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“Stay focused, Sebastian.” The Ghost’s voice echoes in the cavernous space. I can hear manic typing in the background. “If your father has biometric triggers, I need to know before I hit the firewall.”

“He uses a 256-bit encryption key physically stored on a thumb drive in a safe,” Sebastian says. He points to a painting of a hunting scene on the wall for my benefit. “But the system has a back door for his legal counsel. Use the protocol I sent you.”

“How do you know that?” I ask.

“Because I’m the one who set it up for him ten years ago,” he explains.

We sit in silence for several minutes while the hacker works. Sebastian paces the perimeter of the room, touching various objects as if they carry some sort of nostalgia for him.

“I’m in.” The hacker’s voice comes through, sounding grimly satisfied.

When my laptop screen flickers, we’re looking at a directory opening. From the little bit I can understand, it’s a labyrinth of shell companies, offshore accounts, and consulting fees that would make a forensic accountant weep.

“Filter by the date of the DOJ leak,” Sebastian says, leaning over my shoulder so we can both watch the hacker work. His heat is a stark contrast to the room’s chill.

The list narrows. Ten entries. Five. Two.

And there it is—the transaction with a redacted recipient in the amount of $12.5 million from the King Family Trust. The digital signature is from a mysterious master key.

“Shit,” I mutter, staring at the data on the screen, my stomach curling into knots. “Is that the same routing number from the DOJ file?”

Sebastian remains quiet. He probably doesn’t want to know the answer. Hell, I'm not even sure I want to know. But I look, cross-referencing the recipient's routing number with the leaked DOJ file I have in a note on my phone.

“It's a direct match,” I say quietly.

This didn't come from some random person working to bring the King Corporation and the King family down. This proves the bribe came from Julian himself. It wasn't difficult to believe that Julian was the one behind the $50 million to cover Jesse's mistakes, but that means he's also behind the vulnerability in the King Corporation’s security suite. And there's a good chance he was the one who ultimately slipped the information about Anchorstone to Corinth Capital, though this doesn't prove that yet.

But what it does prove is that Julian set up Sebastian to take the fall for him.

Sebastian is staring at the screen, and in the dim light, I can see that his face is drained of color. He sinks into his father's leather chair, the very seat he spent a lifetime fearing.

“He did it,” Sebastian breathes. “He actually did it.”

“He bribed the DOJ official,” I say, my voice trembling. “But why? The leak is threatening to bring down the King Corporation. Why would your father pay for something that he had to know would hurt the company? Is it because he gave the initial information to Corinth Capital about Anchorstone?”

“He wasn’t trying to hurt the company,” Sebastian says as he stares at the memo. “He didn’t give the information to Corinth Capital; he was paying to cover for whoever leaked Anchorstone’s valuation.”

I watch as the hacker continues to dig through the drive.

“Who was he trying to protect?” I ask, but Sebastian doesn’t answer, his attention is focused deeply inward. “Sebastian, who was he trying to protect, your brother Jesse? If so, why would Jesse leak the information?”

He replies with a dark, hollow laugh. “I’m the distraction. Dad threw me to the wolves to keep them off his scent.”

That still doesn’t answer the question of who gave Corinth the Anchorstone valuation, or whether Julian or Jesse was the one who leaked the file. The only things we know for sure are that Julian paid the DOJ bribe and set Sebastian up to take the fall. The betrayal is so vast, so cold, that it fills the room like a physical weight.

I look at Sebastian and for the first time, I see a man who’s standing at the edge of a precipice as the solid ground beneath his feet crumbles.

“There’s one more thing.” The hacker’s voice is solemn, quiet. “Concerning the leak itself… the original valuation documents were taken from your server using your private encryption key. Even if your father authorized the bribe, he didn’t have access to your key.”

“Who did?” Sebastian demands.

“The log entry is timestamped at 4:12 a.m. on the night Corinth received the Anchorstone information. It's from your home IP address, Sebastian. I pulled it out from under the master-key scrub. This is the original entry, and it wasn't doctored.”

“What?” The question comes with a sharp intake of breath. Sebastian jumps to his feet, his shadow stretching long and jagged against the walls of books. “That takes a key, no one has my key. I keep it on my⁠—”

Sebastian's words fade as he reaches into his pocket to pull out his keys. He thumbs the small silver encrypted token hanging innocently next to his house and car keys.

“I never leave this unattended,” he says, “except when I’m at home.” His voice is flat. “Now I remember where I was that night. Jesse came over and randomly wanted to hang out. He got drunk and fell asleep in one of the guest rooms, or so I thought⁠—"