I didn't sleep much that night. Every time I closed my eyes, the coded emails flashed behind them, repeating Ethan's name like an echo I couldn't silence. "Monitor closely." Those two words replayed in my mind until sunrise.
The world outside looked calm, but I felt the electricity of tension running under my skin. I brewed coffee mechanically, staring at my reflection in the glass kettle. Same face, same calm, but a different purpose. I had been surviving quietly all this time, but now I was observing the watchers themselves.
By the time I reached the office, I had memorized every data trail from the night before. The familiar smell of coffee and printer ink greeted me as I stepped in. Claire and Clara were already there, talking in low voices, but their whispers faded when they saw me.
I sat down, logged into my workstation, and pretended not to notice the silence. My phone buzzed once—a message from Rina. "Lunch today? You look like you haven't slept."
I smiled faintly and replied, "Lunch sounds good. And no, I haven't."
An hour later, Adrian called me into his office. "Selina, good work on the presentation yesterday," he said, tapping a pen against his desk. "But I need you to review the audit files today. Ethan's requested them specifically."
"Ethan?" I repeated, keeping my tone steady. "Any reason why?"
Adrian shrugged. "He didn't say. Just that he wants you to handle it."
"Alright. I'll take care of it."
When I left his office, I could feel Claire's eyes on me. She was curious, maybe suspicious. The attention Ethan was giving me clearly didn't sit well with her. That made it useful. I didn't need to destroy Claire yet; I just had to make her nervous enough to expose herself.
The rest of the morning passed in quiet tension. I accessed the audit files carefully, cross-checking them with what I had decrypted last night. It didn't take long to see the connections—numbers manipulated to hide foreign transactions, signatures that didn't match. Ethan's name appeared again, but so did someone else's: Mason Trent.
The CEO.
I leaned back slowly, processing it. Whatever game Ethan was playing, it reached higher than I thought. He wasn't just testing employees—he was protecting something. And if Mason Trent was involved, that meant I had stumbled into something dangerous.
By lunch, I was mentally exhausted. Rina met me at the café downstairs. She waved as soon as I entered. "You look like you've been decoding alien messages," she joked.
"Something close to that," I said, taking my seat.
"You've been quieter lately. Are you sure everything's okay at work?"
I hesitated, swirling my tea before answering. "Let's just say there's more going on than anyone realizes. Some people are playing a dangerous game without knowing all the rules."
Rina frowned. "That sounds like trouble."
"It's only trouble if I lose," I said softly, offering a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes.
After lunch, I returned to the office to find Claire waiting near my desk, holding a folder. "I thought you might need these audit reports," she said sweetly.
"Thank you," I replied, taking them. "I already have the digital copies, but I appreciate the gesture."
Her smile faltered slightly. "You're always so prepared."
"Old habits," I said. "They're hard to break."
As she walked away, I noticed the faintest twitch in her posture. She had expected me to hesitate, maybe to seem uncertain. Instead, she got nothing. Every little sign of her unraveling felt like a quiet victory.
Hours passed. The office buzzed with activity, but my focus remained sharp. Near evening, Ethan stopped by Adrian's office again. I pretended to be absorbed in work, but I could feel his presence even from across the room. When he left, he paused briefly near my desk.
"Selina," he said, his voice calm but firm. "Join me in the conference room for a moment."
I followed without a word. The room was empty when we entered. He closed the door behind him and turned to face me. "You've been accessing files outside your department."
I met his gaze without blinking. "Only those assigned to me by Adrian."
"Don't play innocent," he said. "You found something."
The air thickened between us. He wasn't angry—he was measuring me.
"I analyze everything I touch," I replied quietly. "If you didn't want something found, you shouldn't have left it open."
For a moment, silence stretched between us. Then, surprisingly, he smiled. "Good answer."
"You're not angry?" I asked, genuinely puzzled.
"If you were careless, I'd be angry. But you're thorough. That's rare."
He leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Tell me, Selina, what did you really see last night?"
I hesitated. This was a test within a test. "Enough to know there's more going on than audit reports," I said carefully.
He studied me for a long moment before nodding. "Then keep watching. But be careful. You're not the only one observing."
Before I could ask what he meant, he left, leaving me in silence.
That night, back home, I sat in front of my monitors again. Ethan's warning replayed in my head. I traced the new data trails I'd uncovered, comparing them to internal communications. A name appeared in the metadata—Claire's. She had accessed restricted files under an admin code that wasn't hers.
So she wasn't just sabotaging me. She was being used too.
A part of me almost pitied her. Almost.
I compiled the evidence, saving it in a hidden folder. Then I encrypted everything and backed it up to an external drive. My eyes burned from staring at the screen, but the rush of discovery pushed the exhaustion away.
Just as I was about to shut down, another anonymous message appeared on my screen. "Stop digging, Selina. You're getting too close."
No sender. No trace. But this time, I didn't flinch.
I typed back, "Then you should have buried it better."
The message disappeared instantly, leaving only the reflection of my own faint smile on the dark screen.
I knew then that whatever this was, I was already deep inside it. And walking away was no longer an option.