Marrin didn't sleep that night.
She sat curled on the edge of the sofa, the broken wine glass long since cleaned up, the faint scent of blood still lingering on her skin. The video kept replaying in her mind — Calvin's voice, calm, deliberate, damning.
"If she keeps digging, none of us walk away clean."
The words felt like poison, slow and cold.
She tried to reason with herself. Maybe the video was edited. Maybe Derek had found a way to manipulate the footage. But deep down, she knew that tone — the careful restraint, the distance. Calvin's truth had always been hidden behind control.
And now it cut her open.
By morning, the city was already buzzing with the fallout of last night's charity scandal. Vivienne and Derek were denying everything, calling it a smear campaign. Reporters camped outside the Hales' mansion; lawyers released statements.
But Marrin's mind wasn't on them anymore. It was on the man she'd started to trust.
When Liam arrived, he found her standing by the window, hair unbrushed, coffee untouched.
"You look like you didn't sleep," he said carefully.
"Observation of the year."
He hesitated. "Do you want to talk about the video?"
She turned, eyes sharp. "You saw it?"
He nodded reluctantly. "It was routed through your cloud mirror. I got the notification before you deleted it."
Her jaw tightened. "Then you know what it means."
"I know it looks bad," he said, choosing his words. "But if Calvin really met with Derek, we need more than one clip to prove betrayal. It could be a setup."
Marrin looked back out the window. "If it's a setup, I'll find the person behind it. And if it's real..." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Then I'll burn everything I built for him."
That afternoon, she went to Reeves Holdings, Calvin's corporate fortress of glass and steel.
Security tried to stall her, but Marrin's tone left no room for negotiation.
"Tell Mr. Reeves that if he doesn't see me now, every single journalist in this city will get an anonymous file by lunch," she said.
It took two minutes.
When she walked into his office, Calvin was standing behind his desk, sleeves rolled up, expression unreadable.
"Marrin," he said quietly. "You look angry."
"You lied."
He blinked. "About what?"
She pulled her phone from her coat and played the video, the tinny sound of his voice echoing through the silent office.
His eyes darkened as he listened. When it ended, he didn't speak for a long time.
"Where did you get that?" he asked finally.
"It doesn't matter."
"It matters to me."
Marrin stepped closer. "Are you going to tell me it's fake?"
Calvin sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "I don't know how they got that recording, but yes, it's real — and no, it's not what you think."
"Then tell me what it is, because it looks like you and Derek were working together to keep me quiet."
"I wasn't working with him," Calvin said sharply. "I was trying to protect you."
"By meeting with the man who tried to destroy me?"
His voice rose slightly, controlled but strained. "By keeping you out of a war that could get you killed, Marrin! You think Derek's just a petty traitor? He's been laundering money for people who make people disappear. I met him because I needed proof — proof I could use without dragging you into it."
Her breath caught. "You expect me to believe that?"
"Yes."
For a moment, neither spoke. The tension between them hummed like live electricity.
Finally, Marrin said, "Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you would've gone straight for his throat," Calvin said. "And you're brilliant, Marrin — but you're not invincible."
She laughed bitterly. "I was dead once. I think that qualifies me as hard to kill."
He flinched at her words — a tiny, human crack in his composure.
"I didn't want to lose you," he said softly.
The silence that followed was heavier than any argument.
Marrin looked at him — the man she'd begun to trust, the one whose touch had almost made her forget the ruin she came from — and felt everything inside her tear in two directions at once.
"Then you should've trusted me," she said finally, voice trembling. "Because now I don't know if I can ever trust you again."
She turned to leave, but his voice stopped her at the door.
"Marrin."
She paused, back still to him.
"There's something else you need to know," he said quietly. "Vivienne isn't the one who leaked that video to you."
Her pulse slowed. "What are you talking about?"
"It came from inside your company."
Marrin froze. "That's impossible."
Calvin's gaze was steady. "Liam was the first one to access your cloud mirror. The same route that transmitted the video file."
Her heartbeat thudded, slow and heavy.
"You're lying."
"I wish I were."
He slid a file across the desk. "Check the metadata yourself."
She snatched the folder, scanning the data — login timestamps, location pings. All pointed to Liam's credentials.
"No," she whispered. "He's loyal."
"Maybe," Calvin said softly. "Or maybe someone found a price for his loyalty."
Marrin looked up, eyes cold, shaking her head as though denial could rewrite reality. "No. He wouldn't—"
But deep inside, where instinct lived, she felt the faintest chill of doubt.
That night, Marrin sat alone in her penthouse again, the city lights flickering like dying stars below. The file lay open on her table, proof staring back at her.
Liam had been with her from the beginning — smart, loyal, protective. He'd risked his job for her more than once.
But the evidence didn't lie.
Or maybe it did.
Her mind spun in circles, chasing its own tail between trust and paranoia.
Then her phone buzzed again. Another unknown number.
Unknown: "Still think you can tell friend from foe?"
Marrin's breath hitched.
Attached was another file — this time a photo.
It showed Liam, sitting at a café across from Vivienne.
And he was smiling.
Marrin didn't sleep again.
The city outside her windows looked like a painting left too long in the rain — colors bleeding, edges blurring. She stared until dawn stripped the skyline bare, wondering how many times she'd been fooled by the same smile.
By morning, she had made a decision.
If Liam was working against her, she'd find out. But if Calvin had planted this to divide them — to make her dependent on him — she'd expose that too.
