I could tolerate anything Mom said, just not this. This, I could not stomach.

Among all those initial interns, I had gone through who knew how many rounds of evaluations just to stay in the company.

Gripping the phone, I said in a low voice, "There is no way I'm ever going to lose this job."

Perhaps sensing the iciness in my tone, Mom fell silent on the other end. However, after a few seconds, she suddenly perked up.

"Never say never. Who knows…"

Gosh, she was truly hopeless!

Not wanting to listen to her nonsense anymore, I ended the call.

Later events proved I shouldn't have done that. At least then I could have prepared myself for what was to come.

…

After the Christmas break, Louis and I both returned to work.

The first morning rush after the holidays always resulted in unusually congested traffic. To make matters worse, I seemed to get caught at every red light possible.

The trip that usually took no more than half an hour ended up taking me almost 50 minutes.

When I rushed into the office, I immediately noticed everyone staring at me strangely.

Just as I reached my desk, Mark Roland, the director of the company, appeared before me. "Yvonne, can you come with me for a moment?"

"What's wrong?"

Mark's expression was inscrutable. "We'll talk more inside," he said seriously.

Before I even reached his office, I heard Mom's voice coming from inside.

A sense of foreboding washed over me instantly.

When I opened the door, Mom was indeed inside, along with several other executives of the company. The atmosphere was thick with tension.

When Mom caught sight of me, she pointed at me and declared, "You might be my daughter, but you've done something to betray the company and I have no other choice but to expose you."

"What have I done now?"

"What have you done?" Mom repeated my question with righteous indignance. "Last night, I saw you send all your company's data to a competitor. That's right, I saw everything."

I drew in a sharp breath. As an employee of the finance department, leaking company data was a cardinal sin. If the executives believed her claims, I was as good as dead.

Sure enough, several of them turned their gazes to me upon hearing Mom's words. I steadied my breathing.

"You weren't even with me last night. How exactly did you see all this?

"Also, which data specifically are you talking about? What's the name of this competitor you speak of?"

Mom faltered momentarily, but soon replied loudly, "You were the one who contacted them. You should know all this."

I stared straight into her eyes. "I want to hear it from you."

Mom's eyes darted around. "If all of you don't believe me, you can check her laptop yourself. There must be records," she addressed the roomful of executives.

Mark's expression turned icy as he ordered me to turn on my laptop.

The data spreadsheet was right on my desktop. The last modified timestamp was at 10:30 pm last night.

Mark's glasses glinted coldly. "What were you doing with this so late at night?"

"It's our first day back at work today. I thought it might come up during the meeting, so I opened it before bed to take a quick look," I replied.

Mark said nothing. He revoked my access to the company's system immediately.

"Take a few days off. We'll discuss this further once the company completes a formal investigation."

With that, he turned and walked away without another word.

Mom beamed with smug satisfaction.

"I always wondered what all that fuss about your job was. All it took was a few words from me and here they are, kicking you out.

"You used to foolishly work overtime so much for them too. Well, at least you know now. They never really took you seriously to begin with."

Intense anger made my tears spill out uncontrollably. "Is this another one of your jokes?" I demanded. "Do you realize this might cost me my job?"

Mom shrugged indifferently. "So, what? You can just rest at home if you lose your job. What's the big deal?"

Fine, then. If she loved spreading rumors about me so much, I, too, would not keep her secret any longer.

When I got home, I pulled out a yellowed piece of paper.

"Does this look familiar to you, Mom?"

Mom's face turned deathly pale the moment she saw the piece of paper I was holding.