolute last hope!"

The Disaster Recovery System was a multi-million-dollar custom backup network the company had purchased from a European cybersecurity firm. It was our ultimate safety net.

"Sophie went to launch the Disaster Recovery System, but the system failed to boot and started blasting warning alarms! She tried to bypass it by force-rebooting the hardware again! Summer, oh my god! The server rack is smoking!"

Under Sophie's reckless commands, the hardware let out a loud, high-pitched screech. The server screens flashed once and went completely black.

The smell of burnt plastic filled the server room. The multi-million-dollar safety net was fried.

Two catastrophic crises. One was losing millions by the minute due to delayed recovery; the other was on the verge of losing all VIP client data permanently. The furious demands of clients over the phone and the blaring alarms turned the sales department into a living hell.

Diana, our CEO, looked so pale she looked like she might faint.

Her hands shook as she personally called the cybersecurity vendor in Europe. The representative on the other end, speaking with a heavy accent, regretfully informed her that their lead engineers were currently on a project in Asia. The earliest they could fly out to New York was in two days.

A heavy blanket of despair fell over the room.

Just as Diana was about to hang up the phone in defeat, the vendor added, "Actually, you might want to contact one of the local consultants who helped us test and debug your system during the initial integration. I believe her name is Summer Miller, and she works at your company."

Diana's hand froze mid-air. She snapped her head around, her eyes locking onto Victoria like a hawk.

Victoria's face turned white as a sheet.

She knew better than anyone—the core integration engineer the vendor was talking about was the very person she had bullied, demoted, and forced onto a plane for a thirty-day leave.

Me.