I stared at the blinking cursor on the screen for a long time.
User: A.S.
That single line felt heavier than all the code surrounding it. Adrian Stone. My boss, my mentor, the man who had always seemed impossibly calm and fair — was the one orchestrating everything from the start.
The glow of the monitor painted the apartment walls cold blue. My reflection in the screen looked like a stranger, eyes hard, jaw clenched. "So this is who you really are," I murmured.
I didn't sleep. My mind refused to stop spinning. Every memory replayed itself with cruel clarity — every compliment Adrian had given, every look that lingered too long, every time he told me he trusted me. He had been studying me the whole time. Grooming me.
When dawn broke, I was still sitting there, clutching my mug of now-cold coffee. There were two choices. I could confront him and lose everything, or I could play along until I knew exactly what he was hiding.
And if I was going to survive this, I had to become smarter than him.
At the office, the usual morning buzz felt muted. Mara was at her desk, her hair immaculate as always, typing furiously. Adrian's door was slightly open, light spilling across the glass wall.
As I passed Mara, she smirked. "You look like you didn't sleep."
"Neither did you," I said, not even glancing at her.
Her fingers paused mid-keystroke. For a moment, her mask slipped. Then she smiled again, that dangerous, sweet smile that meant she knew more than she should.
Inside Adrian's office, the air smelled faintly of cedar and coffee. He was standing by the window, city skyline reflected in his eyes.
"Rough night?" he asked without turning around.
"Something like that."
He looked at me finally, his expression unreadable. "You've done good work, Selina. Better than most people I've trusted."
I forced a smile. "That's what you pay me for."
He chuckled softly. "You're different. You see things others miss."
The words twisted something inside me. Yes, Adrian. I see you now.
He gestured to the chair. "Sit. There's something I want you to handle today."
I sat, notebook in hand, pretending to jot notes while my pulse thudded painfully.
"There's been chatter about the upcoming merger," he continued. "Some files are circulating online. I want you to find the leak before the board hears about it."
"How deep?" I asked, meeting his eyes.
"As deep as it takes," he said. "No limits."
I nodded, feigning calm. He had just given me permission to dig — and I was going to use it against him.
When I left his office, Mara was watching me again. She leaned back in her chair. "You're getting special treatment these days," she said.
I smiled faintly. "You sound jealous."
"Maybe I am," she said with a tilt of her head. "But be careful. People who get too close to him don't always land on their feet."
I didn't respond. She was warning me, but maybe she didn't realize how late it was for that.
Back at my desk, I began to map out Adrian's secret system. I couldn't risk accessing it directly again, not without tripping alarms. So I created a decoy — a mirror of my own access logs, feeding fake data into his private layer. If he was monitoring me, he'd see exactly what I wanted him to see.
By lunchtime, I had traced the network's external links. Three proxies, one of them leading to an offshore account labeled Vantage Systems. That wasn't one of ours. It was a shell company. And under it — financial transfers that matched the pattern of corporate espionage payouts.
Adrian was selling proprietary data.
My stomach twisted. All the long hours, all the loyalty — it had been built on a lie.
I needed backup, but not from anyone inside the company. The only person I could trust was Ethan.
That night, I met him at a quiet café near the river, the kind of place where nobody asked questions. He looked rough, unshaven, with dark circles under his eyes. But when he saw me, something like relief flickered in his face.
"I knew you'd figure it out," he said.
"Adrian's behind it," I said, keeping my voice low. "He's running everything through a shadow network."
Ethan nodded. "I tried to warn you. He framed me because I got too close."
"Do you have proof?"
He pulled out a small flash drive and slid it across the table. "I've been tracking his offshore transfers for weeks. I couldn't break the encryption alone."
I took the drive and pocketed it. "Then we do it together."
He smiled weakly. "Just like old times?"
I looked away. "No. This time, there's no going back."
For a moment, silence stretched between us — the kind that holds too many unsaid things. Then Ethan leaned forward. "Be careful, Selina. Adrian doesn't leave loose ends."
I left before he could say more. The streets were quiet, rain starting to fall in thin streaks. My mind felt sharp again, like a blade freshly honed.
Back in my apartment, I plugged in the flash drive and started decrypting. The files were heavily protected, layers upon layers of security — and that was what made them familiar. They were built in my coding style.
Adrian had used my frameworks. My systems. My name.
He wasn't just betraying the company. He was framing me next.
The realization hit like a blow. I was one step away from becoming the next Ethan.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe. If I panicked now, he'd win. I needed a plan — a real one.
I opened a clean document and started outlining steps.
First, gather every trace of his shadow system.
Second, create redundancy — a hidden copy that would trigger automatic exposure if I vanished or was fired.
Third, play dumb. Let him think I was still his loyal, overworked assistant.
And finally — make him trust me again. Completely.
It was dangerous, but it was the only way.
At midnight, I saved everything to a hidden server buried deep within the dark web — one only I could reach. The glow from the screen dimmed as I leaned back, exhaustion settling over me.
But there was no fear this time. Just determination.
Adrian thought he was the mastermind.
He had no idea what I was capable of when I stopped pretending to be ordinary.