Stranger Behind the Screen
816 Words
"I can’t keep doing this," Amelia muttered under her breath, pacing the length of her office. Her fingers clenched her phone, her mind spinning from the last message.
You’ve seen the shadow. But the face is coming next.
Who was this person? And why now? Why go to such extremes to break down everything she was trying to rebuild?
Sarah entered without knocking.
"I traced the phone number. The messages. Everything. And you’re going to hate it."
Amelia stopped pacing. "Of course I am. I already do."
Sarah handed her a tablet with a profile pulled up.
The number had pinged from a public server. Rerouted through six VPNs. But one digital fingerprint remained:
A single alias: D. Cross.
"Who’s that?" Amelia asked.
Sarah hesitated. "That’s the thing. The name appeared once before—in an internal memo from your father’s files. D. Cross was a code name used in a confidential project... something called 'The Backdoor Initiative.'"
Amelia stared at the screen. "What the hell does that mean?"
"I don’t know yet. But your dad did. And I think Felix might be able to help us c***k it."
Nathan and Felix wasn’t in the building.
They were across town, inside a modest office space. Old furniture. Bare walls. Just both of them and stacks of old blueprints and encrypted hard drives.
"We’re chasing shadows," Felix said, adjusting his glasses. "But one of them is leaving footprints. Whoever this is... they’ve been preparing for years."
Nathan glanced at a faded blueprint of Turner Enterprises from 15 years ago. "Do you think Amelia’s father was part of it?"
"Either part of it... or the reason for it."
Felix pulled up the server map. "The leak didn’t start recently. It goes back almost seven years. Before the decline. Before the takeover talks. Someone’s been inside your system for a long time."
Nathan narrowed his eyes. "Then why start showing their hand now?"
"Because you showed up," Felix said simply.
---
Amelia sat alone in her father’s office. The smell of old leather and pinewood surrounded her like a ghost.
She opened the bottom drawer again.
Inside was a notebook. Her father’s handwriting. Personal thoughts. Business notes.
But near the back, in scrawled, shaky ink:
“D. Cross knows too much. Can’t risk it. Cut the cord. Lock the channel.”
Her breath caught. So it wasn’t a friend. D. Cross had been dangerous from the beginning.
A soft knock at the door.
It was Tamara.
"Amelia... we need to talk."
She walked in, closing the door behind her.
"I overheard something at lunch. Gerald was on the phone—didn’t see me coming. He mentioned 'Winterlight' and 'Backdoor.' And he was nervous."
"Gerald?"
"Yes. I think he’s the leak. Or at least, he knows who is."
Amelia stood slowly. "Then it’s time we make him talk."
---
They didn’t confront Gerald directly.
Instead, they invited him to a private “strategy review” late in the evening. Just him, Amelia, Tamara, and Nathan.
Gerald walked in looking confused. "What’s this about?"
Amelia didn’t answer with words. She handed him the photo of Nathan at the warehouse.
Then the one from the balcony.
Then the message: You trust him too easily.
Gerald’s face twitched.
Nathan leaned forward. "Let me make this simple. We know someone’s inside the company. Feeding intel to an anonymous third party. And we know you’ve used the alias D. Cross before."
"That’s ridiculous," Gerald snapped. "I don’t even know who—"
Amelia interrupted. "We have the memo. From my father’s private archive. You were part of the Backdoor Initiative. You and two others. Names redacted."
Gerald stood, flustered. "I don’t have to sit here and—"
"Sit down," Nathan said, low and firm.
Gerald sat.
Tamara slid over a legal document. "Sign this. It’s a sworn statement. You cooperate, and we protect you. You don’t, and we take this public."
He stared at the paper.
"What do you want from me?"
Amelia leaned in. "A name."
Gerald hesitated. Swallowed. Then whispered:
"Lena Maddox."
Amelia’s heart froze.
Nathan’s fists clenched.
Tamara’s eyes widened.
"As in... Maddox Group?" she said.
Gerald nodded. "She’s the real D. Cross. Everything ran through her. Your father tried to cut her out after she crossed a line. But she never really left."
"What line?" Amelia asked.
"She tried to buy Turner from underneath him."
---
That night, Amelia sat on her balcony again. The city lights below blinked like stars caught in a jar.
Nathan joined her.
"So Lena Maddox," he said.
"And she’s been here the whole time. Watching. Waiting."
"She’s dangerous. More than you know."
"Then we hit first."
Nathan looked at her. Not as a strategist. Not as a CEO but as a woman who’d been lied to, played, and nearly broken.
"You’re not scared?"
"Terrified," she whispered.
Nathan took her hand.
"Then let’s be terrifying."
- Writer
