Chapter 35 #3
“No,” Alex replies immediately. “I thought you’d want to handle it personally.”
Every muscle in my body tightens and all I want to do is wash my hands and walk away. The ironic thing is that Alex has no idea that we’re here, at Vlad’s wedding, and that Vlad and Elizabeth are good friends. That we’ve all spent the day together.
And yet, it’s too much of a coincidence.
“Send me everything.” I usually check in a few times through the day to make sure everything is running smoothly back at the office.
Turns out everything has gone to shit.
Elizabeth investigating the security breach is the biggest joke of all. I start to wonder if the elevator glitching, and us getting trapped in it, was in some way orchestrated by her.
That's too much of a stretch. I can't believe she'd do something like that. But what if Vlad is involved somehow? What if Elizabeth has been protecting him this whole time?
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The timing is too convenient. The secrets. The omissions. The lies by omission. Everything keeps circling back to the same people.
I can't wrap my head around it.
That I fell for it.
Elizabeth and I getting together?
I shake my head, unable to comprehend what seems to be a logical conclusion. What would she gain out of causing technical issues at Knight Enterprises? It makes no sense whatsoever. Maybe Vlad has something to gain?
Something in my gut tells me she wouldn't do this.
But my gut has been wrong before.
Elizabeth wouldn’t do this but Vlad might. Maybe he has a hold on her that I don't yet understand. Or maybe I'm refusing to see what's right in front of me because I've fallen for her.
I don't know which is worse. The fact that Elizabeth has been deceiving me, or that someone wants me to believe this about her.
I tell Alex I have to go, and I tell him to be vigilant. Then I sit in the lobby, drinking whiskey at midnight while zooming in on my phone to examine the documents Alex has sent me. I have no desire to go back upstairs just yet.
Elizabeth doesn't come looking for me either. After my third glass, I reluctantly return to our room and I pray that she's asleep.
***
ELIZABETH
I can't sleep. I've been waiting for Matteo to return, but it's already been two hours.
Something has happened. Something at work, possibly, something that Alex deems important enough to disturb him on vacation. It could even be to do with his father. Maybe his brothers aren't telling him, but Alex will.
I fight the urge to go looking for him, even though I'm worried about him. I fear he'll get angry if I show up, even though I don’t understand why. The evening turned out to be better than I expected.
I wait up for him. Hours pass, and I don't sleep.
I couldn't even if I tried. I need to know what's going on with Matteo.
I sit on the couch, cross-legged, not watching what's on TV, just having it on for some background noise, when the door opens and Matteo walks in.
I spring up, stepping towards him, then stop.
I can smell the alcohol on him.
“I waited up for you.”
“Shouldn't have.” He walks past me, not looking at me, but I grab his arm to make him stop.
“Something's wrong. What is it?”
He turns to me, his gaze searching my face for what feels like eternity before he finally speaks. “How long?” he asks.
I move my hand away, feeling the sharp sting of his tone. “How long what?”
“How long have you been accessing Knight Enterprises’ systems?”
The words slice like a knife. I stumble back a few steps, shock and disbelief throwing me off balance. “What?”
“Tell me the truth. Just this once. How long have you been infiltrating our systems?”
I sink back onto the couch, the weight of his accusation sinking into my soul. “You think I … y-you ...” I can’t finish the sentence.
“Don’t lie to me. Just tell me the truth.” He looks away, at the ceiling, at the windows, at anything but me.
“I’m not lying!” I fold my arms, wrapping them against me like a protective shield. “What are you talking about, exactly?”
He pulls his phone from his pocket, taps the screen a few times, then holds it out to me.
“Your credentials. Your login. Repeated access tied to the breaches.”
“I logged in today, like I’ve been logging in daily, like you have, to check that we haven’t been hit.”
“Not today's activity.” His voice is cold. “Previous access. Historical access tied to the anomalies.”
I take the phone from him.
At first glance, it looks like a standard authentication report.
Then my stomach drops.
The records show my user ID accessing restricted areas of the network. Configuration changes. Privileged system calls. Logins at times that coincide with some of the security incidents we've been investigating.
Worse, the authentication path is correct. The device signatures look right. Even the session tokens appear legitimate.
I can't breathe, because I know exactly what I'm looking at. Someone has made it look as though those actions came from me. I peer closer and gasp. “Alex sent you these?”
“Worried you've been found out?” he growls, his tone sharp and jagged.
“That’s not possible,” I whisper, panic creeping along my gut.
“That’s exactly what I said.”
Now I understand why Alex called him and what was so urgent.
“Take it,” he hisses, handing me his cell phone. “Look through the documents, before you choose to lie again.”
But I refuse to take it and just stare at it in disbelief, hoping that this is a nightmare I'll wake up from soon. “This is wrong. Someone’s using my access. They have to be—”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, but it's not me!”
Matteo's eyes are hard, like steel, and they pierce into me. “If it's not you, then who?” Something about the way he says it unsettles me. “Who?”
I don't understand where this is coming from. It's not me. I know that, but the synapses in my brain whir furiously and I try to figure out who could be framing me. “I don't know. We're trying to find that out.”
“The evidence, Elizabeth. Just look at the evidence.”
I push back. “Someone is trying to blame this on me.”
“What are you not telling me, Elizabeth?”
He's acting weird. There's something going on which I don't fully understand. I'm being framed and I just need to comb through the data as soon as we get back. I’ll work through this with Alex. He'll know it's not me. He just hasn't looked deep enough yet.
Matteo watches me closely, observing my every movement, my every breath like he's waiting for me to break and own up. Why does he not believe me? Why does he think it’s me?
“It's not me, Matteo. You know I'd never do anything like this.”
“I barely know you,” he hisses. “All that talk, of Chicago and the people you ‘used to know.’”
I startle. He's trying to connect the dots that don't make sense. “That has nothing to do with this.”
“I wouldn’t know. You hide so much, and then when your friends offer up information, you casually explain it away.”
“What I did before isn't linked to this.”
His jaw clenches. “What did you do before?”
I stay silent.
“There you go again, refusing to answer.” He shuts his eyes, like he doesn't want to look at me, or be here. “I trusted you,” he says, opening them again. “But now I’m presented with evidence that says I shouldn’t.”
My eyes fill, and my vision turns blurry. “I didn’t do this, Matteo. It hurts that you don’t believe me.”
“Then explain it.”
“I can’t—”
“You can't, and that's exactly why I don't believe you.”
I flinch like he’s punched me, then place a steadying hand beside me, on the couch, like I'm afraid I'll sink into it.
“I’m trying to tell you the truth.” My voice is shaky and I try to compose myself. “But you've already convinced yourself that I’m lying.”
A muscle jumps in his jaw. “My assumptions come from the facts I've been given.”
He's already made his mind up about me, but I'm more curious than ever to know what Alex said to him. Someone is trying to frame me. “You’re working with someone else’s version of the facts.”
He pauses, and blinks a few times, like he hadn't considered this. “Everything points to you.”
“Then everything is wrong!”
A sharp and twisted silence follows, and there's nothing else to say. He walks past me. I almost get up and rush to him, but find the restraint to stay seated.
“Matteo!”
“I’ll sleep on the couch tonight. Please, just give me the space I need.”