Chapter 35 THE SETUP
POV: Selena
The room smelled like old coffee and disinfectant, and all I wanted was for the clock on the wall to move faster.
I sat with my hands flat on the table, palms down, because if I let them curl, they would shake. Across from me, Agent Rodriguez flipped through a thin folder like he had all the time in the world. I wanted this to be over. I wanted to walk out of this building without someone calling my name again, without another question that sounded polite but carried teeth underneath.
Six hours of questions had stripped everything down to nerve and instinct. Every answer felt like stepping onto ice, never sure if it would hold.
“Let’s go over this once more,” Rodriguez said. His voice was calm. Almost friendly. “Three days before the documents were leaked, your credentials accessed the foundation’s financial system from an external location. Not your home. Not your office.”
I swallowed. “I’ve told you. That wasn’t me.”
He nodded, as if we were agreeing about the weather. “And you maintain you have no idea how it happened.”
“I maintain that someone wanted it to look like I did it,” I said.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Adrian shift in his chair. He had been quiet for most of the interrogation, listening, letting the lawyers speak when they needed to. His presence grounded me, even when I refused to look at him too long. I could not afford comfort right now.
Rodriguez closed the folder. “Intent matters, Miss Alvarez. But so does access.”
Before I could respond, the door opened.
Marcus walked in like he owned the place. Not loud. Not rushed. Just precise. Behind him were two men and a woman I had not met before, all carrying laptops and cables like this was their natural habitat.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Marcus said. “But I think you’ll want to see this.”
Rodriguez raised an eyebrow. “You’re interrupting an active federal interview.”
“And I’m providing information that resolves it,” Marcus replied evenly.
The agents exchanged a look. Rodriguez gestured toward the empty wall monitor. “You have five minutes.”
Marcus nodded to his team. They moved quickly, connecting devices, fingers flying. The hum of electronics filled the room. I leaned forward without meaning to, my pulse picking up again.
“What is this?” I asked quietly.
Marcus glanced at me. “Proof.”
One of the screens lit up with logs. Lines of code and timestamps scrolled past, meaningless at first glance, but Marcus narrated with the calm certainty of someone who had already won the argument.
“Miss Alvarez’s credentials were duplicated,” he said. “Cloned, to be precise. Same access keys, same internal permissions. But the signature isn’t hers.”
Rodriguez leaned closer. “Explain.”
“The access pattern is wrong,” Marcus said. “Selena logs in efficiently. Short sessions. Targeted queries. This access stayed connected too long. Pulled broad datasets. It’s sloppy.”
I blinked. That detail hit harder than I expected. He had noticed how I worked.
The woman on Marcus’s team tapped a key. Another screen appeared, showing a location map.
“The external access routed through three proxies,” she said. “But the initial handshake came from a private server registered to a shell company. We traced that company.”
My heart started to race again, this time in a different way.
“And?” Rodriguez asked.
“And the shell company is linked to a consulting firm used by Senator Thornton’s office,” Marcus finished.
The room went quiet.
Rodriguez straightened slowly. “That’s a serious accusation.”
“It’s a documented one,” Marcus said. “We’re not accusing. We’re demonstrating.”
He slid a printed packet across the table. Rodriguez picked it up, scanning fast.
I felt something in my chest loosen, just a little. Not relief. Not yet. More like the edge of a blade pulling back from my throat.
“So someone framed her,” Adrian said, breaking his silence. His voice was controlled, but there was steel under it.
Rodriguez did not look up. “It appears someone attempted to create the impression that Miss Alvarez leaked the documents herself.”
Attempted. The word mattered.
I let out a breath I did not realize I had been holding.
One of the agents whispered something to Rodriguez. He nodded once.
“Miss Alvarez,” Rodriguez said, finally meeting my eyes again. “Based on this information, you are no longer a suspect in the leak.”
The sentence landed softly, almost gently. It should have felt like freedom.
Instead, my stomach twisted.
“However,” he continued, “this does confirm interference at a high level. Which means this situation is far from over.”
I nodded. “I know.”
The agents began packing up. Marcus’s team disconnected their equipment with the same quiet efficiency they had brought it in.
As the room emptied, Rodriguez gestured for me to stay seated.
“Just a word,” he said.
Adrian hesitated. Marcus paused too.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll listen.”
They stayed anyway. Close enough to hear, far enough to let me speak for myself.
Rodriguez lowered his voice. “You were right to come forward. You were right to push back.”
I waited.
“But Senator Thornton has powerful friends,” he said. “People who do not like being embarrassed. Or exposed.”
My jaw tightened.
“Watch your back,” he added. “And choose carefully who you trust.”
I nodded once. “Thank you for telling me.”
He studied my face for a moment, then stood. “You’re free to go.”
The words echoed in my head as we walked out of the interview room.
Free did not feel like the right word.
The hallway outside was bright, almost harsh after the enclosed space we had been in. Phones rang. Agents moved with purpose, brushing past us without a second glance. Life going on, indifferent to the fact that mine had almost been dismantled in a windowless room.
Adrian touched my elbow. Just once. A question.
I nodded, letting him guide me toward the exit.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
“I will be,” I said. I was not sure when, but I believed it enough to say it out loud.
Marcus walked beside us. “Thornton underestimated how traceable digital arrogance is,” he said. “That was his mistake.”
“Is it over?” I asked.
He looked at me. “No. But the board just shifted.”
The automatic doors came into view.
That was when I saw him.
He stood near the elevators, talking to a woman in a navy suit. At first, my brain refused to connect the image to meaning. Then he turned his head.
It was subtle. Just enough.
Recognition hit me like a cold splash of water.
One of Thornton’s aides. I had seen him before, lingering at fundraisers, always half a step behind. A man who never spoke unless spoken to, who remembered faces without ever smiling.
Our eyes met.
His mouth curved upward, slow and deliberate.
Not a grin. A promise.
My steps faltered.
“Selena?” Adrian said, immediately alert.
I did not answer right away. I watched the aide finish his conversation, watched him straighten his jacket like he was about to leave.
He did not come toward us. He did not need to.
He held my gaze as he passed, his smile deepening by a fraction.
Then he was gone.
The doors slid shut behind him.
“What?” Adrian asked.
I swallowed. “He works for Thornton.”
Marcus stopped walking. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No,” I replied. “He didn’t have to.”
We stepped outside into the afternoon air. It felt too open, too exposed.
Adrian turned to me fully now. “What does that mean?”
“It means this wasn’t just about the documents,” I said slowly. “It was about seeing how far they could push me.”
“And now?” Marcus asked.
“And now they know I won’t break quietly.”
Adrian’s hand found mine. This time I did not pull away.
“We need to move faster,” he said. “Publicly. Strategically.”
“I know,” I replied. My mind was already racing ahead, fitting pieces together that I had not wanted to see before. “Thornton didn’t just want me framed. He wanted me scared.”
Marcus nodded. “Fear makes mistakes easier to provoke.”
I looked back at the building one last time. Glass and concrete. Flags out front. A place built on authority.
“I’m done reacting,” I said.
Adrian squeezed my hand. “Good.”
Because somewhere inside, beneath the exhaustion and the lingering echo of interrogation rooms, something steadier was taking shape.
They had tried to erase me with a copy of my own name.
They had failed.
And now they were watching to see what I would do next.