Zara didn’t cry.
She didn’t scream or slam doors. Instead, she stared at Alec like she didn’t recognize him. Like the man who had become her sanctuary had never really existed. The USB drive sat on the coffee table between them, as if mocking them both.
“I need you to say it,” she said finally. Her voice wasn’t shaky—it was terrifyingly calm. “Tell me that wasn’t you.”
Alec looked wrecked. Disheveled. Haunted. He didn’t answer immediately, and that pause was a wrecking ball to what little trust remained.
“It was manipulated,” he said. “Taken out of context.”
Her eyes didn’t waver. “But those are your words.”
Alec stepped forward. “Juliette was unraveling. She wanted to build this fake charity to clean dirty money from a biotech company her father had been tied to. I told her it was dangerous. I tried to stop her—”
“But you were involved.”
“I was trying to protect her. I buried things I shouldn’t have, and now Juliette’s using that truth to destroy us.”
Zara laughed bitterly. “She’s no
