She could feel the eyes of her coworkers on her as she passed their cubicles, their stares reminiscent of her experience a couple of months ago, after that video with Craig went viral. She’d made it through that episode with barely a scratch. Why should this be any different?
Samiah pressed the touchpad just to the right of Barrington’s office door. Once receiving permission through the speaker, she entered the office and took the seat opposite Justin Vail’s before it was even offered. If she was to be fired today, she would damn well be comfortable while it happened.
“Well, it’s been an interesting day,” Barrington started, running a hand through his shaggy blond hair.
“It has,” Samiah answered. Cutting to the chase, she said, “I’m not sure I can explain the inexplicable, but if you give me the opportunity to do so, I’ll try.”
“And what do you consider to be the inexplicable?” he asked.
“How my access card was used to breach the system.” She hunched her shoulders. “Frankly, I don’t know how it happened. I have my card with me 99.9 percent of the time.”
Justin held up a hand. “Daniel already explained to us how he was able to get his hands on your access card.”
Samiah’s stomach dropped. “Would you mind sharing what he said?”
“He said he lifted it from your purse when you weren’t looking, copied it onto a reader, then slipped it back before you even knew anything had happened,” Justin said.
She’d suspected as much, but to have it confirmed crushed her spirit. Had he pegged her as an easy mark from the very beginning? Had that been his goal from day one?
He’d arrived at Trendsetters just after that video went viral. Had he calculated that she would be vulnerable because of her breakup with Craig, and, thus, an easy target?
“Daniel also assured us that you had nothing to do with it, that you had no idea he was working undercover.”
“No, I did not,” Samiah said. She swallowed past her heartache. “No idea at all.”
“I’m relieved to hear that,” Barrington said. “However, this was still an extremely serious breach of company security. It cannot be ignored.”
This was it. Samiah braced herself.
“You will be placed on probation, which comes in the form of your access to any sensitive or proprietary information being revoked for the next six months,” Justin said. “That means we will need to pull you off several teams for the time being.”
“I understand,” Samiah said. She’d put a ridiculous amount of work into the various projects she’d been working on. It was painful to think of the teams moving forward without her.
Samiah waited for the next shoe to drop. Except…it didn’t.
Wait.
“Is that it?” she asked.
Justin nodded.
Relief whooshed through her. Considering that she firmly believed she would be fired, this was nothing. In fact, she could use the time. She already had way too much on her plate.
Actually, it might work in her favor…
“I know I already turned it down, but did the security breach affect your belief in my ability to lead the new Outreach Department?” she asked.
They spoke at once.
“Absolutely not—”
“No—”
“No one is doubting your ability to do your job, or any job, for that matter,” Barrington said. “We’re not going to sit here and pretend that Trendsetters can afford to lose you, Samiah. Your value far outweighs what this may cost the company in the long run.”
Justin ran his palms down his face. “Shit, he had to convince me to revoke your security access at all.” He pointed to Barrington. “He doesn’t understand the bind this puts us in on the Huston-Tillotson project.”
Guilt over what this would cost her team was something she would have to process at a later time. Then again, it wouldn’t hurt to remind her team just how much she brought to the table. She’d carried so much of the burden for so very long; some of them weren’t going to survive her absence. She gave Keighleigh a week at the most before she came running to her for help.
