don’t know for certain.
But Derek told me he had someone inside your company.
He said the account was guaranteed and that making partner was only the beginning.”
Marcus immediately called Tony.
His business partner answered on the second ring.
“Everything okay?”
“Lock access to Project Keystone.
Freeze document permissions and call our security lead.
Someone leaked the contract number to Derek.”
Tony’s tone changed at once.
“How do you know?”
Marcus gave him the essential details.
Tony did not interrupt.
“I’m pulling the access logs now,” he said.
“Do not call anyone else inside the company until we know who viewed it.”
The technical crisis was easier for Marcus than the emotional one.
Systems recorded behavior.
Every login left a trace.
Every downloaded file created a timestamp.
People could rewrite memories, but servers were less sentimental.
Lauren watched him end the call.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“You didn’t do this.”
“I knew Derek exaggerated.
I didn’t know he had forged anything until I saw the attachment on his laptop last night.”
Marcus studied her face.
“Why were you looking at his laptop?”
She gave a tired, humorless smile.
“Because he asked me to lie.”
The night after the restaurant dinner, Derek had told Lauren that Marcus was trying to sabotage his career.
He wanted her to tell the firm that she had heard Marcus verbally promise the DataVault account during a private conversation.
Lauren refused.
Derek tried charm first.
Then guilt.
Finally, he reminded her that their wedding deposits had already been paid and suggested that a loyal wife understood when the family’s future depended on presenting a united story.
“That was when I started wondering what story I was being asked to protect,” she said.
She waited until Derek fell asleep, opened the laptop he had left on their kitchen counter, and found the email thread with Helen’s office.
She printed the first message.
Before she could read everything else, Derek woke up.
“He saw the printer light,” Lauren said.
“He knew I had found something.”
Marcus remembered the way Derek had burst into the coffee shop.
“He followed you.”
“Probably.”
“Are you safe going home?”
Lauren looked toward the window.
“I’m not going home.”
She had packed an overnight bag and left it with a colleague.
The engagement ring remained on her finger, but she kept turning it inward, hiding the stone against her palm.
Tony called back twenty minutes later.
Only four accounts had accessed the confidential project file.
Marcus’s, Tony’s, the chief financial officer’s, and an account belonging to a junior financial analyst named Caleb Price.
Marcus recognized the name immediately.
Caleb was the son of one of Derek’s law school friends—the same friend who had lowered his phone during the restaurant confrontation.
The connection had been mentioned casually when Caleb was hired eight months earlier.
Derek had praised him as a hardworking young man looking for an opportunity.
Marcus had not been part of the hiring decision.
“Caleb downloaded the project summary eleven days ago,” Tony said.
“At 11:43 p.m.
He had no business accessing it.”
“Disable his account.
Have counsel handle the interview.”
“Already done.”
Marcus closed his eyes briefly.
The dinner had occurred nine days earlier.
Derek had received the confidential number two days before he was officially made partner.
The timing
