Chapter 5 Five

Noah froze, staring at Adrian as if the world had just stopped moving. "What do you mean I was there?" he asked, voice tight, almost breaking.

Adrian didn't answer at first. His eyes flickered between anger and something close to grief. "You really don't remember, do you?" he said softly.

"Remember what?" Noah stepped closer. "Adrian, what are you talking about?"

Adrian's jaw clenched. "The night the data was leaked, the night my father died. You were at the company that evening. You came to see me. You said Ethan wanted to apologize, that he wanted to make peace. But a few hours later, the files were gone, and my father was dead."

Noah's chest tightened. "That's not possible. I was never there that night."

"You were," Adrian said coldly. "Security cameras caught a glimpse of you entering the building after hours. You think I didn't check? You think I didn't see?"

Noah shook his head, disbelief and confusion clouding his thoughts. "No. No, that can't be right. I was with Ethan that night. He was..." He stopped suddenly, his memory flashing in fragments. A phone call. A strange message. The sound of sirens later that night.

Adrian stepped forward, his tone low and sharp. "Don't lie to me again, Noah. You were there, and you disappeared right after. You left me to bury everything."

"I didn't disappear," Noah said, voice cracking. "I was deployed the next day. I didn't even know your father..." He stopped again, his throat closing. "Adrian, I didn't know."

Adrian's hands curled into fists. "Convenient."

"Damn it, Adrian!" Noah snapped, slamming his hand on the table. "If I had known something was wrong, I never would've left. I loved you! Do you understand that? I loved you!"

The confession hung between them, raw and trembling.

For a moment, Adrian's mask broke. His eyes softened, just a flicker, before he looked away. "Love doesn't erase betrayal."

Noah stared at him. "And hate doesn't bring back your father."

The room fell silent again. Only the faint hum of the backup generators filled the air.

Finally, Adrian turned toward the glowing monitor. The threatening message had vanished, replaced by the company's logo. "Whoever sent that," he said quietly, "knows everything that happened that night. They're taunting us."

Noah moved beside him, his anger slowly giving way to focus. "Then we find them. Together."

Adrian looked at him sharply. "Together?"

"You want revenge, right?" Noah said, his voice steady now. "Then help me find out who really did it. Because if it wasn't Ethan, if it wasn't me, then someone else used us both."

Adrian hesitated, his mind torn between reason and emotion. "Why should I trust you?"

"Because you don't have a choice," Noah said simply. "Whoever's behind this just broke into your system again. They're not done."

Hours later, the building was quiet. Most of the employees had gone home, unaware that the two men still worked in the shadows of the upper floor.

Noah sat in Adrian's office, going through the old data archives. Every document related to the 2015 breach had been wiped, except for one. A hidden backup buried under encrypted layers. He finally cracked it open, revealing a list of names: company board members, investors, and a few external contractors.

But one name stood out.

Victor Halden.

Noah frowned. "He's everywhere," he murmured. "All the files connect back to him somehow."

Adrian looked up from his own screen. "Halden was my father's top consultant. He handled the security transition right before the breach."

"And he disappeared after your father's death," Noah said. "What if he wasn't fired or dead? What if he's been here all along, just under a different name?"

Adrian leaned closer. "You think he changed his identity?"

"People do it all the time," Noah replied. "Especially when they have something to hide."

Adrian's eyes darkened. "If that's true, then he's the one who ruined both our families."

A tense silence settled again. The words carried more weight than either of them wanted to admit.

Then Adrian's voice dropped lower. "If you're right, Noah, that means the person using Halden's access isn't just hacking us, they're finishing something that started years ago."

Noah met his gaze. "Maybe the truth isn't what either of us thought it was."

Before Adrian could answer, his phone buzzed on the desk. It was a text from Lila.

You need to come downstairs. Now. It's urgent.

When they reached the lower floor, Lila was waiting by the server control room. Her expression was pale and tense. "I found something," she said quickly. "You both need to see this."

Inside the control room, a screen displayed a live security feed. Someone, a hooded figure, was accessing the restricted server area.

"Who the hell is that?" Noah muttered.

Lila zoomed in, and for a second, the camera caught a glimpse of the intruder's face.

Adrian froze.

Noah did too.

It was Ethan Graves.

But that was impossible. Ethan was dead.

Adrian's breathing quickened. "That... that can't be."

Noah's voice came out in a whisper. "He's dead. I saw the body. I buried him."

Lila looked between them, confused and frightened. "Then who the hell is that?"

The figure disappeared from the frame. Alarms started blaring. The servers were being wiped again.

Adrian ran to the panel, slamming his hand on the emergency shutdown. "They're erasing everything!"

Noah grabbed his phone. "Lockdown the exits. We can trap him."

Adrian hesitated, his mind spinning. "If that really is your brother..."

"It's not," Noah said firmly, even though his voice shook. "It can't be."

They rushed through the dim hallways toward the server chamber. The alarms pulsed red against the steel walls. When they reached the end of the corridor, the door stood open, the security systems fried.

Inside, the smell of burnt circuits filled the air. The computers were dead, the floor littered with melted cables.

And standing in the middle of the room was the hooded figure.

Noah aimed his flashlight toward him. "Stop right there!"

The man turned slowly, the hood slipping just enough for the light to catch his face.

Noah's breath caught. The resemblance was undeniable, the same eyes, the same scar above the brow.

It was Ethan. Or someone who looked exactly like him.

Adrian's voice was low, trembling. "It's not possible."

Noah took a slow step forward. "If this is some kind of sick joke..."

The man smirked faintly. "Still chasing ghosts, little brother?"

Noah froze. The voice, deep, familiar, echoed through him like a memory.

"I watched you die," Noah whispered.

"Then maybe," the man said, "you should've looked closer."

Before either of them could react, he threw something small to the ground, a smoke device and the room filled with thick gray clouds.

Noah coughed, eyes burning, searching blindly through the haze. "Ethan!" he shouted. "Stop! Talk to me!"

A faint laugh echoed from somewhere ahead. "You're still too late, Noah. Just like before."

Then silence.

When the smoke cleared, he was gone.

The servers were fried. The cameras destroyed.

Adrian stood beside Noah, face pale, his eyes wide with disbelief. "If that really was him..."

Noah swallowed hard, staring at the empty doorway. "Then everything we thought we knew is a lie."

Adrian turned to him, voice trembling. "Noah... if Ethan's alive, then who did we bury?"

Noah's heart pounded, the question tearing through his mind like a blade.

And as the silence grew heavier, he whispered the only thing he could say.

"I don't know, Adrian. But whoever it was, someone wanted us both to believe it."