Semua Bab The Wrong Bed: Bab 11 - Bab 20

Freddie wasn't able to sleep that night.Not even close.He sat in the small conference room just off the main floor with Adrian and two members of the security team, a cold cup of coffee beside him that he hadn't touched in over an hour, and stared at the access logs spread across the table like they owed him an explanation.Someone had gotten into the financial servers.Not from outside. That part was like a stone in his heart, that he just couldn't shift away. The breach hadn't come through any external network. No hacking. No forced entry through a firewall. Whoever did this had walked right through the front door using credentials that belonged inside this building.An inside job.He had always hated those two words. Not his words at all. Because inside jobs didn't just mean theft or sabotage. They meant betrayal. They meant someone he allowed to be closeer enough to do damage had done exactly that."Just run it again," he said.Daniel from the security team, was quiet, thorough,

Marcos had always believed that the most powerful moment in any game was not the winning.It was the moment just before.This is the moment everything looks perfect to some and the other person didn't know it yet. When you could see exactly how it was all going to fall and they were still standing there smiling, completely unaware that the ground beneath them had already been cut loose.Marcos had been waiting for this moment for good three years.He was done waiting.---He woke up at five a.m.Not because of an alarm. Marcos De Luca hadn't used an alarm in years. He woke up because his body knows when to. The way it has always been, for as long as he could remember.It's a feeling more than a thought. Low and steady and always, always right.He showered. Dressed slowly. Took his time with everything. A navy suit. White shirt. No tie. The kind of outfit that said I am not trying too hard while making it absolutely clear that he had thought about every single detail.He made coffee.He

Freddie woke up first.That wasn't unusual. He always woke up before everything else. Before his alarm. Before the city. Before the day had fully decided what it was going to be.What was unusual was the weight beside him.The warmth of it.For a moment he didn't move. Didn't grab his phone. Didn't let his mind run to everything that needed doing. He just lay down there and let himself feel it before the world outside came rushing back in.Lina slept on her side. Each breath rose and fell, steady as if the world outside didn’t exist at all. Her hair scattered all over the couch pillow, soft, and one hand was under her cheek like it had always been. He never realized how much he remembered that small detail until now. Seeing it again pulled at something familiar in his heart, complicated, and harder to shake than he expected.He had missed this.Not just her. Not just the relationship or the idea of her.This. That simple, everyday feeling of waking up beside someone that mattes to you

"What is it you have?" Freddie said.The corridor outside the boardroom was so quiet. Only him and the phone pressed to his ear and the low sound of the building around him.Brett didn't answer straight away.That half second again. That same strange pause that had been there when he picked up. Freddie had pushed it aside the first time. He couldn't push it aside again."Brett."A breath on the other end. Long. Slow. The kind a man took before he said something he had been dreading."Freddie." Brett's voice was different. Not the steady professional calm he always carried. Something underneath it. Something strained and tight and not quite right. "I've gone through everything. Every document. Every metadata trail. Every angle I could find.""And?"A silence."The signature is yours Freddie."The corridor went very still."What did you just say.""I've checked it three times." Brett's voice was low. Controlled. Like someone reading from a script they hated. "The signature on the Vantag

She put his glass down for him.He didn't ask her to. His hand had just gone so slack enough that it just made sense and she had reached over to him and had taken it from him quietly and placed it on the desk like it was the most natural thing to do.Freddie watched her do it.Or he tried to watch her. His eyes weren't fully cooperating. The room had that particular quality that rooms got after enough whiskey, not spinning exactly. Just slightly untethered. Like the floor was reliable but everything on it had loosened its strength on reality a little."You need to drink some water," she said.Her voice was so soft. And warm. The kind of voice that felt like it was doing you a favour just by being in the room right beside you.He didn't say anything.She moved slowly around the desk. Not rushing. Not pushing. Just filling the gap between them the way water closed around something, totally, completely, without making a sound.She hopped up on the edge of the desk beside him.She was clo