There was no explanation underneathJust the date.
I felt my face burning.
People had already made up all kinds of stories.
Some probably thought there was some sort of secret relationship between us.
And just at that moment, Mr. Wilson opened the door.
“Emily, get in.
Within the office were five members of the company’s board of directors, the chief financial officer, the company’s attorney and Mark.
I immediately realized that this was much more serious than I had imagined.
Mr. Wilson closed the door.
“Sit down.
Then he placed a folder on the table.
Three months ago, I noticed that money was disappearing from the company’s accounts.
Mark paled.
“At first we thought it was an accounting error,” Mr. Wilson continued. But then we found out that someone inside the company was creating fake contracts.
I still didn’t understand what all that had to do with me.
He turned to me.
“Two weeks ago, you accidentally sent me a report containing three figures that no one else had noticed.
I remembered.
It looked like a simple Excel spreadsheet.
“Those three figures led us to start an internal investigation,” he said. And yesterday we needed one last test.
Is that why you fired me?
“Yes.
The room was silent.
He opened the folder.
“If the person who was stealing the money believed that Emily was no longer working here and, moreover, she believed that she had some kind of personal relationship with me, she could panic and think that I had told her something. We wanted to see who would be the first person to try to delete information from the system or make documents disappear.
My heart was beating strongly.
And the photo?
Mr. Wilson smiled slightly.
It was a decoy.
At that moment, the company’s lawyer turned a laptop at me.
By 2:17 a.m., someone had logged into the company’s system and tried to delete hundreds of files.
When I saw the username, I was frozen.
Karen Matthews.
The same Karen who had mocked me that morning.But that was not all yet.
Mr. Wilson placed another document in front of me.
“Emily, we didn’t really fire you yesterday.
What?
“We just needed everyone to think we had.
He signed the document and turned it to me.
It was a new job offer.
Director of Internal Controls.
The salary was almost double what I had been earning.I couldn’t talk.
Why me?
He remained silent for a moment.
“Because for the past five years, a lot of people here have worked hard to impress me. You were the only one who worked like no one was looking.
Then he looked at the photo Hanging on the door of your office.
“And that picture will stay there until the end of the day.
I laughed.
People are thinking terrible things.He also laughs.
I know. But at noon I’ll tell you the truth.
When I left his office, the same people kept looking at me.
Only this time I was no longer ashamed.
Karen wasn’t there anymore.
And, interestingly, years later I still keep that photo of the lake.
Not because he shows up next to my old director.
But because that was the day I lost my job…
and the next morning I found out that I had never actually been fired.
I had only gone long enough to find out who needed to protect the company.
