The project code was unmistakable.
NORTHSTAR–47B.
Below it were the words CONFIDENTIAL PROCUREMENT MATERIAL.
Below that was Claire’s full name.
Ryan pointed at the label.
“There.
Her name.
She brought it.
This is some kind of setup.”
Claire almost admired the speed of the lie.
For six months, he had treated her instincts as defects.
Now, with officers beside him and his secretary shaking in his seat, he was already trying to turn the evidence against her.
Martin removed a printed sheet from his case.
“The NorthStar file set was accessed seventeen days ago from an IP address assigned to the Morgan residence.
The first access occurred at 1:06 a.m.
A second access occurred at 1:19 a.m.
Forty-three pages were copied.
Seven were later uploaded to a server connected to Ryan Morgan’s employer.”
Ryan folded his arms.
“We share a home.
Claire could have done it.”
“I was in Phoenix that night,” Claire said.
“I presented at our western operations summit the next morning.
There are hotel records, flight records, and several hundred witnesses.”
Ryan hesitated for half a second.
It was enough.
Chloe looked at him as though she had just realized he had never planned to protect her.
Martin continued.
“After the breach was discovered, the original pricing files were removed.
A decoy packet was placed in the same directory.
Every page contained a forensic identifier.
The rates were false, and one carrier name was intentionally misspelled.”
He held up the sealed folder.
“If this packet contains that misspelling, it did not come from any legitimate bid process.”
Ryan’s confidence cracked.
“You planted false documents in your own home?”
Claire heard the accusation hidden inside the question.
Not denial.
Recognition.
“I didn’t plant anything,” she said.
“Our legal department secured a compromised system.
I didn’t know who had accessed it.”
“You suspected me.”
“I defended you.”
Those three words silenced him more effectively than shouting would have.
Claire remembered the meeting in Elena’s office two weeks earlier.
The information security team had traced the late-night access to her home network.
Elena had asked whether anyone else knew the password to Claire’s work laptop.
Ryan did.
Claire had immediately explained that her husband worked in logistics but would never risk either of their careers.
Elena had not argued.
She had simply replaced the files, added forensic markers, and advised Claire not to discuss the investigation at home.
Claire had obeyed because it was company policy.
Not because she believed Ryan was guilty.
Until now.
One officer asked Ryan and Chloe to step off the plane separately.
