"What?" Leo asks, leaning forward to stare at my screen.

My heart thunders in my chest and my mind goes completely blank. Leo shoves me out of the way and starts clicking around on my computer, opening files and the shared cloud drive.

"Did you back it up on the drive?" he asks.

I nod my head.

"It's gone from there too," I say as he opens up the document it was saved in. Leo sits back down in his chair and stares at the screen, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"I..." he begins. I gulp back my tears and ball my hands into fists.

Don't look at her. Don't look at her. Don't look at her.

"Did anyone come to my desk whilst I was gone?" I ask Leo.

"I didn't see, I was too busy working."

I bite at my lips as my hands begin to shake. I am meant to have that report in by five tonight. That's only four hours away. I did 10,000 words and still have about three thousand to go. How am I going to get that done?

"Fuck," I hiss. After everything Marcus just said, I'm going to turn around and hand in a report late.

Anger burns through my veins. I know she did this. Somehow, Serena deleted all of my work. Well, either her or one of her cronies.

"I can ask around and see if anyone saw anything."

"No," I say quickly. "No, I'm not going to spread gossip and accusations. Not without proof. That would make me seem just as bad as her and she could use that to further whatever narrative she's trying to create."

"So, what are you going to do then?"

I let out a long breath and close my eyes. I lean on my desk and bury my head in my hands. For a few moments, I don't answer him as I try and think of something.

Finally, I sit back up and square my shoulders.

"I'll go and calmly talk to Zoe and say what happened. Then, I'll ask for an extension for tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning?" he asks.

"I'll just have to stay late and get it done," I sigh. "I'll play this calm. No one knows what happened. If anyone asks, I'll just shrug it off and pretend that everything is normal, okay?"

"Okay," he agrees. "My lips are sealed."

"Thanks," I say, and stand up. "I'll go talk to Zoe now."

"Good luck," he replies.

I know Serena is watching me as I approach Zoe's office. I ignore her and keep my expression neutral like nothing is wrong.

I knock on the door.

"Come in," Zoe says from beyond. She smiles as I enter. "You've only just left," she chuckles. "Do you want to work on the translation already? I know you have a report due tonight, so it can wait until tomorrow morning."

"That's what I came to talk about," I say, taking a seat. I gulp, a lump forming in my throat. "I was so stupid," I hiss. "I was so shocked that you called me to join you and Marcus, that I didn't lock my computer."

This time, I allow the tears to gather in my eyes, letting Zoe see them. Her face drops.

"What's happened?" she asks.

"My report's been deleted."

She shuts her eyes and lets out a long breath.

"Are you sure? It wasn't some sort of glitch or anything?"

"Leo and I tried searching for the document. It's completely gone. It's gone from the shared drive; it's gone from my own files and it's even gone from my deleted folders."

She grits her teeth and shakes her head. "Let me call tech and see if there is a way to recover it," she says as she picks up her phone.

There is silence for a few moments before she starts speaking to someone. She explains my situation. I watch her expression carefully. My heart sinks as she looks more and more defeated. Eventually, she hangs up the phone.

"The file can't be recovered."

I bite at my quivering lips.

"It's okay, Ivy," she says and reaches out, squeezing my hand. "We'll come up with a solution. To start with, do you know who may have done this?"

I give her a look and she nods her head. "Stupid question," she huffs. "I'll ask around and see if anyone saw anything."

"No," I sigh, "I don't want anyone to know about it or suspect anything. I want no drama related to my name in any way at all."

"Okay," she says.

"Can I get an emergency extension?" I ask.

"I can request one, yes. What excuse would you like to use?"

"I have no idea," I sigh. "Preferable one that doesn't sound like an excuse or that I'm slacking."

"Hmmmm," Zoe says.

"Can you ask for the extension to be handed in tomorrow morning?"

Her eyes widen. "You can get it all done by then?"

"I'll just stay late."

She sighs, "Okay."

"Luckily my hand-written notes are all still intact."

"Okay. Well, I'll think of a good excuse and you go and get started. I'll get this all sorted out for you and have a look at the CCTV footage to see if we can get anything."

"Thank you," I say. "It's about to be a stressful few days, isn't it? Especially with Marcus wanting the translation done by tomorrow too."

"We'll get through it," she replies. "Remember Ivy, don't overwork yourself. Take breaks, get snacks and drink lots of water."

"I will," I assure her and stand up. She gives me a final apologetic look and I turn and walk back out into the office.

Back at my desk, my stomach twists with dread. For a few moments, I stare at the blank page on the screen. Then, I square my shoulders and get to work.

I zone out everything, completely focusing on the screen and my work. Time passes quickly, and before I know it, Leo is tapping me on the back.

"I'm off," he says.

"Okay," I reply. "Have a good evening."

