I didn't open the envelope right away.
It sat on my kitchen table like a silent threat, pale against the dim light. Every time I reached for it, my hand hesitated. Ethan's words echoed in my mind — "The truth doesn't come cheap."
What kind of truth could cost this much?
The city outside my window pulsed faintly with life, neon signs flickering across the glass. I made tea just to keep my hands busy. When the kettle whistled, I finally tore the envelope open.
Inside were photographs — grainy, black-and-white images. One showed Mason Trent shaking hands with someone in a dark alley. Another showed Claire, entering a hotel under a different name. Then there was one that made my blood run cold.
It was me. Sitting in front of my laptop at home.
The timestamp was from three nights ago.
I stared at it for a long time, the air in the room thick and suffocating. Whoever took that picture had been inside my building. Maybe even outside my door.
Beneath the photos was a small flash drive and a note written in Ethan's sharp handwriting:
"You're being watched. Don't trust anyone. Not even me — yet."
My breath hitched. Not even me?
Then why give this to me at all?
I slid the flash drive into my old laptop — not the one I used for work. The one I had stripped clean, with no connection to my name or the company. The drive held a single file named "Project Helix."
The file was encrypted, but the code was familiar — a variation of something I'd once designed for internal data locks. Ethan had used my own system against the company. Or maybe with the company. I couldn't tell anymore.
When the file finally opened, I saw rows of financial transactions. Hidden accounts. Transfers under dummy corporations. And every few pages — coded references to internal employees. Including my name.
"What the hell is this…" I whispered.
A noise outside made me freeze. Footsteps. Slow, steady, approaching my door.
My heart pounded. I turned off the monitor, grabbed the flash drive, and slipped it into my pocket.
The footsteps stopped. Silence followed.
Then, a soft knock.
"Selina? It's Rina."
Relief washed over me so fast I almost laughed. I opened the door, forcing a smile. "You scared me."
Rina frowned. "You weren't answering messages. Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just… working on something."
She looked past me. "You look pale. You should rest."
I nodded, but something about her expression unsettled me. There was concern — but also hesitation. Like she was measuring her words carefully.
"Rina," I said slowly, "who told you I was home?"
Her eyes flickered. "What do you mean?"
"Someone must've told you I wasn't replying. Who?"
She hesitated, then said, "Claire mentioned you didn't log in today."
I felt my pulse spike. Claire again.
After Rina left, I locked the door and checked the hallway camera feed from my tablet. There — a minute before Rina arrived — a man in a black cap had stopped outside my door, then walked away.
Ethan had been right. I was being watched.
That night, I didn't sleep. I sat by the window with the flash drive in my pocket, replaying everything that had happened since this started.
The missing data. The threats. The pictures.
It all led back to Mason Trent — but there was no direct evidence yet.
By morning, I'd made a decision. I was done reacting. I was going to act.
At the office, I found Ethan near the elevators. He looked exhausted but alert, eyes scanning the hallway before he saw me.
"You opened it," he said quietly.
"Yes," I said. "And you have a lot to explain."
He nodded toward the conference room. "Not here."
Inside, with the door locked, I placed the flash drive on the table. "Start talking."
Ethan leaned forward. "Project Helix is a private database used by Trent and a few others. It stores blackmail material — personal, financial, anything that keeps employees under control. Including you."
"Me?"
He nodded. "You were added six months ago. Trent knows you have the skills to expose the system. That's why he keeps you close — and why he sends Claire to keep tabs on you."
"Claire's working for him?"
"Not willingly. He's holding her brother's medical records hostage."
My head spun. "And you? What's your role in all this?"
"I was supposed to clean the digital trail — make sure no one ever found out about Helix. But I started digging too deep. When I saw your name in the logs, I knew you'd already noticed something. So I tried to warn you."
"With anonymous threats?" I said bitterly.
He met my gaze steadily. "You're alive, aren't you?"
The room went quiet. For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then Ethan said softly, "I can help you bring him down, Selina. But you'll have to trust me."
"Trust?" I laughed, hollow. "After all of this?"
His eyes softened. "I don't need your trust today. I just need your help."
I hesitated, then asked, "What do you want me to do?"
"Access the Helix core," he said. "You're the only one who can. The main server's hidden inside the internal finance department. If we extract the key files, we can expose Trent's entire network."
I stared at him, feeling the weight of the decision settle over me. "And if we fail?"
"Then they erase us," he said quietly. "Completely."
Something in his tone made me shiver — not from fear, but from realization. Ethan wasn't just in danger. He was already half-broken by it.
When I finally spoke, my voice was steady. "Fine. I'll do it."
He nodded once, relief flickering in his eyes. "Tomorrow night. After hours."
As I walked back to my desk, the office felt smaller. Every whisper, every flicker of light seemed sharper.
I'd spent months just surviving this place. Now, I was preparing to burn it down.
That evening, when I looked at my reflection in the elevator mirror, I barely recognized the woman staring back.
She wasn't just an assistant anymore.
She was a threat.