The air in the kitchen felt suddenly thin, as if the oxygen had been pulled out by the tension vibrating between us. Claire’s knuckles were white where she gripped the cream-colored envelope against her chest. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, betraying the calm front she was trying so desperately to project.

Industrial espionage.

"There's some kind of mistake," I said, stepping forward, keeping my hands visible and away from my sides. "I’m an infrastructure engineer. I build water treatment grids and power lines. What kind of espionage?"

"The kind involving proprietary blueprints for the new hydroelectric turbine system you designed in Southeast Asia," the detective replied coolly, pulling a folded legal document from his breast pocket. "A high-resolution digital copy of your entire hard drive was uploaded to an encrypted server from an IP address routed directly through this router three days ago."

My head whipped around to stare at Abby.

Abby’s face had gone completely gray. She staggered backward, gripping the back of a dining chair for support. "No," she whispered, shaking her head frantically. "No, that wasn't supposed to happen. Sarah, you promised me—you swore it was just about Mason's personal life!"

Sarah slowly pushed herself up from the pantry floor, smoothing down her trench coat with an air of absolute triumph. She walked over to the detective, flashing a sickeningly sweet smile.

"Thank you, Detective," Sarah said smoothly. "As you can see, the digital evidence corroborates my anonymous tip completely. Mr. Reed here was planning to sell classified infrastructure designs to a foreign contractor."

I stared at her, the sheer scale of her betrayal crystallizing in my mind. She hadn't just been stalking me—she had meticulously built an airtight trap to ruin my career, my reputation, and my freedom, using Abby’s financial desperation as the catalyst.

"You set me up," I said, my voice shaking with cold fury as I took a step toward her. "You and your corporate contacts."

"It's called business, Mason," Sarah purred, stepping back behind the detective. "You walked away from me. You chose your stupid overseas projects over our life together. This is what happens when you cross me."

"Don't move, Mr. Reed," the detective commanded, resting his hand on his holster as the second officer stepped forward, pulling a pair of cold steel handcuffs from his belt loop.

"Wait!"

A sharp, clear voice cut through the tension like a razor.

We all turned.

Claire was standing by the kitchen island, her eyes blazing with an intensity I had never seen before. The red scratch on her arm was bleeding slightly, but she didn't seem to notice. In her hand, she wasn't holding the rolling pin anymore.

She was holding the flash drive Sarah had dropped during their scuffle.

"Detective," Claire said, her voice entirely steady, holding up the small black drive between her fingers. "Before you put cuffs on an innocent man, you might want to look at what's actually on this drive."

Sarah’s face instantly drained of all color. For the first time since she walked through the front door, panic flashed across her eyes.

"Detective, ignore her!" Sarah shrieked, lunging forward. "She's an accomplice! She’s just the housesitter trying to cover for him!"

"Step back, ma'am," the detective commanded, holding out a hand to block Sarah. He turned his attention to Claire. "What do you have there?"

"This," Claire said, stepping calmly toward the officer, "is Sarah's personal backup drive. I pulled it out of her coat pocket during our struggle a minute ago. It doesn't contain Mason's stolen files. It contains the master recording of Sarah and her corporate partners planning this exact frame-up, complete with voice memos detailing how they forged the IP routing logs and blackmailed his sister."

The room went dead silent.

Sarah let out a choked gasp, turning on her heel toward the front door. "I'm leaving. This is ridiculous—"

"Stop right there," the detective ordered, snapping his head toward the second officer. "Detain her."

In a blur of motion, the second officer crossed the kitchen, grabbed Sarah by both arms, and shoved her against the counter, clicking the handcuffs tightly around her wrists.

Sarah let out a furious scream of rage, thrashing against the officer as she was hauled toward the front door. "This isn't over! You hear me, Mason?! You'll never work in this industry again!"

As the front door slammed shut behind Sarah and the officers, the kitchen fell into a heavy, exhausted silence.