Chapter 16: The Ghost in the File

The flash drive clicked softly into place.

Lila didn't hesitate.

She minimized the email she'd been reading and opened the mirrored folder on her desktop. Lines of code blinked to life, copying Zara's access history, file extractions, and internal log-ins—everything since the day she stepped foot into ValeCorp.

She glanced over her shoulder. The bullpen was nearly empty. No one noticed the junior assistant becoming a mole.

No one suspected the girl with too-high heels and too-bright lipstick.

She clicked "Send."

And just like that, Zara Raine's secrets were no longer her own.

Across the city, Zara stood in the middle of Lucien's private archive room, heart pounding.

They'd taken an elevator so deep it didn't show on building schematics. The walls were reinforced steel. Surveillance was off-grid. No assistants. No cameras.

Just Lucien.

And a locked cabinet that he opened with his fingerprint.

"You said you wanted the full truth," he said quietly.

She nodded once.

Lucien pulled a leather-bound file from the drawer and set it on the table.

It was old. Worn. Stamped with a seal she recognized immediately.

RAINE INDUSTRIES – PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS.

Zara's breath caught.

Lucien stepped back. "Your father and I… weren't strangers."

She stared at him, disbelieving.

He continued. "He reached out to me a year before the collapse. Not publicly. Quietly. Off record."

"Why?" she asked, voice sharp.

Lucien's jaw tightened. "Because he suspected something was coming. He thought someone on his board was working with external players—leaking proprietary tech, sabotaging deals. He wanted my help tracing it. He wanted me to go where he couldn't."

Zara's fingers curled into fists. "And you did?"

"I started to. But then everything happened so fast. He was arrested. Discredited. And before I could share what I'd found, he was dead. And you were gone."

Zara stared at him, the weight of betrayal and possibility battling in her chest. "You had information and you said nothing."

Lucien stepped closer. "You disappeared. There was no one left to give it to."

"No," she snapped. "There was you. You could've gone public. You could've cleared his name."

Lucien's voice dropped. "And what? Risk becoming the next target? I didn't know who was pulling the strings yet. And if I'd gone after them half-blind, I'd be dead too."

Silence stretched between them.

Then, softly—almost broken—Zara said, "He trusted you."

Lucien looked away.

"I know."

Zara opened the file with trembling hands. Inside were photos. Emails. Wire transfer receipts. Private memos from someone inside Raine Industries, signing only as "M".

A single name was written in her father's pen at the top of the page.

Caleb.

Her throat tightened. "He knew…"

Lucien nodded. "But he didn't want to believe it."

Zara stared at the file. Everything she'd suspected, everything she was chasing—it was all here. Her father had known. He'd died knowing.

And now she carried the burden.

A sharp knock interrupted the silence.

Lucien crossed the room and opened the vault door. One of his top aides—Noah—stood there, pale.

"We've got a problem," he said.

Lucien's eyes narrowed. "Talk."

Noah handed him a tablet.

Zara stepped closer and looked.

On screen was a copied file directory. Her file directory. Including encrypted communication logs, hidden folders, and her data pulls from Ethan's division.

At the bottom: a delivery report.

Received by: EB // 4:42 PM.

Ethan Blackwell had her playbook.

Zara's stomach turned. "How?"

Lucien's jaw clenched. "Only someone on the inside could've gotten that. Someone with access to your system."

Zara's thoughts raced. "It wasn't Celeste. She'd be too careful. It wasn't—"

Her voice dropped.

"Lila."

Lucien met her eyes. "Find her."

Zara didn't wait. She grabbed her coat and stormed out, Lucien close behind.

But in her gut, something was shifting. The game had changed. Ethan had seen her hand. He'd read her moves.

Which meant the next strike… would come fast.

Too fast.

Elsewhere, Ethan Blackwell leaned back in his chair, watching the screen flicker.

"Zara Raine," he whispered. "Welcome back."

Celeste stood beside him, arms crossed. "You think she suspects Lila?"

Ethan's smile was cold. "By the time she does, it won't matter."

He tapped a folder marked PHOENIX PROTOCOL.

Inside: dossiers. Surveillance photos. And a map with Zara's face circled in red.

Cliffhanger: Zara's deepest secrets have been leaked. Ethan's preparing a brutal counterattack. And Lila, the assistant nobody noticed, is the key to it all.