The screen of my phone went dark, but the single word Richard Sterling had sent me seemed to burn in the air like a neon sign.
*Check.*
It wasn't a threat. It was a statement of fact.
I stood in the silence of the server lab, the hum of the cooling fans sounding like a slow, rhythmic heartbeat. Nia was watching me, her face pale in the blue light of the monitors. She had seen the file index. She knew what he had.
"He knows everything," she whispered. "The meetings with Victoria. The nights at Elena's. The... everything."
"He has surveillance," I said, my voice calm, though my pulse was hammering against my ribs. "He's been watching me since the moment I stepped into the Sterling Club. Maybe before."
"If he releases those photos..." Nia trailed off. She didn't need to finish.
If Richard released the photos, I was expelled. Elena was fired and disgraced. Victoria would be humiliated and would likely have me killed—or worse, sued into oblivion—to protect her reputation.
