Chapter 7 - Uncovering the Truth
Mark sat at his desk for hours after Evelyn left, the altered financial documents spread out before him like a puzzle.
His hands were trembling slightly, not from fear, but from the sheer adrenaline of the confrontation.
He knew he couldn't just sit there and let her ruin his life; he had to find a way to prove his innocence.
He called David, his tech-savvy friend and the company's head of IT, asking him to come up immediately.
A few minutes later, David let himself into the office, his expression serious as he closed the door behind him.
"What's going on, Mark? You sounded frantic on the phone," David said, taking a seat opposite the desk.
Mark handed him the folder without a word, watching David's face as he scanned through the fraudulent documents.
David's eyebrows shot up, a low whistle escaping his lips as he realized the severity of the situation.
"This looks bad, Mark. If the board sees this, they won't even wait for an investigation; they'll fire you on the spot."
"It's Evelyn," Mark explained, his voice tight. "She's trying to blackmail me into letting her back into my life."
"She claims she has access to our systems. Is that even possible, David? Can she actually fake this?"
David frowned, pulling out his laptop and logging into the company's secure server with practiced ease.
"Let me look at the digital trail. Every document leaves a footprint, no matter how clever the hacker is."
The silence in the office was suffocating as David's fingers flew across the keyboard, his eyes reflecting the blue light of the screen.
Mark watched him, a knot of anxiety tightening in his stomach with every passing minute.
"Here it is," David muttered suddenly, pointing at a line of code on his screen. "Look at the IP address used to modify these files."
"It's not from your computer, Mark. It's from a remote login that was authorized using a temporary guest pass."
"A guest pass?" Mark repeated, confusion turning into a sudden revelation. "She used my credentials when I was asleep."
"Exactly," David said, nodding. "And look at the timestamp. These changes were made at three in the morning three weeks ago."
"Can you prove it wasn't me?" Mark asked, hope finally starting to break through the darkness.
"I can do better than that," David smiled grimly. "The IP address traces back to her personal laptop's VPN."
"She forgot that our system logs the hardware ID of the connecting device. I can prove beyond a doubt that she did this."
Mark let out a breath he felt like he had been holding for days, a profound sense of relief washing over him.
"Thank you, David. You have no idea what this means to me and Emma."
"Don't thank me yet," David warned, closing his laptop. "We have the proof, but we need to use it carefully."
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"If we move too fast, she might destroy the original files or try something even more desperate."
Mark nodded, his mind already turning to the next step of his plan. "We need to go to the police before she realizes we know."
