The report came in just after sunrise.
Adrian sat at the marble island, a cup of untouched coffee cooling beside him, when his phone buzzed with a secure notification from Cross Digital Forensics. He opened it instantly.
ACCESS LOG ALERT — 1:13 AM
Location: Cross Enterprises, 32nd Floor
Device: Adrian Cross — Office Computer
Entry Method: Old Access Code (Pre-Two-Factor System)
Adrian stared at the screen.
Impossible.
He hadn’t been at the office. No one on the security team had authorization to use that outdated passcode. It had been archived, buried in internal records after the breach last year. No one should even remember it existed.
But someone had used it.
His pulse tightened. His mind ran cold calculations—who had been near him, near his devices, near the penthouse. Who ha
