Cage
Cage 71

Chapter 71

Eliana did indeed show up at Patterson Group the very next day, insisting that I

be the one to handle her project, or she would walk away from the

collaboration.

I convened a meeting immediately, bringing Jade along to the conference

room.

Eliana’s mood seemed to brighten a hit at the sight of us, but then she quickly grew frustrated again.

“Melanie, that Kayla, can you handle her already?”

“She’s just so annoying. Can’t Clyde see through her? Is he blind?”

That’s when I learned that Kayla had tried to suck up to Eliana and ended up getting a tongue–lashing for her efforts.

But to my surprise, Kayla cried and then turned around to blame Eliana.

“Is Clyde out of his mind? Why did I ever fall for him? Was I blind?”

“Really? Why did you fall for him back then?”

“Because he was really something back in the day, and pretty handsome to

boot.”

I replied without much emotion.

Eliana was taken aback by my response, mainly because I was stating the

obvious.

Back then, Clyde was always a source of positivity, lighting up every room he entered with his energy. But now…

I pulled out some files, “Jade will be in charge this time, with me assisting on the design side.”

Eliana looked like she wanted to say something, but after glancing at Jade, she held her tongue.

I explained, “Eliana, it’s not that I’m shirking. I didn’t mention it at dinner yesterday, but I’ve had a major setback with a project I’m collaborating on with Vinson. The data got deleted, and I’m really stretched thin.”

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13:26

Chapter

Besides, I was planning on leaving eventually. It was time for Jade to stand on her own two feet.

Eliana didn’t make things difficult for us. The meeting went smoothly, and we ended up signing the contract.

Back in my office, I started investigating the data deletion incident.

The Design Department’s computers were infected with a virus, which had spread from my computer through the internal network.

Since my computer contained the n .critical files, the loss was significant.

But what couldn’t wait was the case with Aspire World.

I headed to the security department first, wanting to check the surveillance footage.

The person there looked uneasy, “Ms. Crawford, I’m sorry, but there was a system upgrade, and a lot of the footage got deleted.”

“An upgrade? Why upgrade overnight?”

I already had my suspicions.

As expected, I was told that Kayla had come by with some people, claiming it was Clyde’s request.

Everyone knew about Kayla and Clyde’s affair, so no one questioned it, and the staff proceeded with the upgrade.

The system was indeed updated to the latest version, but the footage from several days had been erased, making it nearly impossible to recover.

Feeling deflated, I returned to my office, fearing that the investigation was at a dead end.

I had my suspicions, notably Paul’s sudden disappearance that day, which was peculiar.

However, it seemed Mack was quite friendly with Kayla. Could he have provoked me deliberately, then taken his chance?

But I had seen him mixing whiskey and beer that day; the chances of him being sober were slim.

13:26

As I was mulling this over, Larry from Design Department timidly knocked on my door.

“Come in.”

“Melanie, I’m gonna come clean, please don’t be mad. Dock my pay, just don’t fire me, okay?”

His guilt–ridden face immediately set off alarm bells. Could it be him?

But Larry was usually diligent at

Sure, he was a bit playful and

occasionally slacked off, but that was it.

I nodded slightly, “Come clean.”

Sorry I was

He sent me a video file, explaining, “Melanie, I’m so upgrading my game, had it on auto–play.”

“And somehow, the live streaming feature got activated. But don’t worry, I left my laptop in the hallway, never brought it into the office.”

The video showed the hallway from a low angle, revealing someone entering the office at night, likely a man judging by his height and build.

However, the angle was too low to make out the intruder’s face.

Larry continued to apologize, insisting he hadn’t brought his laptop into the office and wasn’t responsible for the virus.

I sighed, “If only it was in the office, we might have seen who it was.”

Larry nodded silently, looking at me cautiously.

Then, an idea struck me, “Larry, you can make amends by helping me out.”

Soon, everyone knew Larry hadn’t shut down his computer or turned off his webcam that day.

“Just get the tech department to enhance the image quality, and we should be able to identify the person.”

Larry’s voice was loud, filled with an eagerness to redeem himself.

I decided it was time to act, “Just give me the original video. I’ll go to Clyde and ask him to get someone to enhance the image.”

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13:26

Larry and I exchanged looks before I took the prepared USB drive and left the office.

But my luck was running low today; the elevator was under maintenance.

Fortunately, I was only on the third floor, so I headed for the stairwell.

Before I could exit the stairwell, hurried footsteps approached from behind. As I turned around, something hit me on the back of the he