The Friend I Promoted Fired Me FirstChapter 2

"Here, I bought you coffee, a sugar-free Americano." Amelia stood at my cubicle, smiling gently, holding a Starbucks cup. Her other hand briefly rested on my shoulder. "I thought about yesterday all night; it truly was management's decision. I tried to advocate for you." I took the coffee. "Thank you."

"What you said yesterday... about the shirt," she leaned in, lowering her voice, "my boyfriend happens to have an identical one. It's just a coincidence, don't overthink it." "Your boyfriend?" "Mm, we've only been dating for two months, haven't gone public yet." She winked. "I'll introduce you sometime." "Okay." She smiled and walked away.

I took a sip of coffee. Americano, but with sugar. I never take sugar in my Americano. She remembered Oliver’s low-sugar latte, but couldn’t recall my preference.

At 10 AM, my colleague Alex passed my cubicle, dropping a stack of documents, and whispered, "Helen, there's something I'm not sure if I should tell you." "Tell me." She looked around, then pulled me into the breakroom. "The redundancy list... I saw three versions on the printer." "Three versions?" "The first version had 15 people, and you weren't on it. The second had 20, and you were number eight. The third is this current one, 23 people, and you're number one." "Who changed it?" "Amelia. All three revision records are under her account. Each time someone was added—" Alex bit her lip, "—it was always someone you mentored."

I said nothing. "And one more thing." Alex lowered her voice. "Did you see last week's department annual performance review?" "I submitted it." "Not your version." She pulled out her phone and showed me a screenshot. On the screen, under the department review section: "Helen Fraser: Average organizational skills, aggressive management style, poor team cohesion. Recommended for salary reduction, role reassignment, or optimization." A red cross was next to my name. "Below that was a section for role recommendations." Alex scrolled to the next page. "Amelia wrote it, recommending her assistant, Beth, to replace you. Someone who's been with the company for less than six months."

"When was this report submitted?" "Two weeks ago. Three days before the redundancy list." "Is the original report still in the system?" "Yes. But the permissions were changed; only Amelia and the administrator can see it. I saw it last week during system maintenance when IT recovered a batch of files." Alex looked at me. "Helen, she did it on purpose."

I knew. At noon, Amelia came to find me again, sitting opposite me and placing a chicken wing in my bowl. "Helen, eat more, you've lost weight recently." "Mm." "Dinner tonight? Let's get a barbecue. It's been a while." "He's working late tonight." "Then just the two of us." She took my hand and held it. "Helen, no matter what happens, you're my best friend." Her palm was warm. The same temperature as when Oliver squeezed my fingers last night. "Amelia." "Hm?" "What does your new boyfriend do?" Her eyes flickered. "Finance." "Which company?" "A small company you wouldn't know." "What's his name?" "Helen, why are you so interested in my boyfriend?" She smiled. "Are you jealous?" "Just asking."

In the afternoon, I went to HR's shared folder. I didn't have administrator privileges, but the old system's backend entry was still open. Three minutes later, I found all the documents Amelia had submitted. Besides the tampered performance review, there was something else. Title: "Core Employee Seating Adjustment Plan." The content was simple: Move Helen Fraser's workstation from the eighth-floor department area to the third-floor administrative area. Reason: "Optimize office space."

The third-floor administrative area. Next to the restroom drainage pipe, no windows. She had even planned where I would sit. At the bottom of the document was a footnote. Not Amelia's handwriting. "Confirmed with HR, to be executed next Monday. —Oliver Goddard." Oliver. My husband's name, appearing on a document that moved me next to the restroom.

I opened the company directory and searched for "Oliver Goddard." One result. Finance Department. Senior Finance Manager. Start date—two years ago. Two years ago, he told me he had switched to an investment company. "It's a small company; you wouldn't know it even if I told you." Exactly what Amelia had said earlier. He had been working at my company for two years. In the same building. I was on the eighth floor, he was on the tenth. Separated by the ninth floor—the HR department, Amelia's floor.

My phone rang. Oliver. "Wife, what do you want for dinner tonight?" "...Anything." "What's wrong with your voice?" "A bit tired." "Then leave work early. I'll wait for you at home." I hung up. I found the screenshot of that message from earlier that morning. "Project Team - Kevin." Hubby. She won't have a chance to turn things around. Kevin. "Amelia, you are truly something else."