“Well, it’s been an interesting day,” Barrington started, running a hand through his shaggy blond hair.

“It has,” Samiah answered. Cutting to the chase, she said, “I’m not sure I can explain the inexplicable, but if you give me the opportunity to do so, I’ll try.”

“And what do you consider to be the inexplicable?” he asked.

“How my access card was used to breach the system.” She hunched her shoulders. “Frankly, I don’t know how it happened. I have my card with me 99.9 percent of the time.”

Justin held up a hand. “Daniel already explained to us how he was able to get his hands on your access card.”

Samiah’s stomach dropped. “Would you mind sharing what he said?”

“He said he lifted it from your purse when you weren’t looking, copied it onto a reader, then slipped it back before you even knew anything had happened,” Justin said.

She’d suspected as much, but to have it confirmed crushed her spirit. Had he pegged her as an easy mark from the very beginning? Had that been his goal from day one?

He’d arrived at Trendsetters just after that video went viral. Had he calculated that she would be vulnerable because of her breakup with Craig, and, thus, an easy target?

“Daniel also assured us that you had nothing to do with it, that you had no idea he was working undercover.”

“No, I did not,” Samiah said. She swallowed past her heartache. “No idea at all.”

“I’m relieved to hear that,” Barrington said. “However, this was still an extremely serious breach of company security. It cannot be ignored.”

This was it. Samiah braced herself.

“You will be placed on probation, which comes in the form of your access to any sensitive or proprietary information being revoked for the next six months,” Justin said. “That means we will need to pull you off several teams for the time being.”

“I understand,” Samiah said. She’d put a ridiculous amount of work into the various projects she’d been working on. It was painful to think of the teams moving forward without her.

Samiah waited for the next shoe to drop. Except…it didn’t.

Wait.

“Is that it?” she asked.

Justin nodded.

Relief whooshed through her. Considering that she firmly believed she would be fired, this was nothing. In fact, she could use the time. She already had way too much on her plate.

Actually, it might work in her favor…

“I know I already turned it down, but did the security breach affect your belief in my ability to lead the new Outreach Department?” she asked.

They spoke at once.

“Absolutely not—”

“No—”