CHAPTER 14

I couldn't stop staring at the screen. Liam's face was frozen in the security footage from across town. The timestamp was clear: 3:18 a.m. — seven minutes after his badge had supposedly opened the door to my floor.

I looked at Marcus. "So you're telling me Liam was here at 3:12 and somewhere else at 3:18?"

"I'm telling you the access system says he was here," Marcus replied. "The camera says otherwise."

Maya folded her arms. "Could he have left the building and gotten across town in seven minutes?"

Marcus shook his head. "The locations are too far apart."

I let out a slow breath. Then what had happened? Someone had destroyed the photographs on my desk. Someone had used Liam's badge to get onto my floor. And Liam had apparently been somewhere else.

My mind kept circling the same question. Was Liam being protected? Or was someone setting him up?

I looked at Maya. "Call Adrian."

She reached for her phone. "I already did."

I blinked. "When?"

"While you were looking at the footage."

"What did he say?"

"He's coming."

Of course he was.

A few minutes later, I heard footsteps approaching the security office. Adrian walked in. His expression changed the moment he saw me, his eyes moving over my face before settling on the monitor.

"What happened?"

Marcus explained everything. Adrian listened without interrupting. When Marcus finished, Adrian stepped closer to the screen.

"Show me the access record."

Marcus pulled it up. Adrian studied the information for several seconds.

"Who has access to these logs?"

Marcus hesitated. "Security supervisors. IT security. A few senior administrators."

"How many people?"

"Not many."

Adrian's jaw tightened. "Can Liam alter his own access record?"

"No."

"Can he create a false entry?"

"Not from his employee account."

Adrian looked at me. "Then someone used his badge."

"That's what I thought," I said.

He shook his head. "Maybe."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

Adrian turned back to the screen. "If someone wanted to make Liam look guilty, using his badge would be obvious."

"And if someone wanted to protect Liam?"

He looked at me. "Same answer."

The room went quiet. Maya slowly lowered her phone. "So either someone is helping Liam..."

"Or someone wants us to think they are," Adrian finished.

A cold feeling settled in my stomach. I had spent days believing Liam was behind every horrible thing happening to me. Maybe he was. But now there was something else underneath it — someone smarter, someone patient enough to make Liam look guilty while keeping their own hands clean.

Adrian pointed at the monitor. "Marcus, I want the raw access data."

Marcus nodded. "I'll request it from IT."

"No." Adrian's voice hardened. "Don't request anything yet."

Marcus stopped. "Why?"

"Because if someone inside the company is involved, they'll know we're looking."

My heart began beating faster. Adrian looked at me. "Until we know who touched these records, nobody outside this room needs to know what we found."

I nodded. For once, I didn't argue.

We left the security office together. As we walked toward the elevator, I glanced at Adrian. "Do you really think Liam didn't do it?"

"I think we don't have enough information to know."

That answer surprised me. "You're not defending him."

"I'm not defending anyone."

The elevator doors opened. Adrian stepped inside. I followed.

"Then what are you doing?"

He looked at me. "Trying to figure out who benefits from making you afraid."

The doors closed. His words stayed with me. Who benefits? Liam wanted Adrian's downfall — that much was clear. But whoever had entered my office at three in the morning had gone further. They hadn't just vandalized my desk. They had created evidence — evidence that pointed directly at Liam. And if Liam really had been somewhere else, then someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure we blamed him.

When we reached Adrian's office, he immediately called his head of security. "Pull every access event from last night."

The security chief nodded. "Already doing it."

Adrian looked at me. "You should go home."

I almost laughed. "After someone broke into my workspace?"

"Chloe—"

"No." I shook my head. "I'm tired of everyone telling me to go home whenever something happens."

He studied me. Then his expression softened. "Fine. Stay."

I sat across from his desk. For the next twenty minutes, we watched records being pulled up — doors, elevators, employee badges, every movement inside the building. Everything looked normal. Too normal.

Then the security chief frowned. "Mr. Vance."

Adrian looked up. "What?"

"I think you should see this."

He turned the laptop around. I leaned forward. The access record for my floor appeared on the screen. Liam's name was there — 3:12 a.m. But something looked different. The security chief enlarged the record.

"There."

Adrian's eyes narrowed. "What am I looking at?"

"The log history."

I stared at the screen. There was a small notation beside Liam's entry.

"Someone edited this."

My breath caught. Adrian looked at him sharply. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." The security chief swallowed. "This isn't a normal access event."

"Who edited it?"

He shook his head. "That's the problem."

He clicked again. A second window appeared. The original record was gone. Not deleted. Changed.

My skin prickled. "Can you recover it?"

"We're trying."

Adrian's voice became dangerously quiet. "Who has permission to alter a badge log?"

The security chief hesitated. Then he answered. "Someone with real system access."

I stared at the screen. Someone inside Vance Corp had changed the evidence. And suddenly, Liam's badge wasn't the most frightening thing in the room.

It was the person who had the power to rewrite it.