Colin

Rowan escorted Mrs. Lee back upstairs, his hand lightly gripping her elbow. I would be surprised if she tried to make a run for it now but her fear and trembling, made me second-guess.

When we reached my office, the door was unlocked. Upon entering, the briefcase sat haphazardly opened on my desk, its contents empty. I signaled to Rowan to bring Mrs. Lee over to the couches. She still clutched her purse as if her life depended on it.

"Do you want to start Mrs. Lee with why you decided to try and steal intellectual property?"

Mrs. Lee didn't move, she only pressed her lips tighter together.

"Very well, then how about I start?" Leaning back, I crossed my ankles. This was going to be a long night.

"Let's begin with the blinds, when I first noticed that something wasn't right. You are the only one who has permission to be in my office when I am not, to water my plants. But in order to plant the bug, you needed to make sure no one could see you. So you lowered the blinds so no one would see. How am I doing so far?"

Mrs. Lee didn't respond, except her eyes becoming watery.

"Next was the fire alarm. You were outside later with everyone but you weren't in the office when it was pulled. As I recall, you asked me if I wanted a coffee." I leaned forward, to stare her down more fully. "It was then I realized Mrs. Lee, that you never did bring back that coffee. With the amount of time that lapsed, you should have been on your way back from the cafe, not going to."

Mrs. Lee's lower lip began to tremble. Seeing her so downtrodden, pulled at my heart strings. I immediately hardened them. This could be a ruse for all that I knew of Mrs. Lee. Just like the young man I had taken under my wing. I thought he was an innocent soul too, till he stabbed me in the back.

"Okay Mrs. Lee. It's your turn. Why did you do it and who are you working for?"

Her face scrunched up like she was trying not to cry. She failed as tears began to run down her face. I handed her the tissue box.

"Thank you," she wheezed, dabbing her eyes and blowing her nose. "I'm so sorry Mr. Evans, for all the trouble I caused. My mother is very sick and I couldn't afford at-home care. It was only supposed to be giving information and planting the bug. But then he wanted me to steal files. I refused at first, but he said he would expose me."

"Who?" I demanded. We needed a name.

She quickly shook her head. "I can't Mr. Evans. Don't you see? He has me trapped under his thumb." Her lip quivered again as fresh tears poured out. "He threatened my family."

I felt for Mrs. Lee, that is if her story was true. I was duped before, how could I stop the same thing from happening again? "I'm afraid you find yourself in a tricky situation Mrs. Lee. You can't divulge the name without consequences and yet here I sit with the power to have you arrested for theft." I signaled towards the purse in her hands.

Her grip grew tighter around it.

"It's fake information Mrs. Lee. The coding was unintelligible."

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. Rowan held out his hand and Mrs. Lee gave him the purse. Flipping it open, he pulled out a stack of papers that had been folded multiple times.

I had enough evidence against Mrs. Lee that I could have her charged. But it wouldn't get me any closer to discovering who wanted to steal from CyberSecure in the first place. So what was I to do?

"I have a proposition Mrs. Lee. I won't have you arrested if you help me catch this criminal. That way the threat will be removed over your family." Or at least discover if she was lying. "Did you have a rendezvous setup already where you were to drop off the stolen files?"

"No, once I confirmed I had the files he was to send me a location."

"Then this is what we're going to do. When you know, you let us know."

Mrs. Lee twisted the kleenex in her lap until it was unrecognizable. "You do know the risk I'm taking by doing this. If he finds out I led you to him, my family could be in danger. My children." A cry broke out over the last word.

"I don't like the situation any better than you do Mrs. Lee. But you brought this on yourself." I nodded to Rowan that we were done here.

Rowan handed back the fake documents to Mrs. Lee who put them in her purse.

She looked so small and frail as she rose from the couch. Rowan began to escort her out of the building.

"One more thing Mrs. Lee."

She paused as she looked back at me.

"Why didn't you come to me in the first place? I may have been able to help you with your predicament."

Her face hardened as she stared at me. "You never gave me reason to Mr. Evans."

