Chapter 27: Corporate Espionage

Someone was leaking our projects. The question was who, and why now.

I sat at the head of the boardroom table, the silence in the room heavy enough to crush bone. Marcus was pacing the length of the room, his usually immaculate hair looking as if he’d run his hands through it a dozen times.

"Three clients in two weeks, Noah," Marcus said, turning to face me. "Three major bids. We lost the Tokyo contract. We lost the Berlin expansion. And now the military simulation bid? That wasn't coincidence."

"No," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "It wasn't."

I stared at the tablet in front of me. The rejection emails were almost identical. ‘We have decided to go with a competitor who offered a remarkably similar proposal at a lower price point.’

They weren't just undercutting us. They were mirroring us. Someone was feeding our proprietary data—our architecture, our price models, our launch timelines—to a rival firm before the ink was even dry on our proposals.

"I built this company from nothing," I murmured, tapping a finger against the obsidian table. "I'd be damned if I let someone destroy it from the inside."

"What do we do?" Marcus asked, dropping into a chair. He looked exhausted. Between the wedding planning with Sienna and this, he was fraying at the edges. "If this gets out, our stock tanks. We lose credibility."

"We lock it down," I said, standing up. "Total information blackout. Only the executive team and lead project managers have access to the servers starting now. And I launch an internal investigation."

"You think it's one of us?" Marcus looked horrified.

"It has to be," I said grimly. "The data is encrypted with AES-256. No one hacked us from the outside without leaving a footprint. This was someone with a key."

I walked to the window, looking out at the city. My city.

"I'll find them," I promised. "And when I do, I'll bury them."

The Suspect List

An hour later, I was in the server room with Lewis, my head of cybersecurity. The room was kept at a frigid sixty degrees, filled with the hum of fans and the blinking lights of the servers that held my life's work.

"Show me the access logs," I commanded.

Lewis typed furiously. "Okay, boss. Here. The Berlin files were accessed at 3:00 AM the night before the bid. The Tokyo files... 2:00 AM two days prior."

"Who has clearance?"

"Executives. You, Marcus, the CFO." Lewis hesitated. "And the Project Leads."

"Pull the list."

The names scrolled across the screen. Most were veterans—people who had been with me since the garage days. I trusted them with my life.

And then, there it was.

Aria Stone - Lead Designer (Contractor)

My stomach tightened.

Aria.

She had access. She was working late nights. She was... complicated.

"Does she have access to the financial bids?" I asked, my voice tight.

" technically no," Lewis said. "But her clearance level for Project Aether overlaps with the central repository. If she knew how to navigate the backend... she could get there."

I stared at her name glowing on the screen.

She's a coder, my logical brain whispered. She knows the architecture better than anyone. She built her own engine in college.

She lied to you about her identity. She hid the baby.

Could she be doing this?

The thought was a physical sickness. I rejected it instantly. Aria Stone—the woman who cried over a heartbeat, the woman who refused my money—wouldn't sell me out. She had too much integrity. I had seen her passion for the work. You don't build something beautiful just to sell it for parts.

But then the darker, colder part of me—the part that had learned to survive by trusting no one—spoke up.

She has a sister who loves money. She has a family that pressures her. Everyone has a price.

"Monitor her," I ordered, the words tasting like ash. "Monitor everyone on that list. Keyloggers. Screen captures. I want to know every keystroke."

Lewis looked surprised. "Even Ms. Stone?"

"Especially the contractors," I said, turning away so he wouldn't see the conflict in my eyes. "Trust is a luxury we can't afford right now."

The Test

I went down to the development floor. I needed to see her. I needed to look into her eyes and know that I wasn't sleeping with the enemy.

The floor was buzzing with the usual chaotic energy of a Monday. Developers were shouting across dividers, concept art was taped to the glass walls.

I found Aria at her desk. She was huddled over her dual monitors, wearing noise-canceling headphones. She looked... terrible.

She was pale, even under the harsh fluorescent lights. She was gnawing on a cracker, her hand resting unconsciously on her stomach.

I watched her for a moment. She wasn't stealing data. she was trying to keep her breakfast down while coding a lighting shader.