For now, she'd play both of them.
She arrived at the office before anyone else. Her reflection in the elevator mirror startled her — pale, sharp-eyed, the ghost of someone she used to be.
When Liam walked in, holding two coffees, his smile was warm, easy. Familiar."Morning," he said. "You look like you fought the night and won."
She forced a small laugh. "Something like that."
He handed her a cup. "Double shot. You'll need it."
She studied him quietly, the way his eyes crinkled at the edges, how his hand brushed her desk with casual ownership. The little details that made trust feel so natural.
"Liam," she said suddenly, "when was the last time you saw Vivienne?"
He blinked. "Vivienne? Months ago. Why?"
Her stomach twisted. Liar.
"You're sure?"
"Yeah. Why would I—" He paused, watching her face. "Wait. Did something happen?"
She smiled faintly, tilting her head. "Not yet."
The day dragged. Meetings blurred together. Marrin heard nothing anyone said; she only watched Liam — how often he checked his phone, how easily he disappeared between departments.
At noon, she called a favor from an old contact: a data specialist who owed her from her previous life. Within an hour, she had remote access to Liam's device logs.
The results came faster than she wanted.
He had met Vivienne. Twice in the last week. One meeting at a hotel bar. One in the café shown in the photo.
And both were followed by encrypted messages sent to an unregistered number — one traced back to Reeves Holdings.
Calvin's company.
The air went thin around her.
So maybe they were working together. Or maybe someone was staging it perfectly to make her think so.
Either way, Marrin realized one thing: the truth had been buried in layers, and every time she uncovered one, another waited beneath it.
That night, she met Calvin again.
He looked worse than she'd ever seen him — tie loosened, eyes shadowed. There were papers scattered across his desk, security reports and transaction records, none of them making sense.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, barely glancing up.
"Then tell me why Liam's phone connects to your company server," she said.
That made him look. Really look. "What did you just say?"
"I traced it," she said. "Encrypted traffic, routed through one of your proxy lines. You said he was the leak. Maybe he is. Or maybe you both are."
Calvin stood, crossing the space between them in two steps. "Marrin, stop. You're being played."
"Am I?" she snapped. "Because every piece of evidence keeps pointing to the same two men. You and him. So either one of you is lying, or you both are."
His jaw tightened. "You think I'd risk everything for Derek Hale's games? You think I don't know what he's capable of?"
"Then show me proof," she said. "Or I walk."
For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, finally, he opened the drawer behind him and slid out a black folder.
Inside were photos — grainy surveillance stills, timestamps, coded notes.
"Derek's operations didn't stop after your death," he said. "He expanded. Offshore accounts, dummy investors, shell charities. He's building something under the radar — and Liam's been feeding him your strategies."
Marrin flipped through the photos. One caught her breath: Liam, standing outside a private hangar, shaking hands with a man she didn't recognize.
"What is this?"
"A buyer," Calvin said. "Someone who wants access to your company's software — the predictive model you designed. Derek didn't care about your name, Marrin. He cared about your algorithm."
Her chest went cold. That project was her resurrection — the only piece of her past life she had fully remade.
"He's trying to erase me again," she said softly.
Calvin's voice gentled. "Not erase. Replace. And if we don't stop him, he'll use your own code to destroy everything tied to your name."
Silence stretched between them, thick with something unspoken.
Finally Marrin said, "Then we stop him. But we do it my way."
Calvin frowned. "Meaning?"
"You feed him what he wants — controlled data, false leads. I'll handle Liam."
"You'll confront him?"
She smiled without humor. "I'll give him a chance to tell me the truth. If he lies, I'll make sure Derek's entire network burns with him."
Calvin stepped closer, lowering his voice. "You're playing with fire."
"I already died once in the flames," she said. "This time, I'm lighting them."
Their eyes met — not soft, not romantic, but something rawer: two predators realizing they might need each other to survive.
Later that night, Marrin waited in her office.
The city outside pulsed with stormlight, thunder rolling low like a warning. Liam walked in, looking wary.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes," she said quietly. "Close the door."
He hesitated, then obeyed.
When he turned back, Marrin was holding the printed photo — the one of him and Vivienne.
"Explain," she said.
His face froze. "Where did you—"
"Don't ask me how," she interrupted. "Just tell me why."
He stared at the picture for a long moment. Then, slowly, his expression shifted — from guilt to something more complicated.
"I was trying to protect you," he said.
She laughed — bitter, sharp. "I've heard that line before."
He stepped closer, voice low. "No, Marrin, listen to me. Vivienne's not working for Derek anymore. She's working for someone else — someone higher. She said you were in danger, and if I didn't cooperate, they'd come after you again."
"Who's they?"
"She wouldn't say," Liam replied, desperation creeping in. "She only called them the investors. Said they were the ones funding both Derek and Calvin."
Marrin's pulse spiked. "You're saying Calvin's dirty too?"
"I'm saying everyone is," Liam whispered. "And you're the only one who doesn't see how deep it goes."
For a heartbeat, they just stared at each other — her betrayal reflected in his fear.
Then lightning flashed outside, throwing their faces into harsh relief.
"I want proof," Marrin said.
"Then follow the money," he said, voice shaking. "Check the offshore accounts under Reeves Capital Partners. That's where Vivienne told me everything starts."
She blinked, stunned. "You're telling me Calvin's part of it?"
"I'm telling you," Liam said quietly, "that you've been sleeping beside your enemy twice — in two different lives."