AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then he smacked his lips and rose to his feet. "I'm sure you have all heard of the leak."
No one said a word. I risked another glance at Aaron, only to find his gaze still settled on me. Swallowing shakily, I dragged my gaze away from him to look at Jeff.
"The reason you're all gathered here is because our IT specialists have discovered that the leak came from one of our servers,” he said.
This time, a murmur rose from the crowd. I was reeling. Did that mean that someone in the company had purposely leaked the game?
"Your guess is right," Jeff continued in a wry voice. “We're looking at a case of self-sabotage. The higher-ups are adamant that whoever the culprit is found to be, will be immediately removed from the company and most likely sued for breach of contract."
Jeff cleared his throat, looking grim as he continued. "If anyone has anything to tell me about this, I suggest you come forward now before you're fished out. There might still be a chance to make amends."
The murmur transformed into a huge fiasco. Next to me, Maddy sighed. "Shit. Now they're going to invade our computers. I have porn on those."
I didn't see how she found any of this funny. In fact, there was a serious lack of humor in the entire situation.
Now, picture this: I was a videogame designer working in a gaming company that was in a fierce rivalry with an opposing gaming company. I was working on a new top-secret game that not even all the employees in the company knew the details of and which had just leaked to the opposing company. And—wait for it—it got better—I was also the daughter of the owner of the opposing company.
Lovely, wasn't it?
As if everyone could hear my thoughts, several pairs of eyes turned to me.
My heart hammered in my chest, and I could hear it beating out of my ears. Every single line of defense died on my tongue. I hated the attention, but no more so than the fear that gripped me at the thought that every one of them could see straight through me and find the young, pathetic girl of nineteen who’d once begged for love.
Stop staring at me. Stop!
"Whoa, hold up a fucking minute." Maddy stepped forward, her voice cutting into the silence. "Why the hell is everyone staring at Felicity? She hasn't done anything wrong."
I appreciated the vote of confidence, but all she'd managed to do was voice what everyone else was thinking. However, I made no move to stop her. If I was too chicken to defend myself, the least I could do was let someone else do it.
"No one said anything of the sort, Madeline." Of course, it came from Jade, whose dark green eyes were fixed on me even as she spoke to Maddy. "Nevertheless, her father owns the company involved in the leak, so maybe she has some explaining to do."
"Tread carefully, Jade. You're not in any position to lay blame." Aaron's gaze hardened as he spoke, but his eyes remained fixed on the table.
Why wouldn't he look at me? He'd come to my defense, but surely, he had to know I had no hand in this, right?
"Why not?" Jade retorted. "We're all busting our asses to make sure we stay on top of the pyramid. Why should we let a spoiled princess with daddy issues ruin all our hard work?"
"You're not even on the project. Why the fuck are you so concerned about it?" Arjun threw at her in an annoyed tone. "Do you really think it makes sense that she would do something like this, especially when it's glaringly obvious that she would be the prime suspect?"
Oh, shit. Now, even Arjun was defending me. His words elicited another round of murmurs, and while some saw sense in what he said, others were doubtful. My pounding heart swelled slightly in my chest.
Jade shrugged, dragging her gaze from me to Arjun as she leaned against the chair. "It doesn't change the fact that her daddy owns Blizzard Games, and his company is somehow involved in the leak. Good luck explaining that."
She was right. How would I explain that I had nothing to do with this without seeming off? After all, my father had admitted that he'd heard OceansPlay was working on a new game the last time I'd seen him.
Now that I thought about it, how the hell had he known that? Did that mean the leak happened a few days ago, and OceansPlay was only just discovering it?
Mentioning that I knew my father had known about the project for a while would not play well in my favor. I was trying to convince them of my innocence, not worsen their conviction of the opposite.
"I think you've got a bad case of bitch syndrome," Maddy snarled at her. "What, can't stand the fact that she managed to get so easily what you fought so hard for and ended up fucking up?"
"Stupidity doesn't look good on you, Madeline. Stop trying so hard." Jade smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
The tension was so palpable I could have cut it with a knife.
I touched Maddy's arm and lowered my voice. "Maddy, please."
She didn't budge. "I'd rather be stupid than be a penny: two-faced, and in everyone's pants."
