Page 151 of Matteo

ELIZABETH

I can't sleep. I've been waiting for Matteo to return, but it's already been two hours.

Something has happened. Something at work, possibly, something that Alex deems important enough to disturb him on vacation. It could even be to do with his father. Maybe his brothers aren't telling him, but Alex will.

I fight the urge to go looking for him, even though I'm worried about him. I fear he'll get angry if I show up, even though I don’t understand why. The evening turned out to be better than I expected.

I wait up for him. Hours pass, and I don't sleep. I couldn't even if I tried. I need to know what's going on with Matteo. I sit on the couch, cross-legged, not watching what's on TV, just having it on for some background noise, when the door opens and Matteo walks in. I spring up, stepping towards him, then stop.

I can smell the alcohol on him.

“I waited up for you.”

“Shouldn't have.” He walks past me, not looking at me, but I grab his arm to make him stop.

“Something's wrong. What is it?”

He turns to me, his gaze searching my face for what feels like eternity before he finally speaks. “How long?” he asks.

I move my hand away, feeling the sharp sting of his tone. “How long what?”

“How long have you been accessing Knight Enterprises’ systems?”

The words slice like a knife. I stumble back a few steps, shock and disbelief throwing me off balance. “What?”

“Tell me the truth. Just this once. How long have you been infiltrating our systems?”

I sink back onto the couch, the weight of his accusation sinking into my soul. “You think I … y-you ...” I can’t finish the sentence.

“Don’t lie to me. Just tell me the truth.” He looks away, at the ceiling, at the windows, at anything but me.

“I’m not lying!” I fold my arms, wrapping them against me like a protective shield. “What are you talking about, exactly?”

He pulls his phone from his pocket, taps the screen a few times, then holds it out to me.

“Your credentials. Your login. Repeated access tied to the breaches.”

“I logged in today, like I’ve been logging in daily, like you have, to check that we haven’t been hit.”

“Not today's activity.” His voice is cold. “Previous access. Historical access tied to the anomalies.”

I take the phone from him.

At first glance, it looks like a standard authentication report.

Then my stomach drops.

The records show my user ID accessing restricted areas of the network. Configuration changes. Privileged system calls. Logins at times that coincide with some of the security incidents we've been investigating.

Worse, the authentication path is correct. The device signatures look right. Even the session tokens appear legitimate.

I can't breathe, because I know exactly what I'm looking at. Someone has made it look as though those actions came from me. I peer closer and gasp. “Alex sent you these?”

“Worried you've been found out?” he growls, his tone sharp and jagged.

“That’s not possible,” I whisper, panic creeping along my gut.

“That’s exactly what I said.”