The Skin Thief

Chapter 38

"What?" Leo asks, leaning forward to stare at my screen.

My heart thunders in my chest and my mind goes completely blank. Leo shoves me out of the way and starts clicking around on my computer, opening files and the shared cloud drive.

"Did you back it up on the drive?" he asks.

I nod my head.

"It's gone from there too," I say as he opens up the document it was saved in. Leo sits back down in his chair and stares at the screen, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"I..." he begins. I gulp back my tears and ball my hands into fists.

Don't look at her. Don't look at her. Don't look at her.

"Did anyone come to my desk whilst I was gone?" I ask Leo.

"I didn't see, I was too busy working."

I bite at my lips as my hands begin to shake. I am meant to have that report in by five tonight. That's only four hours away. I did 10,000 words and still have about three thousand to go. How am I going to get that done?

"Fuck," I hiss. After everything Marcus just said, I'm going to turn around and hand in a report late.

Anger burns through my veins. I know she did this. Somehow, Serena deleted all of my work. Well, either her or one of her cronies.

"I can ask around and see if anyone saw anything."

"No," I say quickly. "No, I'm not going to spread gossip and accusations. Not without proof. That would make me seem just as bad as her and she could use that to further whatever narrative she's trying to create."

"So, what are you going to do then?"

I let out a long breath and close my eyes. I lean on my desk and bury my head in my hands. For a few moments, I don't answer him as I try and think of something.

Finally, I sit back up and square my shoulders.

"I'll go and calmly talk to Zoe and say what happened. Then, I'll ask for an extension for tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning?" he asks.

"I'll just have to stay late and get it done," I sigh. "I'll play this calm. No one knows what happened. If anyone asks, I'll just shrug it off and pretend that everything is normal, okay?"

"Okay," he agrees. "My lips are sealed."

"Thanks," I say, and stand up. "I'll go talk to Zoe now."

"Good luck," he replies.

I know Serena is watching me as I approach Zoe's office. I ignore her and keep my expression neutral like nothing is wrong.

I knock on the door.

"Come in," Zoe says from beyond. She smiles as I enter. "You've only just left," she chuckles. "Do you want to work on the translation already? I know you have a report due tonight, so it can wait until tomorrow morning."

"That's what I came to talk about," I say, taking a seat. I gulp, a lump forming in my throat. "I was so stupid," I hiss. "I was so shocked that you called me to join you and Marcus, that I didn't lock my computer."

This time, I allow the tears to gather in my eyes, letting Zoe see them. Her face drops.

"What's happened?" she asks.

"My report's been deleted."

She shuts her eyes and lets out a long breath.

"Are you sure? It wasn't some sort of glitch or anything?"