My Bestie Reported My Fake Degree, But My Real Identity Terrified Her Chapter 04

My Bestie Reported My Fake Degree, But My Real Identity Terrified Her Chapter 04

“I packed up your things for you so you wouldn’t have to make the trip yourself.”

Gemma stood in front of my desk with two cardboard boxes at her feet.

The boxes were half open, and I could see what was inside: my mug, desk calendar, an unopened box of single-serve pour-over coffee packets, and several technical notebooks.

There was also the photo frame I had placed on my desk on my first day at work.

The photo was of me and her.

On the last day of onboarding training, we had our arms around each other’s shoulders and were smiling at the camera.

She had placed the photo frame on top, faceup.

“I was going to wait until you got here to pack everything, but the director said this desk had been reassigned. I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough time.”

So it had been reassigned.

The new owner of this desk was her.

Her computer had already been moved over.

The external monitor that used to be mine was on the left, and a pothos plant had been added on the right.

The pot was new, made of white ceramic.

She had even prepared the plant pot.

“Gemma, the director told me to do a handoff. He didn’t tell me to move desks.”

“Then go ask the director. He told me before he left yesterday. While you’re suspended, this desk is just sitting empty anyway. Besides, I’m handling more client accounts now, so I need more workspace.”

She pulled open my drawer and took out a ruler and a USB drive.

“Is this USB drive for a project, or is it personal?”

“Give it to me.”

“Don’t be so tense. If it belongs to a project, it has to stay with the company.”

“Give it to me.”

She looked at me for two seconds, then smiled.

Then she tossed the USB drive into the box.

“There, Linnie. Don’t get so upset. It’s not like I’m stealing your things.”

The entire floor was watching.

Some glanced from the corners of their eyes, some turned their heads slightly, and some only looked sideways.

But I could feel more than a dozen gazes pricking into my back like fine needles.

Mia had her head buried lower than anyone else.

Donna had gone to the restroom and hadn’t come out for fifteen minutes.

Jordan stood beside the printer. The pages had finished printing long ago, but Jordan was still standing there.

Gemma bent down, closed the boxes, and sealed them with packing tape.

The sound of the tape tearing was especially sharp in the quiet office.

“You can move to that temporary desk for now. It’s the one next to the intern.”

She meant the desk next to the intern.

That was where I had sat when I first joined the company three years ago.

Gemma had joined two months after me and sat beside me.

I taught her how to use the company’s project management system, helped her revise her first client proposal, and took her to meet her first client, Mr. Parker.

Now Mr. Parker was hers.

I moved.

I carried two cardboard boxes from the core workstation area to a temporary desk near the aisle.

A layer of dust covered the surface, left behind by the last intern.

Gemma followed me over, holding a disinfecting wipe.

“I’ll wipe it down for you.”

“No.”

She didn’t insist. She placed the wipe on the corner of the desk.

“Linnie, I understand if you feel wronged. But try to see it from my perspective. The National Student Clearinghouse couldn’t verify your record, so I couldn’t just hide that, right? If something went wrong, I’d be held responsible too.”

After saying that, she patted the back of my hand.

That afternoon, my access badge stopped working.

I could enter the main entrance and use the elevator, but the access door to the eighth-floor lab would not open.

Behind that access door was the company’s core data server room.

For three years, I had held Level A clearance and could enter directly.

Now, when I tapped my badge against the reader, the reader beeped once and flashed red.

I went to IT.

Kyle looked up at me, his expression a little awkward.

“Lynn, your access level has been adjusted. The director signed off on it.”

“What level was it changed to?”

“D.”

I had been dropped from A to D, three levels down in one move.

Level D was the access level for reception and admin staff. It only granted access to the main entrance and the restrooms.

“Who submitted the request?”

Kyle shook his head and said quietly, “I only saw that the approver was the director. The requester field says Administrative Operations.”

Administrative Operations was now being handled day-to-day by Gemma.

The original head of Administrative Operations had gone on maternity leave last month.

“Linnie?”

Her voice came from behind me again. I didn’t know when she had followed me over.

“Are you here to see Kyle? Is there anything you need me to coordinate for you?”

“My lab access was downgraded.”

“Really? Maybe the system adjusted it automatically. According to policy, your access should be reduced while you’re suspended. This isn’t personal.”

I looked at the smugness she couldn’t quite hide and smiled faintly.

“You seem to know a lot about it.”