I walked up to her desk. She didn't hear me. I tapped on the desk surface.

She jumped, ripping the headphones off.

"Noah," she breathed, her eyes widening. "You scared me."

"You're working hard," I said, leaning against the partition. I scanned her screen. It was code. Just code. "How is the expansion coming?"

"Good," she said, rubbing her temples. "The narrative branching is tricky, but I think I cracked the rendering issue on the water level."

She looked up at me, smiling tentatively. It was a genuine smile, tired but real.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, sensing my tension. "You look..."

"We lost another bid," I said, watching her face closely. "The military sim."

Aria frowned. "The one with the tactical AI? But your proposal was perfect. I saw the specs."

"Someone else's proposal was also perfect," I said softly. "And cheaper."

Her frown deepened. "That sucks. I'm sorry, Noah. I know how much that contract meant for the Q4 projections."

She knew about the Q4 projections. Because I had told her? Or because she had seen the files?

Stop it, I told myself. Look at her. She's carrying your child. She's not a corporate spy.

"It happens," I lied. "We'll bounce back."

"You always do," she said. She reached out, her hand brushing my forearm. A spark of electricity jumped between us, familiar and distracting. "You built NeXus. A few lost bids won't break it."

I looked at her hand on my arm. I wanted to cover it with mine. I wanted to pull her out of this chair and take her home and lock the doors.

But I couldn't. Not until I knew the truth.

"I have a meeting," I said, pulling away gently. "Don't stay too late, Aria. You need rest."

"I'm fine," she said, withdrawing her hand. The hurt in her eyes was subtle, but I saw it. She sensed the wall I had put back up.

"Just... be careful," I said. It was a warning, though I wasn't sure if it was about her health or the investigation.

I walked away, feeling like a traitor.

The Smoking Gun

By 8:00 PM, the office was empty. I was still in my office, staring at the city lights, nursing a glass of scotch I hadn't touched.

Marcus had gone home to have dinner with Sienna. Aria had left an hour ago—I watched her walk to her car on the security feed, looking exhausted.

My computer pinged. A secure email notification.

Sender: Anonymous

Subject: Your Leak

I froze. I set the glass down and clicked the email.

There was no text. Just an attachment.

It was a photo. Grainy, taken from a distance, probably with a phone.

It showed a woman handing a flash drive to a man in a suit. The man was recognizable instantly—David Chen, the CEO of Vertex, our biggest competitor.

The woman's back was to the camera. But I knew that blonde hair. I knew that stature.

It was a Stone sister.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

Aria?

I zoomed in. The woman was wearing a trench coat. It was nondescript. It could be anyone.

But then I saw the shoes. Red-soled stilettos.

Aria lived in Converse and boots. She hated heels. She only wore them when she was forced to.

Sienna lived in Louboutins.

I stared at the image.

Sienna.

Why would Sienna be meeting with my competitor? She was an influencer. She didn't know code. She didn't know bids.

Unless someone was giving it to her.

My phone buzzed again. Another email from the same source.

Text: Check Sienna Stone's connections. And check who has access to your servers.

I leaned back in my chair, the room spinning slightly.

Sienna was the leak. Or the courier.

But Sienna couldn't hack a server. She couldn't navigate the backend of NeXus to find the bid files. She would need help. She would need someone on the inside.

Someone with access. Someone with the skills.

Someone she could manipulate.

I thought of Aria. I thought of how terrified she was of her sister. I thought of the way she let Sienna bully her into wearing that dress, into staying quiet.

Would she do it? I asked myself. Would Aria steal for Sienna?

Or is Sienna stealing from Aria?

I didn't know. And that was the problem.

I picked up my phone. I dialed Lewis.

"I need full surveillance on Aria Stone's terminal," I ordered, my voice devoid of emotion. "And... look into Sienna Stone's financials. I want to know if she's received any large deposits lately."

"On it, boss."

I hung up.

I looked at the photo again. The blonde hair. The flash drive.

I had promised to protect Aria. But if she was helping her sister destroy my company...

I clenched my fist, the glass of the scotch tumbler groaning under the pressure.

I would find the truth. And God help anyone who stood in my way. Even her.