|Manik’s POV|

‘Hello.’ I said, annoyed, into my phone. The call was from one of the guys from the IT Department of my company.

‘Sir, there’s been a problem. All the information regarding our next big project has been leaked by someone.’ He said in fear.

‘What?’ I asked in disbelief.

‘Yes sir. The whole thing is out and one of our rival companies has allegedly copied our project and will boom up in the market soon.’

‘Oh shit!’ I said, annoyed by the news.

‘Sir, you’ll have to do something quick or it’s gonna be a big loss for us.’

‘I know. Wait, how did you know about this?’ I asked.

‘Sir, I saw an ad on the internet from Martin & Co that had exactly the same design that we had decided for our next project. And not only that, the products we had ordered, that came in yesterday, for the project are also gone.’

‘Gone? What do you mean “gone”?’

‘Gone. As in, stolen. I went to our office to take a look; to see if that had actually stolen our idea or if it was just a coincidence that we had the same designs. Since our security guard has all the spare keys to the office, I went up to his room and found him unconscious there. Somebody drugged him or probably gave him anaesthesia and stole the keys.’ He explained.

‘Arghhhh!!’ I screamed in anger.

I saw Nandini. She looked worried. Whenever we had a moment to ourselves, there was always someone to ruin. This time, someone had ruined not only our moment but also our whole Summer Collection Project in which I had invested millions.

‘Alright. You stay there. I’ll be there now.’ I said and cut the call.

‘What happened?’ Nandini asked, worriedly.

I explained everything to her and she was flabbergasted.

‘I’m coming with you.’ She announced and I didn’t protest because I needed her by my side in this situation.

We drove off to the office building and went up to the thirteenth floor where the robbery had taken place. I met the guy that I spoke to on the phone there.

‘What’s your name?’ I asked him.

‘Michael.’ He replied.

He led me to the cabin where all the stuff had been stored. It was empty now. There were no signs of any other damage. Everything else was in place.

‘Do we have the file that had the info regarding the project?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know, sir.’ He replied.

‘It has to be in my cabin then.’ I said.

‘Your cabin is safe, sir. I checked it. Good thing that you don’t give your office’s spare key to the security guard.’ Michael acknowledged.

‘If we have the file with us, then how did they get the information regarding our project?’ I asked.

‘Are the details of all projects stored in the computer system?’ Nandini asked.

‘Yeah. Why?’ I asked.

‘Someone must have hacked into the system then.’ Nandini voiced her opinion.

‘That’s not possible. Our security is too strong to break into.’ Michael defended.

‘There’s always someone better than you out there.’ I told him.

He still was firm in his belief.

‘Did you check the CCTV cameras to see if we can have any leads on the robber?’ I asked.

‘Yeah, I did. The cameras went blank after exactly 8:30 PM.’ He replied.

So, they hacked the CCTVs too. Great! And you were saying that it’s impossible to break into the system.’ I scoffed.

‘It is. And that’s why I think this is an inside job.’ Michael said.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘Yeah. I feel it’s done by someone who knows about our company’s security system very well.’

‘Someone from the IT Department?’

‘Not necessarily. It can be anyone who’s familiar with how the whole system works.’ He said.

‘So, you’re saying that it can be anyone who works for this company.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Okay, text everyone who works for the company to be here in the office right away.’ I ordered.

‘Okay sir. But, shouldn’t we inform the cops about this?’

‘No. We don’t have any proof that the robbery was done. Plus, the media will intrude and that will put down the reputation of the company.’ I said. He nodded.

In the next half an hour, a lot of people had gathered.

‘Is that everyone?’ I asked out aloud.

‘No, sir. Miss Inaaya hasn’t arrived yet.’ Someone said,

We waited for her to arrive for another half an hour but she didn’t show up. She wasn’t even picking up any calls.

‘Manik, I have a strong suspicion that she’s the one involved in this.’ Nandini whispered to me.

‘What?’ I asked in disbelief.

‘ Yeah. It’s an inside job and no one knows about every single detail about the company better than her. She has to be the one.’ Nandini said.

‘No, she can’t be the one.’ I said.

‘I know you trust her blindly but what if all of this was an act while she was actually working for some other company?’

‘I still don’t believe that. I’m gonna go to her house and check it out. You stay here.’ I said.

I took her address from the records and drove to her place right away. Throughout the whole drive, I prayed that she wasn’t involved in this in any way. I had blind faith in her. She was the one who made me want to be a better person. I trusted her despite everything that happened between us and I didn’t want her to betray me.

When I reached her home, I found out that the gate was locked. My heart sank. It was beautiful and very hard. I went to the neighbouring house to see if they knew about her whereabouts. A woman from next door told me that Inaaya’s mother was a heart patient and that she had suffered a heart attack a couple of hours ago and that the whole family had gone to the hospital in an ambulance. I felt bad for her mother but at the same time, I felt glad that she wasn’t involved in the robbery in any way. I was glad that she didn’t break my newborn faith in humanity.

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