Chapter 5 Pier 9 confession

Betrayal has many faces but the truth only has one. And I was about to meet it under the cover of night.

---

The fog curled low across the water as I stepped out of the black car, heels clicking against the wooden boards of Pier 9.

The Hudson lapped quietly beneath me, swallowing the sounds of the city behind me. Only a few lights dotted the pier. Most of the area had been shut down for renovations, making it the perfect place for... secrets.

I hate secrets now.

I used to chase them. Thrive in them. My work in tech thrived off NDA whispers and protected patents. But now? I just wanted truth ugly, sharp-edged, and undeniable.

I gripped the flash drive tighter in my coat pocket, heart thudding.

What kind of person leaves a cryptic voicemail about stolen technology and says, "Come alone"?

Someone reckless.

Or someone desperate.

Either way, I needed to know what they knew.

A tall figure leaned against the far railing, hood up, face hidden in shadows. As I approached, I saw a flick of a lighter and the brief flash of a cigarette glow. He didn't move. Just waited.

"You're late," he said when I was close enough to hear over the water.

"I don't answer strangers," I said coldly. "Start talking."

He turned.

My breath caught.

He was young mid-thirties, maybe. Clean-cut under the hood. His eyes, sharp and golden-brown, studied me with startling clarity.

"You don't remember me," he said.

"I don't have time for riddles."

He pulled something from his coat a file. Thick and bound with a rubber band.

"I used to work for Verdane," he said. "Cyber-division. Data compliance. Quiet job. Low-level. Until I was reassigned."

"To what?"

"To analyze software you developed five years ago. The code behind ARIA."

I stiffened.

ARIA had been my first big leap an adaptive predictive algorithm that could optimize supply chains in real-time. It was the reason Damian married me, though I hadn't realized it then.

"They renamed it. Reskinned it. And sold it to a logistics conglomerate in Dubai for ten times what it was worth. I saw the original signatures your signature. You were never paid."

My throat went dry.

"I have all of it," he continued. "Emails. Internal memos. Redacted financial transfers."

"And why give it to me now?"

He hesitated.

"Because someone's cleaning up. Three whistleblowers have disappeared in the last two months. One of them was my friend. You're the only person with enough power and reason to go public."

I studied him.

His hand trembled slightly as he passed me the file.

Inside: emails between Isabelle and Lila. Copies of patent transfer agreements. A document with Cosmas's initials next to mine, forged.

I blinked, stunned.

He wasn't bluffing.

"Why trust me?" I asked softly.

"Because you lost more than any of us," he replied. "And you're still standing."

For a moment, neither of us spoke. The wind picked up, rustling the papers in my hand.

"My name is Owen Lee," he finally said. "I'm leaving town tonight. You won't see me again."

I nodded.

"Thank you," I whispered.

He gave a small nod and turned, disappearing into the fog the way he came.

I stood there for another minute, gripping the file like a weapon. Then I turned and left.

---

By the time I reached my penthouse, the file had been scanned, digitized, and uploaded to an encrypted drive.

I stared at the computer screen, eyes burning.

Every line, every forged signature, every transfer of my life's work it was all there.

And in the middle of it all stood three names:

Cosmas Moretti. Isabelle Moretti. Lila Hart.

I couldn't sleep.

How could I?

My past was clawing back into my life with greedy fingers, and now I had the ammunition to fight.

But I couldn't just expose them.

Not yet.

I needed to bleed them first.

Take everything they thought was safe. Controlled.

And make it crumble.

I sent Eli a short message:

"Meet me in the morning. We have a war to start."

Then I pulled open my private safe and retrieved the only thing that mattered now an untouched envelope with the last remaining original patent proof, watermarked and notarized under my maiden name.

They'd thought they'd erased the past.

But I had kept just enough of it to bury them.

---

The next morning, Eli showed up in my office, coffee in one hand, a legal pad in the other.

"You didn't sleep," he said, noting the dark circles under my eyes.

"No time for sleep," I replied. "I want lawsuits filed in every country Verdane operates in. Civil and criminal."

He sat, brows raised. "That's a lot of courts."

"I want them buried in red tape. I want stockholders nervous. I want reporters curious. We'll leak selectively. One thread at a time."

He nodded slowly. "Calculated chaos. I like it."

"We'll also reopen my tech lab. I'll publicly relaunch ARIA under my maiden name. A new division. New branding. Fully funded."

"That'll spook them."

"Good. Let them sweat."

He set the coffee down. "What about Cosmas?"

My heart clenched.

I hadn't said his name out loud in days.

"He'll come to me when the ship starts sinking," I said, staring out the window. "He always does."

"And when he does?"

I looked over my shoulder, voice ice-cold.

"I'll let him drown."

---

Eli's phone buzzed.

He frowned at the screen. "That's odd."

"What?" I asked.

He turned the phone toward me.

A single message. From Lila.

"I know what you have. We need to talk. Alone."

And just like that, the betrayer wanted a seat at my table.