A Screenshot Changed My Life—And Ruined His

Caleb Knowles sauntered back to his desk. As he passed our team lead's station, he leaned in and muttered something under his breath.

The two of them immediately glanced at me and exchanged a knowing smile.

I opened WhatsApp and checked my privacy settings again. I'd blocked every single coworker from seeing my posts, and Caleb—saved in my contacts as "Operations - Caleb"—was clearly on the list too.

So where the hell had that screenshot come from?

I scrolled through my contacts again and again until I spotted a gray profile picture with the name "Southvale Industrial Park - Mr. Levine."

He'd added me last month while we were working on the industrial park project, asking me to send over the first draft. I was so busy that I accepted his request without thinking. But after I sent him the file, he disappeared.

Now, when I opened his WhatsApp profile, his Status was completely blank. There was literally nothing on his profile, which struck me as odd.

I sent him a message.

"Hi, I wanted to check if there were any issues with the proposal I sent you before."

The next second, I caught Caleb's phone lighting up out of the corner of my eye.

He picked it up and glanced at the screen. Then he looked at me in a panic before quickly looking away.

My blood ran cold.

Was this his secret account? Had he been using it to keep tabs on my Status and steal my work?

I suddenly remembered what had happened last month.

I'd spent three straight nights working on the industrial park proposal. I'd saved it on my computer but hadn't sent it to our team lead, Marcus Duthey, yet.

The next morning, Caleb submitted an almost identical version, claiming that he'd stayed up for several nights working on it himself.

Marcus praised him for being hardworking, and Caleb even dared to put on a selfless act.

"Jethro's been swamped," he said matter-of-factly. "So I figured I'd take some of the workload off his hands."

I'd been furious and confronted him, but he'd turned it right back on me.

"We're coworkers, and it's normal for people to come up with similar ideas. Why are you being so petty?"

In the end, he received the performance bonus, while I was left with nothing but resentment.

I'd thought Caleb was simply shameless, but now I realized that he'd been setting me up all along.

A notification from HR suddenly appeared on my phone, the company seal standing out in bold red.

"Jethro Lane is being transferred to the Facilities Department due to a lack of commitment to his work. His salary will be reduced by 30%, effective immediately."

Around me, my coworkers either pretended to be busy or whispered among themselves, their eyes constantly drifting toward me.

One of Caleb's sidekicks, Paul Ziegler, deliberately bumped into my desk with his mug.

Water spilled all over my keyboard.

"Oops. Sorry. Didn't see you there," he said airily. "If I were you, I'd take a look in the mirror before posting stuff like that. Save yourself the embarrassment."

I glared at him but said nothing.

After all, I had no proof. If I made a scene now, I'd only give them an excuse to label me as someone who couldn't follow orders—exactly what Caleb wanted.

I turned back to my computer and started organizing my files.

My desktop was packed with two years' worth of projects I'd worked on. Some were million-dollar projects, while others were nothing more than everyday promotional graphics that I'd created from scratch.

As I copied my personal files onto an external hard drive, I noticed an unfamiliar process running in Task Manager.

Its name was just a string of random characters, and it was using a significant amount of memory.

I clicked "End Process".

Less than two seconds later, it popped right back up.

I frowned, assuming it was some kind of monitoring software the company had installed.

Still, I didn't think much of it and continued copying my files.