I watched them leave, chewing on her words as I did so. I always knew that I wasn't the most friendliest of bosses. I ran a tight ship and held high expectations on my employees. But was I really so standoffish, that someone would rather choose criminal activity over asking me for help? In Mrs. Lee's case, apparently so.

Raking my fingers through my hair, I was drained from the encounter and looked forward to when I could crawl into bed. Especially since tomorrow, I was going to see Alicia. Let's just hope she wanted to see me.

+++

Alicia

It was like the cloud of doom that had been hanging over my head had disappeared. My situation with Hope Digital was still dire. With the loss of two big clients, and a bank loan to repay, there was still work to be done. But I was no longer doing it under my own power. I was trusting that God had it under control.

With Dad's help, Hope Digital was no longer on the brink of disaster. He showed some better ways of reporting and even gave me a list where I could apply for grants for small businesses. Erica couldn't help but rub it in when I went to leave to return to Toronto.

"I told you so," she said with a wink.

"Yeah, yeah. Your wisdom is unfathomable."

She drew me into a hug and held on tight for a few seconds longer. "Don't be a stranger," she whispered into my ear.

I squeezed her back. "I'll be back, I promise."

The one thing that plagued me on the drive back was Colin. As much as I wanted to prove my innocence to him, the attempt would be futile. Still, I kept picturing Colin sitting alone at his desk, brooding over the injustice of the world. Thinking that there was no one he could ever trust, only himself. It was a sad picture. Yet, as badly as I wanted to change it, God was teaching me that there are some things that were outside of my control.

Upon entering the condo, Cameron immediately picked up that I was different.

"I was expecting all doom and gloom. But it looks like the opposite happened."

I fell back onto the couch with a contented sigh. "God is good Cameron. Obedience can be challenging, but when you finally surrender to it, God's will is revealed."

"Mhm," Cameron said.

"Sorry, I know I got a little preachy. How was your weekend? Do anything exciting?"

Cameron walked over to one of her plants and began spraying it with water. "Oh, you know, pretty quiet."

I shot her a puzzled look. "You had the place all to yourself and it was quiet?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "Contrary to what you think, I'm not out living the wild side every night."

I blushed. "You're right, I'm sorry for assuming."

"You're forgiven." She settled in the armchair, tucking in her feet. "Have you heard from Colin?"

I sat up. "Colin? No and I don't expect to."

"He'll probably come crawling back sooner or later. Won't be long before they discover it wasn't you."

"I guess I'll just have to cross the bridge when I get to it," I said, laying back down. "Colin has a lot of issues he needs to sort out first." I peered over at Cameron with a wry smile. "You're not cheering for him are you?"

"What can I say? I love an underdog."

+++

I entered into my work week with a renewed vigour. It felt good being back in my own office space. I immediately started searching for new clients or researching new ways that I could boost my visibility on social media or advertisements.

It was Tuesday morning and I had just walked into my office, my Americano Misto in hand, when my phone started to go off. Excited that it could be a client, I set everything down on my desk to answer it.

"Good morning, this is Alicia Hannigan from Hope Digital."

"Good morning Alicia, this is Mitch Rivers, Mr. Faust's assistant. We met over lunch."

I almost dropped the phone I was so surprised. Just as I was starting to get back on my feet and the rug got pulled from under me. "I remember Mr. Rivers. What can I do for you?"

"Mr. Faust heard that your contract with CyberSecure finished early. He was wondering if we could enlist your services now instead of the fall like we had originally planned?"

I was hearing the words but my mind wasn't making the connections. Who told Faust my contract had ended with CyberSecure? Colin? But if that was the case, then why would they want to continue with my services? I had more questions then I had the answers for.

"Uh, yes, I can do that for you Mr. Rivers." I prayed this wouldn't come back to bite me if Faust found out later what had happened at CyberSecure. I set an appointment with Mr. Rivers and bid him goodbye.

After I had hung up, I sat in my chair, perplexed over what had just happened. "Lord, I need some help here," I prayed. "Protect me from getting mixed up in another situation. I've done enough damage using my own strength."

Of course I believed that God answered prayers. But I didn't think it would happen so fast. For as soon as the words were out of my mouth, Colin strolled into my office.