Trust was a weapon. And someone was sharpening it behind her back.
The morning light crawled in through the floor-to-ceiling windows like an unwelcome guest.
Zara sat on the edge of Lucien's bed, bare except for one of his shirts, her thoughts heavier than the silk sheets tangled around her.
He was still asleep behind her. Or pretending to be. She didn't check.
She stared at her phone. No notifications. No messages. But that meant nothing.
After everything—after the deleted file, after the stolen flash drive, after Lucien's confession—her world felt like it was cracking beneath a silent pressure she couldn't name yet.
Someone knew she was digging.
Someone wanted her to stop.
She rose and padded into the hallway, grabbing her bag. Her laptop was still inside. Unopened since yesterday.
She booted it up on the kitchen counter and started running diagnostics. She wasn't just worried about a bug or a tracker. She was worried about a ghost — the kind that didn't leave fingerprints.
A shadow in the code confirmed it.
Someone had remotely accessed her system last night. Twice. Brief pings, like someone checking to see what she knew, what she'd opened. What she hadn't.
Zara didn't panic. She leaned in.
She traced the IP logs. Masked. Routed through proxies. Smart. But not infallible.
There was one thing that didn't match the pattern — a connection routed internally through the ValeCorp employee network. Someone inside had used her credentials to access the system while she was with Lucien.
Her chest tightened.
A message popped up on her screen before she could dig deeper.
Access Denied. Session Terminated.
Then her screen went black.
Behind her, Lucien's voice broke the silence. "What did you just do?"
She turned, eyes narrowed. "Someone just wiped my access."
Lucien crossed the room, his expression already shifting into that cold, lethal calm she recognized too well. "Your account was flagged. You triggered a sweep."
"No," Zara said. "They were already watching. This wasn't random. It was planted."
Lucien exhaled, then looked past her. Past the windows. "There's a leak."
Zara swallowed. "You think it's someone in your executive team?"
"I think it's someone close to me. Maybe both of us."
He picked up a phone from the island counter — not his usual one. A secure line.
"Grant," he said quietly when someone answered. "Scrub the network. Look for duplicate sessions. Prioritize Research and Acquisitions access points. And trace all pings to employee logins since yesterday—especially the ghost credentials."
Zara watched him, arms crossed, her spine still taut with unease.
He hung up and looked at her. "We're being hunted."
"By who?" she asked.
Lucien's eyes darkened. "Whoever inherited Phoenix."
The room went still.
"You said it was buried," Zara said carefully.
"I said your father tried to kill it," Lucien replied. "But someone kept a copy. And now they're moving again."
Zara stared at him, a thousand questions burning behind her eyes. But one rose above the rest.
"Why now?"
Lucien walked toward her, slow, deliberate. "Because Phoenix needed a key. Someone with the access and intelligence to unlock what your father hid. Someone who could get close to the cracks forming inside ValeCorp."
She stilled.
"You mean me."
Lucien's silence was answer enough.
Zara stepped back, breath catching in her throat. "You used me."
His face twisted. "I protected you."
"No," she whispered. "You positioned me."
Lucien moved fast — not to threaten, but to close the distance before she could flee again.
His hands came to her arms, gently but firmly. "Zara, listen to me. Everything I've done — every lie, every manipulation — it wasn't just for ValeCorp. It was for you."
"You don't get to dress control in the language of love," she spat.
"I didn't fall in love with you to control you," he said, voice strained. "I fell in love with you because you were the only one who saw the fire — and didn't look away."
Silence stretched like a wire between them.
Zara's pulse thundered in her ears.
She didn't trust him.
But she wanted to.
And that was almost worse.
She turned away, hands trembling. "Whoever's behind this… they know I'm close."
Lucien's voice was quiet behind her. "Then it's time we play a different game."
"What kind?"
"A public one. If they're watching, let's give them something worth seeing."
Zara turned back, confused. "You want to bait them?"
He nodded. "Exactly. Let's make them think we've turned on each other. Force their hand."
Zara stared at him.
"You want me to pretend we've fallen apart."
"No," he said. "I want you to lie so well that the enemy finally steps out of the dark."
She looked at him a long moment, then smiled coldly.
"You forget," she said softly. "Lying is what I was born into."