Page 149 of Matteo

Something flashes in my head.

No wonder she has no college degree. She learned her skills a different way.

This guy was the organizer of a group.

The group Elizabeth and her friends have been talking about. And she was in that group which means … she must have been involved in shady operations. As a hacker, maybe? Someone operating in the same world as Vlad and Takumi.

No wonder she spotted the backdoor so quickly. No wonder she saw things my own team missed. No wonder she could walk into Knight Enterprises and start pulling apart systems that had stumped people for weeks.

The thought hits like a sledgehammer to my chest, and I wrestle with ugly thoughts, refusing to believe it.

“Matteo, you still there?”

“I'm still here,” I say slowly. I had a suspicion that Elizabeth was hiding something, but I never suspected this.

“That’s not why I called you,” Alex says.

My breath hitches in my throat.

There’s more?

“Sorry, I didn’t want to worry you with this while you were on vacation, but I think you need to know.”

Something pinches my gut. “Need to know what?”

He hesitates for a moment. “I've been tracing the breach signatures again. Cross-referencing access logs, timestamps … and patterns.” He exhales quietly.

“And?” Hurry the fuck up, Alex.

“They’re not random.”

My grip on the phone tightens. “I know that.”

“They’re consistent,” he continues. “Same methodology. Same structure. Whoever’s doing this knows our systems inside out.”

That doesn’t surprise me either. “I already told you that.”

“Uh ...” He pauses again, and I’m starting to lose my patience. “We found something in the access logs,” he says, quickly.

“Okay.” I scratch my chin, wondering why he’s wasting my time. “What?”

“The activity is tied to a valid login.”

“Whose?” My breath catches in my throat.

“You're not going to like—”

“Who the fuck is it?”

“Elizabeth.”

Everything around me freezes.

Elizabeth?

Fuck, no. I reject it instantly. “That’s not possible.”

“It’s her credentials. Same ID. Same authentication path. It’s clean, Matteo. Too clean.”