PART 4:

I didn’t even know about it until my supervisor called me at 15:20 asking where I was and what I had done and you told him you were in the maintenance area. Yes, but he said the logs showed my credentials were used to access the server room at 14:30. I told him that was impossible, that I hadn’t been anywhere near the server room all day, but he didn’t believe me.

No one did. Ethan’s voice cracked slightly. They escorted me out of the building the next day. Didn’t even give me a chance to review the evidence or make a statement. Said it was cut and dry, that the logs don’t lie. But you were with Lily when the crash happened. Yes, she can tell you.

She was right there when I got the call. Clare was quiet for a moment, processing his account against the evidence she had reviewed. The timeline matched perfectly with what the badge records showed. And there, sleeping peacefully at the conference table, was a witness that no one had bothered to consult. “Mr. Cole,” she said carefully.

“Has anyone other than you used your work credentials? Anyone who might have had access to your password?” Ethan frowned. “No, I mean, it reset everyone’s passwords a few months ago for security compliance, but I created a new one right away. I haven’t shared it with anyone. Think carefully. Is there anyone in the company who might have wanted you removed from your position? Anyone who had a grudge or who might have benefited from your absence? The question seemed to catch him offguard.

He was silent for a long moment, his brow furrowed in thought. I don’t I mean, I’m not exactly highprofile. I don’t have enemies. I just do my job and go home to my daughter. But something flickered across his face, a memory surfacing that he had perhaps dismissed as irrelevant. Clare caught it immediately.

What is it? It’s probably nothing. But a few months ago, there was an opening for a senior systems position. Better pay, more responsibility. I applied for it and I thought I had a good chance, but it went to someone else. A guy named Derek Vaughn. He’s on the same team as me. or he was, I guess. Ethan shook his head.

We never really got along. He’s ambitious. The kind of guy who takes credit for other people’s work and make sure the bosses see him staying late, but framing someone for a server crash. That seems extreme, even for him. Clare stored the name away without comment. Is there anything else? Anything at all that seemed unusual in the weeks before the incident? There was one thing, Ethan said slowly.

About a week before the crash, I noticed someone had been using my workstation during off hours. Small things like the chair being adjusted differently, files being in different places than I left them. I mentioned it to my supervisor, but he said I was probably just misremembering. I started locking my station more carefully after that, but he trailed off. realization dawning on his face.

“You don’t think? I don’t think anything yet,” Clare interrupted. “But I intend to find out,” she stood, smoothing the front of her jacket. “I’m going to need you to stay accessible for the next few days. Don’t leave Seattle.” “And keep your phone on. Can you do that?” Ethan nodded, bewilderment written across his features.

“Yes, but why? Why are you doing this? I’m nobody. I’m just a systems tech who got fired. Why does the CEO care? Clare looked at him then at the sleeping child and something in her expression shifted almost imperceptibly. Because the truth matters, Mr. Cole, and because I don’t allow injustice to stand in my company.

She left the conference room without another word, her mind already racing through the implications of what she had learned. Somewhere in Data Stream Solutions, someone had committed a deliberate act of sabotage and blamed it on an innocent man. Clare intended to find out who, and when she did, they would learn exactly what it meant to cross Clare Ashford.

Lily stirred against the conference table, her small body shifting as consciousness slowly returned. Ethan watched her wake, feeling a mixture of love and guilt that had become familiar over the past 3 years. She was too young to carry the weight of his failures, too innocent to understand why her father kept losing the battles that mattered.

And yet, here she was, sleeping in a corporate conference room because he hadn’t been able to protect their life from falling apart. Daddy. Her voice was thick with sleep, her eyes blinking against the fluorescent lights. Where are we? Still at Daddy’s work, sweetheart. But we’re going to leave soon. She sat up slowly, looking around the unfamiliar room with the caution of a child who had learned not to trust new environments.

Her gaze landed on the door through which Clare had disappeared. Who was that lady? Her name is Miss Ashford. She’s she’s very important here. Is she nice? The question was so simple, so direct. And Ethan found he didn’t know how to answer it. Was Clare Ashford nice? He had no idea. He barely knew what to make of the past few hours, of the CEO’s sudden interest in his case, of her questions and her silence and her promise to find the truth.

He only knew that for the first time since he had walked into that HR office, something that felt almost like hope had begun to stir in his chest. “I think she might be,” he said finally. “I think she might be trying to help us because you didn’t do the bad thing.” Ethan’s throat tightened. How do you know about that, Lily? I heard the man on the phone when he called you yesterday.

He said you broke something important and that you were in big trouble. Her lower lip trembled, but you didn’t break it. Daddy, you were with me when the loud noises happened on your phone. You were showing me how to draw a cat. The memory hit him like a physical blow. He had been in the maintenance break room sitting on the floor next to Lily’s makeshift bed demonstrating how to draw cartoon cat ears when his phone had erupted with frantic calls.

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