CHAPTER 13
1365 Words
Chapter 13: “Threads of Deception”
The city lay beneath a silver dawn, its towers catching the first cold light of morning. Ava woke to the insistent buzz of her phone alarm, her body protesting after another sleepless night. The threatening message from the unknown sender still echoed in her mind, replaying every time she closed her eyes: Stop digging. Or you won’t like what comes next.
She dragged herself from bed, forcing her thoughts back to the day’s work. The gala was now less than seventy-two hours away, and every hour mattered.
---
At the studio, the air was heavy with caution. The team moved quietly, as though speaking too loudly might trigger another catastrophe. The Starfire gown stood like an untouchable relic in the center of the room, its crystalline threads dulled under the work lights.
Ethan appeared in the doorway carrying two coffees, his usual lopsided smile dimmed by concern.
“You look like you wrestled with a hurricane,” he said softly.
Ava managed a weak smile. “That’s about right. Any word from your cybersecurity friend?”
He nodded, lowering his voice. “She’s digging through the server logs we pulled last night. She says the tampering wasn’t just from a remote hack. Someone with physical access used a cloned admin credential.”
Ava’s stomach clenched. “So it really is someone inside.”
Ethan’s gaze softened as he passed her the coffee. “We’ll figure out who. Just… keep your head down. Whoever sent that text is trying to scare you.”
“I’m not backing off,” she replied, more fiercely than she intended. “This is my work. My name’s on that gown.”
---
By mid-morning, Liam convened a meeting in the executive conference room. Sunlight poured in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, too bright for the mood in the room. Samantha was already seated, her arms folded, while the head of security displayed projected network diagrams on the screen.
“We’ve traced the corrupted transition code to this terminal,” the security lead said, pointing to a red-flagged icon. “The auxiliary lab.”
Liam’s eyes flicked to Samantha, then to Ava. “Who had access?”
“Carla,” Samantha answered briskly. “But not exclusively. The lab’s swipe logs show two unidentified entries — the card IDs were spoofed. That means whoever it was could’ve made it look like Carla.”
A ripple of unease passed through the room.
“Find out who they are,” Liam said, his voice low and steady — the kind of steady that carried a dangerous edge. “I want names by tomorrow morning.”
His gaze settled on Ava last. For a fleeting moment, his eyes softened as if to reassure her, but he said nothing.
---
The rest of the day passed in tense silence as Ava re-coded the transition sequence from scratch, determined to build new failsafes that couldn’t be overridden. She caught Liam’s silhouette passing the studio door a few times, but he didn’t step in. It was as if they were orbiting each other — connected yet restrained by the weight of everything happening.
That evening, as the rest of the team clocked out, Ava stayed behind with Ethan. The glow from their computer screens cast the room in cool blue light.
Ethan leaned closer to her screen. “Look at this timestamp. Someone logged in at 3:47 a.m. but the location data doesn’t match the tower’s network. They tunneled in using an internal relay.”
Ava frowned. “You’re saying… they had to be inside the building, but hid their actual workstation?”
“Exactly.” He ran a hand through his hair. “That’s not rookie stuff. Whoever it is knows what they’re doing.”
Ava stared at the scrolling lines of code, her fingers absently tapping the edge of the keyboard. “They’re trying to destroy us from the inside out.”
---
When Ethan finally left for the night, promising to return early, Ava shut down her workstation and turned off the desk lamp. The studio was bathed in moonlight spilling through the high windows, casting long shadows across the floor.
She lingered near the Starfire gown. In the stillness, its embedded crystals caught a stray beam of moonlight, winking like distant stars. She reached out, brushing her fingertips lightly along the fabric’s cool surface.
“Hang in there,” she whispered as if the dress could hear her. “We’re not letting them win.”
A quiet cough behind her made her spin around.
Liam stood in the doorway, the dim light catching the sharp lines of his face. “Talking to the gown now?”
Heat rose in her cheeks. “Just… pep talk.”
He walked in slowly, hands in his pockets. “I came to check if you were still here. You should rest.”
“I will. I just needed a moment.” She hesitated before adding, “I saw the logs. The sabotage was deliberate. We can’t keep pretending it’s just a glitch.”
“I’m not pretending.” His voice softened as he stepped closer. “But we can’t accuse anyone without proof. Not yet.”
Their eyes met, a brief charged silence settling between them. For a moment, Ava thought he might say something more — something personal — but instead he stepped back, the moment dissolving as quickly as it came.
“Go home, Ava,” he said quietly. “Tomorrow’s going to be worse.”
---
The next morning brought an unexpected twist. Carla didn’t show up for work. Her phone went straight to voicemail, and her apartment manager reported she’d checked out late last night.
“Ran,” Samantha muttered under her breath as she slammed her phone down after another failed call. “That makes her look guilty.”
Ava didn’t believe it. Carla’s frightened whispers that night in the conference room came back to her — the words laced with fear, not guilt.
“She wouldn’t run unless something scared her,” Ava murmured.
Liam, however, looked grim. “Whether she’s guilty or scared, she’s now a liability. We’ll tighten security around the gown. No one gets near it without clearance.”
The implication was clear: Trust no one.
---
That evening, Ethan’s friend from cybersecurity finally called with a breakthrough. Ava answered on the first ring.
“Your leak,” the woman’s voice crackled over speakerphone, “isn’t just about sabotaging a dress. I found a data trail leading to offshore accounts — big transfers tied to a shell company bidding for the same government textile contract Blackwell is after. This is corporate espionage.”
Ava’s breath caught. “So it’s not just about ruining the gala… they’re trying to cripple the company.”
“Exactly. If they humiliate Blackwell at the showcase, their competitor gets the contract.”
When the call ended, Ava sat in silence, the weight of it sinking in. This wasn’t merely a rivalry — it was a calculated war.
---
Later that night, Liam found her again working late.
“You should’ve gone home hours ago,” he said, but his tone lacked any real reprimand.
“I can’t,” she replied without looking up. “I think I’m starting to see the bigger picture. Whoever’s behind this isn’t just after us — they’re after the company’s future.”
He studied her for a moment, then walked over until they stood shoulder-to-shoulder. “You always see further than the rest,” he said quietly.
Ava turned to look at him, surprised by the softness in his words. The air between them seemed to hum, charged with something unspoken — something fragile and dangerous all at once.
But before either could say more, the distant clang of an elevator door broke the moment. Liam straightened, his usual guarded expression snapping back into place.
“Go home, Ava,” he repeated, though this time his voice carried a hint of something else — worry, maybe.
She packed up reluctantly, aware that the threads of deception around them were tightening, pulling them all toward a climax neither of them could yet see.
- Writer
