‘Right. Bea. That’s what I said. Anyway, as I was about to explain, we’ve already started the ball rolling for Summer to step in. Like you mentioned, we have a standard of excellence here that you’ve consistently been failing to meet. To be honest, you resigning saves a lot of inconvenience.’

‘What are you saying?’ I knew full well what he was saying, I just couldn’t bear to believe it.

‘He’s saying resign or be fired. Either way you’re leaving,’ Summer chipped in, scrunching her nose in fake sympathy.

Okay, now I was beyond upset and galloping headlong into blind fury. ‘Mike, you know I’m the best, most dedicated – not to mention accurate – member of the team. You can’t fire me because I missed a couple of deadlines due to my email not functioning properly. That’s an IT issue. Fire them!’

‘I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear—’

‘What do the producers say about this?’

‘The producers feel annoyed that you’ve yet to bother mentioning your new job.’

‘I don’t have a new job!’

‘Well, if it’s too late to accept Bigwood’s offer then I’m sure you’ll find something else, soon enough.’ Mike stood up, as if the discussion was over. I remained firmly seated, and not just because my legs had turned to mush.

‘You’re sleeping with her, aren’t you?’ I blurted, my outrage overriding my sense.

Mike threw me a contemptuous glance. ‘Your point is?’

‘Bit of a coincidence.’

‘I’ve slept with most of the women in this building. Law of averages says that some of them are going to get promoted. Have your resignation on my desk by five.’

The second he’d finished speaking, the door flew open and Jamal burst in.

‘Mike, you need to see this.’

‘No. You need to make an appointment with Hailey and then wait to be invited into my office.’

‘You need to see this before you fire Bea.’

‘I really don’t,’ Mike sneered. ‘I don’t care how many followers she’s got. I haven’t got time to deal with incompetence. She couldn’t even turn up on time for this meeting.’

‘That’s because Summer hacked into her email account.’

‘Um, excuse me?’ Summer said, her laugh of disbelief tinged with panic.

Jamal was a first-rate engineer and Mike knew it. With an exasperated sigh, he nodded at Jamal to continue.

‘I started tracking where Bea’s been logging into her account, only it turns out half the time the logins were from places where Bea wasn’t. Like at six-thirteen this morning, for example,’ he said, turning to Summer. ‘When Bea’s email account was accessed from the computer at the desk where you were working, Summer, and the email about this meeting was deleted.’