Page 186 of Matteo

That gets him. Just a fraction. The corner of his mouth tightens. Elizabeth is watching him as closely as I am, but she doesn't say a word.

“It was placed there deliberately. A vulnerability that doesn’t exist anywhere in the system architecture unless someone creates it.” My voice drops. “Elizabeth created it.”

Alex’s gaze flicks to her and he sits up, places his arms on the table. “You’re testing your own systems now?” His tone is light, but his eyes narrow.

“You shouldn’t have touched it,” Elizabeth says.

Alex’s eyes return to mine. “Matteo, what is—”

“I saw the trace.”

“And you’re sure it’s not a misread?” he counters, calmly. “We both know logs can be—”

“Manipulated?” Elizabeth finishes for him.

He shifts position, sitting back now, clasping his hands together on the table, then unclasping them.

“There’s more than the primary trace,” Elizabeth continues. “Shadow authentication. Origin masking. You buried it well, but not well enough.”

Alex sits quietly, like someone who knows he’s been cornered and has realized that there’s no way out.

“Say something,” I bite out. “At least, explain yourself.”

He exhales slowly, like he’s deciding something. Then he straightens in his seat again.

“You shouldn’t have dug that deep.”

He doesn’t even bother to deny it. The insides of my stomach drop so fast I feel hollow. For weeks I’ve been searching for another explanation, another possibility, another outcome.

Alex did this.

“It wasn't supposed to be permanent,” he says, his eyes fixed on the table. “We were migrating systems, years ago. Different infrastructure. Different security protocols. There were delays, access issues, people getting locked out.”

“So you created a backdoor?” Matteo asks.

“It wasn't a backdoor then.” Alex rubs a hand over his face. “It was a shortcut. A temporary access route. Something to make the transition easier. I forgot about it.”

The room falls silent.

“I hadn't used it in years. I barely even remembered it existed. Then...” His voice trails off. “Things happened.”

His eyes meet mine.

Elizabeth folds her arms. “That's how you got around the normal controls.”

“Yes.”

“And my credentials?”

Alex looks away. “I used the access route to mirror your sessions and reuse authentication tokens. Once suspicion started moving toward me, I redirected it toward you.”

“That's why the logs never quite made sense,” Elizabeth says quietly. “Some of the activity looked like mine, but the timing patterns were wrong.”

Elizabeth is as still and as calm as ever. I wonder if she feels the same beneath the surface, because I'm in pieces inside. I have lost this wonderful woman forever, and nothing I do will ever get her to look at me again. I'm struggling with this, being here, sitting here, trying to find out Alex's motive, but also feeling like I've lost my way.

This has to be my most monumental of fuckups.

“Why?” I ask, trying to focus on Alex, and on the task at hand.