He smiles apologetically. "Good luck," he says. "Have you got enough food?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I've already caught up quite a bit."

He nods his head. "That's good. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

He turns and leaves. I am about to put my head down once more, when Serena approaches me, her bag in hand.

"Are you staying late?" she asks, her tone smug.

"Yeah," I reply, "got a special project for Mr Kaiser to complete."

Her smug smile drops and she turns, spinning on her heels and clicking away. I laugh to myself, suddenly, feeling a little better.

The office empties apart from Zoe. She approaches me after another hour, her bags in hand and her coat on.

"How much have you done?" she asks.

"I'm almost caught up to where I was," I say.

"That's good. Do you have an estimation of when you'll finish?" she asks.

I sigh and rub my temples. "Not for another two or three hours probably. Then I'll head home, get some sleep, and come back early in the morning to do the edits before submitting it for nine o'clock."

Zoe shakes her head and pats my shoulder. "I'll give you a memory stick tomorrow. Any time you're about to leave your desk, back up your work onto it and take it with you. I'm also going to put in a request for more security cameras in the department. I'm sorry this happened, Ivy. I wish I could do more."

I smile. "You're already doing enough. Thank you so much for all of your help. You're a great manager."

She grins. "Thanks, Ivy. You're going to get far, I think. Maybe you'll be my manager one day," she jokes.

"I don't think so," I reply, laughing.

"Who knows? But I think you have a bright future ahead of you. Much brighter than the person who stooped so low as to delete your work, I'll see to that," she winks.

"As long as my name isn't dragged into it," I say.

"You don't need to worry about that. Just leave it with me and this situation with Serena will be sorted. I promise."

"Thank you," I reply. She gives my shoulder a final squeeze and starts walking away.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow."

She leaves and I stare at the closed door, wishing I could walk out of it.

The lights in the office dim, but don't turn off. I sink back into my work, typing away quickly and scanning the documents. It reminds me of being back at the academy. Years upon years of reading and studying textbooks whilst deliriously tired make this almost seem easy. I am able to scan through documents, type, reference and do everything I need to all despite my growing tiredness. I push any feelings of discomfort to the back of my mind.

Every now and then, I am distracted by a security guard. Zoe warned security that I would be here and every half an hour, they come and check on me. When they do, I use that as my time frame to have a quick break and walk about.

I am just glad I'm in a department where we aren't working with highly sensitive information, or this sort of overnighter and overtime wouldn't be possible.

As I sit back down at my desk, I let out a long breath. I stretch my fingers and stare at the screen. My eyes sting and I blink rapidly. The black words against the bright white screen almost make my head spin. I turn the brightness down and then open the CCTV footage to analyse it.

I watch through it closely. Every moment there is a point of interest, I add it to the document. I type out what I see, why it is important to the report, how it links and the evidence from other documents that support it, and then reference the time that certain event happens in the footage so that the person reviewing my report can go straight to that point.

"Come on, Ivy," I say to myself as I open the next document. This one is a financial record. I scan through it thoroughly, ignoring the ache behind my eyes. Then, the process begins again as I detail everything that is important in my report.

When I edit it tomorrow, I dread to think what errors there are going to be. It's probably incoherent at this point.

"Three more documents left," I say, leaning back in my chair. Security does their next round. They open the door, smiling at me politely.

"Everything okay, Miss Astor?" he asks.

"Just about," I joke. He chuckles.

"Well, if you get done in the next half an hour, just come to the security desk and tell us you're on your way out and we'll get this place locked up for you."

"I will," I reply. "Thank you."

He nods his head and leaves to patrol another part of the building. I stand up and stretch. Then, I grab my drinks bottle and go to the staff room to fill it up. I take a sip, then sit on one of the chairs. I set a timer for twenty minutes, then rest my head in my arms on the table. Closing my eyes, I quickly fall asleep. Time barely feels as though it has passed when my timer wakes me up. However, I feel refreshed. Again, I find myself thanking the academy and the many nights I had to do this very thing. My body almost feels trained to work like this.

Opening the fridge, I grab a piece of cake I bought at the canteen earlier today. Then, I look at my phone.

It reads 11:30. I groan. Leaving the staffroom, I make a plan in my head. One hour. I will be done in one hour.

A shadow moves out of the corner of my eye. I jump, nearly dropping my cake. My heart races in my chest and I stare with wide eyes as Marcus appears out of the shadows.

"Ivy, can we have a chat?" he asks, his voice serious.

A jolt of hot, burning fear pulses through my body, making my limbs feel weak. I force a smile onto my face and nod my head.

"Of course," I reply. He nods his head and gestures to my desk, his expression giving nothing away.

I walk toward it, preparing myself for the worst and desperately hoping that he isn't here to arrest me.