Chapter 2A Screenshot Changed My Life—And Ruined His

It wasn't until I was copying over last year's project archives that I noticed something strange.

The e-commerce project that had won the company's Best Proposal of the Year award had a timestamp showing that the original draft showed its last modification time as 2:00 a.m. on a weekend.

But that day, I clearly remembered having a fever and spending two days lying in bed at home. I hadn't even touched my computer.

…

The facilities supervisor shoved a broom into my hands, his face twisted into a scowl.

"Clean all the restrooms on this floor today, and wipe down all the hallway windows. If the work isn't up to standard, it'll come out of your performance review."

A few of the longtime facilities employees stood nearby with their arms crossed, leaning against the wall and watching me like I was some kind of joke.

Then Caleb appeared out of nowhere. He walked straight across the floor I'd just finished cleaning, leaving two footprints behind.

"Well, well, well, Jethro," he drawled. "So you're really doing this now?"

He looked at me, his eyes glinting with amusement.

"Honestly, I didn't expect things to turn out like this. Mr. Burton asked me how you'd been doing lately, so I just mentioned that you seemed to have a lot of free time…"

He held out his coffee cup.

"Do me a favor and toss this when you're done, yeah? I've got a meeting to get to."

I met his gaze, and the smug look on his face said everything. He was enjoying every second of this.

"Take care, Caleb," I said, smiling at him as I took the cup.

He turned and walked away, his dress shoes clicking against the freshly cleaned floor.

I crushed the coffee cup in my hand and tossed it into the trash.

…

By the time I clocked out, I carried the company-issued laptop home.

During the handover, I told HR that I still had some personal files on the computer that I hadn't finished copying over. I asked if I could take it home, sort everything out, and return it the following week.

They didn't think much of it. It was just an old work laptop, after all.

The second I got home, I didn't even bother eating. I immediately video-called my childhood friend, Isaac Jadwin, who worked in IT.

"Help me check this laptop," I said. "I think someone installed some kind of monitoring software on it.

Isaac answered while chewing on a sandwich. He remotely accessed my computer and spent nearly 40 minutes digging through it before suddenly swearing.

"Holy crap!" he exclaimed. "Some asshole installed a stealth remote-access program on your computer.

"This thing can watch your screen in real time, copy your files without you knowing, and even turn on your webcam without triggering the indicator light. It's buried so deep that most antivirus software wouldn't even detect it."

The color drained from my face.

I remembered all those nights I'd stayed up at home working on proposals, when I'd suddenly get the uneasy feeling that someone was watching me.

It hadn't been my imagination after all.

"Can you find out who did it?" I asked, my throat feeling tight.

"Yeah. I can pull the access logs."

Isaac hammered away at his keyboard for a while before sending me the log file.

"Look. Starting three months ago, someone accessed your computer almost every night between 1:00 am and 3:00 am.

"I traced the IP, and it's coming from Parkview Residences, an apartment complex near your office. The account name is 'cknowles'."

It immediately clicked.

The account "Cknowles" belonged to Caleb Knowles.

I stared at those letters, a chill creeping down my spine.

"Do you want me to remove the software for you?" Isaac asked. "Should we call the cops?"

I shook my head, forcing down the anger boiling inside me.

My eyes fell on the unfinished industrial park marketing proposal still open on my screen, and I suddenly smiled.

Caleb had gone to all this trouble to get rid of me because he wanted my projects, didn't he?

If he loved stealing my work so much, I had just the thing for him.

I deleted the unconfirmed key figures from the proposal and left them marked as "Pending Confirmation".

…

The next day, I brought the laptop back to the office and returned it to the operations department's administrator, telling her that I'd finished copying all my personal files.