Chapter 2
Tiffany tried to laugh.
It came out thin and ugly.
“Wait,” she said. “Sterling? Like General Sterling?”
I said nothing.
Her eyes darted to my badge.
Ava Sterling.
The name had been there the whole time.
She had simply never believed it meant anything.
General Hayes turned to the CEO.
“Mr. Danvers, is this how your company treats cleared analysts?”
The CEO’s mouth opened.
Closed.
Opened again.
“No, sir. Absolutely not.”
Tiffany lifted both hands.
“This is being blown out of proportion. Ava and I joke around.”
I looked at her.
“No, we don’t.”
The words landed hard.
Because I said them clearly.
Because everyone heard.
Because for once I did not soften the truth to make someone else more comfortable.
General Hayes looked toward the officers.
“Secure the cafeteria footage.”
The CEO stiffened.
“Of course.”
Tiffany’s face changed.
Footage.
That word reached deeper than rank.
Deeper than fear.
It reached whatever she thought she had hidden.
One of the officers moved toward the security desk.
Another stood near the cafeteria doors.
Nobody left.
Nobody spoke.
I felt every eye on me.
For months, those eyes had looked away.
Now they could not stop looking.
My manager, Brad Keller, pushed through the crowd.
“Ava, can we talk privately?”
“No,” I said.
His face flushed.
“Ava—”
General Hayes turned to him.
“Who are you?”
“Her supervisor.”
The general looked at the food on the floor.
“Then you failed before I entered the room.”
Brad swallowed.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Then I remembered every time I had asked why my files were missing.
Every time he said, “Just be more organized.”
Every time Tiffany smiled behind him.
General Hayes leaned closer to me.
“Your father requested we escort you immediately.”
“Is something wrong?”
His expression shifted.
Only slightly.
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
The Pentagon was not a casual lunch invitation.
My father had been in classified rooms my entire life.
He did not send military police to someone’s office because of cafeteria drama.
“Is Dad okay?”
“Yes,” General Hayes said. “But there has been a breach connected to your department.”
The room tilted.
Brad went pale.
Tiffany stopped breathing.
I stared at him.
“My department?”
“Yes.”
The officer from security returned with a tablet.
He handed it to General Hayes.
“Sir.”
The general watched the screen.
His jaw tightened.
Then he turned the tablet toward the CEO.
The footage showed Tiffany dumping my tray.
But that was not what made the CEO’s face go gray.
In the background, twenty minutes earlier, Tiffany was at my cubicle.
Opening my drawer.
Removing a red-marked project folder.
Slipping something inside her blazer.
Brad whispered, “Oh my God.”
I looked at Tiffany.
She backed away.
“That’s not what it looks like.”
General Hayes’s voice went cold.
“Then I look forward to your explanation.”
Tiffany pointed at me.
“She set me up.”
For the first time, anger broke through my calm.
“You stole from my desk.”
“You don’t even know what was in that folder.”
The room went silent again.
Because Tiffany realized one second too late what she had just admitted.
General Hayes stepped forward.
“No one said anything was in the folder.”
Tiffany’s mouth trembled.
The CEO put a hand to his forehead.
My father entered the cafeteria then.
General Malcolm Sterling.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
Controlled.
The man I had spent years trying not to stand behind.
He looked at me first.
His eyes softened for half a heartbeat.
Then he saw the food on the floor.
My soaked shoes.
Tiffany.
The softness vanished.
“Ava,” he said. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He nodded once.
May you like
Then he looked at Tiffany.
“Good,” he said. “Then we can focus on what she stole.”
