The Assistant She Framed

Jules Okafor was promoted on a Friday and sacrificed on a Monday. She spent two years proving it. Now she's back inside Reyes Capital as the compliance officer auditing the division of the man who watched her take the fall. Callum Reyes doesn't pretend not to know her. He gives her a floor, a badge, and enough access to bury him. Jules assumed it was guilt. It isn't. The emails she pulled from the archive don't belong to Callum—they belong to his mentor, the man who trained him, the man who's been doing this since before Jules was hired. Callum knew. He stayed silent anyway. Six weeks of late nights and revoked access turn a cold audit into a cold war neither of them can call a truce in. When the file is complete, Jules has two options: use it against the man who let her burn, or give it to him so they can burn it down together. She hands it over. He takes the fall. She follows him out.