Chapter 3 - The Candidate Who Was Supposed to Lose
Emily entered the conference room expecting Jonathan to join the interview.
He didn’t.
That should have relieved her.
Instead, Vanessa Cole’s expression made her wish he had.
Three executives sat behind a polished table.
Vanessa took the center chair.
“Your résumé is unusual.”
Emily sat straight.
“I realize I don’t have the traditional background of some applicants.”
“Traditional?”
Vanessa flipped a page.
“You mean competitive.”
One interviewer glanced at her.
Emily understood immediately.
This was not going to be friendly.
Vanessa questioned the 3-month employment gap, her limited corporate experience, her education, and why she had stayed at a small accounting firm for so long.
Emily answered carefully.
Then came a technical exercise.
A spreadsheet containing hundreds of expense entries appeared on the screen.
“You have 15 minutes,” Vanessa said. “Identify anything concerning.”
Emily began.
At first she found ordinary problems: duplicate entries, inconsistent vendor codes, one incorrectly categorized expense.
Then she stopped.
Something bothered her.
She scrolled backward.
Three consulting payments.
Different dates.
Different invoice numbers.
Same amount.
$48,750.
Emily clicked deeper.
The vendor names differed slightly.
Briar Strategic LLC.
Briar Strategy Partners.
Briar Advisory Group.
All three shared the same routing bank.
Emily looked up.
“Is this fictional data?”
Vanessa’s eyes hardened.
“Why?”
“Because there may be something larger than bookkeeping errors.”
One interviewer leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Emily did.
Vanessa interrupted.
“The assignment is to identify accounting errors, Ms. Carter, not invent conspiracy theories.”
Emily hesitated.
“I’m not inventing anything. I’m saying I would flag these payments for review.”
Vanessa closed the laptop.
“We’re finished.”
Emily’s heart sank.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Emily gathered her folder.
Outside, she held herself together until she reached the restroom.
Then she locked herself inside a stall and silently cried.
Five minutes.
That was all she allowed herself.
Then she washed her face and called Lily.
“How did it go?” Lily asked immediately.
Emily smiled despite everything.
“I survived.”
“Did you remember my note?”
“I did.”
“Then you probably got it.”
Children could make hope sound embarrassingly simple.
“I love you, bug.”
“Love you more.”
Emily ended the call.
When she stepped into the lobby, Jonathan was waiting.
“How was it?”
She almost lied.
Instead she said, “Educational.”
His mouth twitched.
“That bad?”
“I don’t think your operations director likes me.”
Jonathan became unreadable.
“What happened?”
Emily explained the spreadsheet.
The amusement vanished from his face.
“Briar?”
“Yes.”
“Three payments?”
Emily nodded.
Jonathan said nothing for several seconds.
“Was I wrong?”
“No.”
One word.
But it changed everything.
“Ms. Carter, wait here.”
He walked away.
Emily remained beside reception for nearly 20 minutes.
Then Vanessa appeared.
Her face was pale.
“Mr. Hartwell would like to see you.”
Emily followed her upstairs.
Jonathan’s office occupied the corner of the fortieth floor.
He stood beside the windows.
Another man was there, older, silver-haired.
“Emily, this is David Chen, our CFO.”
David shook her hand.
Jonathan placed the interview spreadsheet on the desk.
“The exercise you received was created from anonymized historical transactions.”
Emily stared.
“Real transactions?”
“Yes.”
David answered.
“And you found a pattern our external audit did not flag.”
Emily’s confusion deepened.
Jonathan continued.
“The position you applied for pays $62,000.”
Emily nodded.
“I’m offering you $78,000.”
She forgot how to breathe.
“For what?”
“The same job, initially. Ninety-day review. Additional responsibility assisting internal controls.”
Vanessa shifted near the doorway.
Emily looked between them.
“Why?”
Jonathan answered simply.
“Because you noticed what everyone else overlooked.”
Emily thought of the rent notice.
Seven days.
Lily’s lunch box.
The empty refrigerator.
She almost said yes immediately.
Then something stopped her.
“Can I ask something?”
“Of course.”
“Would you have offered me this if we hadn’t met in the elevator?”
Vanessa looked startled.
Jonathan did not.
“I don’t know.”
Emily appreciated the answer.
“That’s honest.”
“You asked an honest question.”
She considered the offer.
Then she nodded.
“Yes.”
Jonathan extended his hand.
“Welcome to Hartwell.”
For the first time in months, Emily felt the ground beneath her feet becoming solid.
She had no idea how temporary that feeling would be.
Because after Emily left the building, Vanessa walked into Jonathan’s office and shut the door.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Jonathan looked up.
“Why?”
“She has no corporate experience.”
“She found Briar.”
“That proves nothing.”
Jonathan studied her.
“Then you shouldn’t be worried.”
Vanessa said nothing.
That evening, Emily came home carrying grocery bags.
Lily ran toward her.
“You got it?”
Emily dropped to her knees.
“I got it.”
Lily screamed.
They hugged in the narrow kitchen, laughing and crying.
For dinner, Emily bought something they had not ordered in months.
Pizza.
Lily raised her soda.
“To Mommy’s new job.”
Emily tapped her glass against it.
“To us.”
Across the city, however, Vanessa sat alone in her office.
On her monitor were the same Briar transactions Emily had discovered.
Vanessa opened an encrypted message.
She found the payments.
May you like
A reply arrived moments later.
Then get rid of her before she finds the fourth one.
