I (29F) work in a fast-paced marketing agency. I’ve been there for about four years, recently promoted to a project lead position. I’m not the kind of person to brag, but I work hard, stay late, and honestly deserve the role I got. Not everyone agreed, apparently.

There’s a coworker, “Rachel” (33F), who I used to be friendly with. She was also gunning for the promotion and didn’t get it. After I got the role, she got… weird. Passive-aggressive comments, icy attitude, and borderline insubordination when I was assigned to lead a team she was on. Still, I tried to keep things professional.

Then, things started going missing from our shared drive—files I KNOW I uploaded, slides with last-minute changes disappearing before client meetings. She’d point it out in front of everyone like, “Oh, weird, I guess [my name] forgot again.” I started second-guessing myself.

So I got smart.

I set up a private backup system and started keeping logs of everything—timestamps, emails, Slack messages. Eventually, I caught her red-handed. She had been deleting or reverting my changes late at night after everyone else logged off. I even got her on video (our remote desktop software logs user sessions).

I took it to HR.

She denied everything… until she saw the receipts. Her face went pale. She admitted it but said it was because she was “frustrated” and “felt undervalued” and was “just trying to make me look bad, not ruin anything.” She cried. HR fired her on the spot.

Now here’s where things get messy.

She’s a single mom of three. I didn’t know that until after the fact. People in the office are split. Some say she deserved it. Others say I should’ve just confronted her instead of going to HR and “destroying her life.” I’ve been getting cold shoulders from a few people, and even a friend of mine at work asked, “Was it really worth it?”

I feel awful… but also, she tried to torpedo my career. So… AITA?