Chapter 1

I watched the floating comments drift past my eyes, then slowly set down my teacup.

The private dining room had been full of accusations a second ago, but my calm reaction made everyone fall silent for a moment.

I lifted my eyes and looked at Finn Chancer, who was still sitting on the floor, playing the victim.

My voice stayed even.

“This file is classified, all right. But when you altered the numbers, you forgot to line up the watermark code on page three.”

I glanced at the scattered pages.

“If you’re going to frame me, you should at least do a cleaner job.”

Finn’s voice caught.

A flash of panic crossed his eyes, but he covered it almost immediately with that wounded look of his.

“Ethan! What are you talking about?” he cried. “You’re the one who smuggled this file out of the department. How can you turn around and accuse me of altering it?”

As he argued, he shrank closer to my uncle’s leg, as if he had suffered some terrible injustice.

“I know you’ve always resented me since I found my real parents and came back to the family. You’re jealous because Uncle treats me well after everything I went through growing up lost. But that doesn’t give you the right to drag my name through the mud just to save yourself!”

My uncle, Leonard Hale, looked furious.

He slammed his hand on the table so hard that the dishes and silverware rattled.

“Ethan! Do you have any respect left at all? Finn just came back to the family, and he finally passed the exam and got hired by the city government. You’re his cousin. It’s bad enough that you didn’t look after him, but now you’re selling classified government documents?”

He pointed at me, his face dark with rage.

“I’m telling you right now, this isn’t over. As a director at the department, I will not protect corruption just because it’s in my own family.”

“Tomorrow morning, I’ll start the process to have you fired. Then I’ll personally hand you over to the State Office of Ethics and Oversight.”

The relatives immediately read the room and turned on me.

“Ethan, how could you be so foolish? How did our family end up with someone so greedy and ungrateful?”

“Exactly. Finn is such a good kid, and you still had to bully him.”

“He’s your uncle’s favorite for a reason. You’re just some book-smart kid from a small town. What do you have to be so arrogant about?”

“Hurry up and apologize to Finn. Hand over those hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes too. Maybe your uncle will still treat you like family and help shave a few years off your sentence.”

I looked at their smug, self-righteous faces and almost laughed.

They had no idea.

Yes, I had spent three years studying like hell to get hired by the city government.

But I hadn’t joined some ordinary department.

I had been specially assigned by the State Office of Ethics and Oversight to the Special Investigations Unit.

I had come to the City Hall as a new hire for one reason only.

To quietly investigate Leonard Hale’s years of bribery, embezzlement, and illegal hiring.

And Finn, my so-called cousin who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, was one of Leonard’s illegal hires.

I looked at Leonard’s righteous act, and the cold smile on my lips finally broke through.

“Uncle,” I said. “Didn’t you just say you wouldn’t protect family at the cost of justice?”

I stood and looked down at him.

“Perfect. Come back to the Special Investigations Unit with me and explain every illegal hire and backdoor deal you’ve made over the past few years.”