Chapter 15 Framed

​Camille stared at her phone long after the anonymous call ended, the chilling warning echoing in her mind: 

"They'll think you betrayed them." Her heart pounded as the terrifying realization set in—someone had accessed her account, and they wanted her to take the fall. Without wasting another second, she grabbed her handbag and hurried to Alex’s office.

​Inside the security room, Alex was intently studying the login records when one of the analysts cleared his throat. "Sir, the access originated from Miss Camille's executive account," the analyst reported. Alex folded his arms, remaining skeptical. "That doesn't prove she did it." 

Another analyst interjected, noting that the password had been entered correctly, though admitting it could have been stolen. "Then we don't accuse anyone until we have evidence," Alex commanded firmly, and the room nodded in agreement.

​Just then, the door burst open and Camille rushed in, completely out of breath. "Alex," she gasped. He turned to face her calmly. "I know. Your account was used." Camille blinked in surprise. 

"You know? So it's true." Frowning, Alex asked what she meant. Taking a deep breath, Camille explained, "I just received an anonymous call. They said everyone would believe I was the traitor." Silence settled over the room as Alex pressed her for the exact words. When she finished recounting the conversation, the analysts exchanged uneasy glances. 

"Sir..." one of them broke the silence, "...if the caller knew about our investigation before we announced it, then they're monitoring us." Alex's expression turned ice-cold. "Check every internal communication channel. Immediately."

​Meanwhile, at Nina's apartment, Javier had finally fallen asleep on the couch with a blanket draped gently over her shoulders. Smiling softly, Nina quietly switched off the television, thinking how much Javier needed the rest. But as she turned toward the kitchen, she froze. She heard a faint click—like a door quietly closing somewhere inside the apartment. 

Javier murmured sleepily from the couch, "Nina? Did you hear that?" Javier looked up, her brows knitting together as Nina asked, "Hear what?" "The balcony," Javier replied. Both women turned toward the glass door, noticing it was slightly open. Confident she had locked it, Nina gripped a heavy candle holder tightly and whispered, "Stay here."

​Moving with cautious steps, Nina walked toward the balcony where the curtains swayed gently in the cool night breeze. She stepped outside, but the balcony was entirely empty. Just as she turned to go back inside, a small black box near the railing caught her eye. 

"Nina?" Javier called out anxiously. 

"I'm alright," Nina replied, picking up the package and bringing it inside. Javier's face turned pale. 

"Don't tell me..." Nina nodded grimly, confirming that someone had just been there. As Javier's hands began to tremble, Nina carefully opened the box to find a small voice recorder with a single audio file.

​Javier hesitated for a moment before pressing play. A man's voice filled the room: "Mrs. Swan... stop trusting the wrong people." A second, distorted voice immediately followed: 

"The traitor isn't the woman standing beside your husband... It's the man standing behind him." The recording abruptly cut off, leaving a heavy silence in the room. As Javier slowly looked at Nina, wondering what it meant, her phone rang. 

The caller ID displayed a familiar name: Inspector David Cole. She answered immediately. "Inspector?" "Mrs. Swan, we've just received new evidence," he delivered urgently. "We need you to come to the station tomorrow morning. I'm afraid someone has attempted to erase every file connected to your case." 

Javier's stomach tightened and her heart skipped a beat. "They're destroying the evidence?" "It appears so," the inspector confirmed.

​Back at Swan Group, the cybersecurity team continued working tirelessly through the night. Several hours later, an analyst suddenly shot to his feet. 

"Sir! I traced the login." Alex leaned forward eagerly. 

"Where?" 

"It wasn't made from Miss Camille's office," the analyst explained, enlarging a digital floor map that revealed a blinking red dot. 

"The executive archive. Someone entered the archive at exactly 2:15 a.m. and used Miss Camille's account from there." 

Without hesitation, Alex grabbed his jacket. "We're going."

​Ten minutes later, Alex, Kendall, Camille, and the security team arrived at the dust-covered executive archive. At first glance, everything appeared untouched until Kendall suddenly stopped and pointed to the floor. 

"Wait. It was moved recently." There were fresh scrape marks beneath one of the bookshelves. Alex stepped forward, pushed against the heavy shelf, and it slowly slid aside to reveal a hidden steel door. 

Camille stared in utter disbelief, murmuring that she had worked there for years and never knew it existed. The security chief forced the hidden door open, revealing a narrow staircase that disappeared into the darkness.

​Flashlight in hand, Alex went first, leading them down into an old underground records room filled with forgotten filing cabinets stretching into the shadows. 

Most were empty, except for one bearing a faded metal label: PHOENIX. Alex slowly pulled open the cabinet to find a dust-covered laptop with a still-blinking power indicator, proving someone had been there recently. When he pressed the power button, the screen flickered to life, and a single video file opened automatically.

​A masked figure sitting alone in the darkness appeared on screen. Looking directly into the camera, a distorted voice spoke calmly: 

"Welcome, Alex Swan. If you're watching this, it means you're finally asking the right questions. But before you learn who betrayed your family... you need to discover who lied to you first."

​The video cut to black, leaving the room in brief silence before a single message appeared in bold letters: 

CHECK YOUR FATHER'S SAFE. His expression hardening, Alex slowly turned to look at Kendall, whose face had gone completely pale.

​"You know what this means... don't you?" Alex asked quietly.

​Would you like me to make any specific adjustments to the pacing or the dialogue styling for the next chapters?