"No," Aylin shook her head vigorously, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. "No, my dad wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t betray his team. He wouldn’t..."

But the files weren’t lying. Encrypted messages, financial transactions, and meeting logs all traced back to Marcus Alston as the source of the leaked information.

"My dad was the one who turned Charles into a traitor," Aylin whispered, her voice cracking. "According to this, he’s the one who set him up."

She stood up so suddenly that her chair fell over. "No! This is wrong! My dad was a good man! He would never..."

"Aylin," Jane said softly, reaching out for her.

But Aylin pulled away, typing like a whirlwind and pulling up file after file. "There has to be something. Some proof that he didn’t do this. Someone else must have planted this evidence. Someone..."

Her fingers flew over the keyboard with frantic energy, tears making it hard to see, but she kept going. She dug into communication logs, mission reports, financial records, anything that could clear her dad’s name.

Minutes ticked by. Jax and Jane stood by quietly, their hearts heavy for her.

Then, Aylin paused.

Her hands hovered above the keyboard, shaking.

"What’s up?" Jax asked softly.

Aylin leaned in closer to the screen, her golden-brown eyes narrowing through her tears. "Wait. This doesn’t add up."

She pulled up a communication log, one of the main pieces of evidence that had framed Charles. It showed a message sent from Marcus Alston’s secure account to a criminal group, leaking classified info.

"Check the timestamp," Aylin said, her voice gaining strength. "This message was supposedly sent at 14:37 on March 15, 2011."

"Okay," Jane replied carefully.

Aylin then opened another file, a mission report. "But according to this official military log, my dad was on a mission in Prague that whole week. He didn’t get back until March 18. There’s no way he could have sent this message because he wasn’t even in the country."

Hope started to build in her chest.

She pulled up more files, comparing timestamps and locations. "And this one was supposed to be sent from his home computer. But the IP address..." She traced the digital fingerprint. "It’s not from our house; it’s from somewhere in Virginia. We never lived in Virginia."

Jax straightened up. "Someone was pretending to be him."

"Yes," Aylin said, her mind racing. "Someone with access to his accounts, codes, and digital signature, someone who could make it seem like my dad was the traitor."

She checked the team roster again, examining each name.

Charles had been framed and died.

Marcus, her dad, passed away, and everyone thought it was a heart attack.

Sibel, her mom, died in what was said to be a car accident.

Mehmet Demir left the team ages ago, and no one has any idea where he is.

And then there was Alexander Kane.

Aylin felt her breath catch.

"Alexander," she whispered.

She pulled up his file, her fingers shaking. Alexander Kane, communications guy. He was the only one on the team who could mess with digital evidence. He had access to everyone’s secure accounts.

"He was the communications guy," Aylin said, her tone getting icy. "He had all their codes and passwords. He could’ve sent those messages from my dad’s account. He could’ve planted all the evidence."

She dug through more files until she found what she needed: Alexander’s service record. After the team split up, after Charles "died," and after her parents were gone, Alexander climbed the ranks. He got promoted and rewarded with sensitive positions.

"He betrayed them all," Aylin said, standing up, her tears hardened into anger. "He framed Charles and made it look like my dad did it. Then he killed my parents to cover his tracks."

She looked at Jax and Jane, her warm brown eyes blazing. "Alexander Kane is the traitor. He destroyed everything. And he’s still out there."

Jax nodded seriously. "We need to tell Zayden."

"No," Aylin shot back, her voice steady. "First, I’m gonna find every piece of evidence I can on Alexander Kane. Then I’ll make sure everyone knows the truth, Zayden, Liam, everyone."

She sat back down, wiping her tears away with a new sense of determination. "My dad didn’t betray anyone. He was murdered by the real traitor. And I’m gonna prove it."

Her fingers raced across the keyboard, now fueled by anger and a desire for justice.

"Liam’s not the enemy," she added quietly. "Neither is his dad. They’re victims, just like me. Just like my family."

She started a new search, typing, Alexander Kane, ’where is he now?’

"And when I finally find Alexander Kane," she whispered, her voice collected, "he’s going to pay for every life he messed up."

If Alexander Kane has been hiding out this long, what will he do when Aylin finally tracks him down?

*****

Liam pushed the door open to the plain office building, feeling utterly exhausted and emotionally drained, as if he had aged ten years in just one night.

Azalea was at her desk, illuminated by several screens. With her mask off, her dark hair spilled over her shoulders. She looked up when he entered.

"You look like a mess," she said straightforwardly.

"Thanks," Liam mumbled as he collapsed into a chair. "Where’s my dad?"

"He left," Azalea replied. "He said he needed some space to think." She leaned back, taking a moment to assess him. "You two really had quite the reunion."

Liam let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, twelve years of lies crammed into one conversation. Real quality time." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Azalea’s expression softened slightly. "He really messed up, like, big time. But he’s still your dad."

"Is he?" Liam shot back, his eyes red. "Because the dad I knew wouldn’t have used me like this. He wouldn’t have made me hurt someone I care about."

Azalea sighed and closed her laptop. "Love makes people do stupid things, including sacrificing it for what they think is the ’greater good.’"

"There’s no greater good in this," Liam responded quietly. "Just revenge and paranoia."

They sat in silence for a moment.

Finally, Azalea broke the quiet. "So, what’s next? Are you going back to her?"

Liam’s jaw clenched. "I don’t even know if she’d want me back. I left her. I broke her heart. She probably hates me."

"Or she might be really worried about you," Azalea suggested, tilting her head. "You won’t know unless you give it a shot."

Liam looked away. "What about the mission? Ghost Net? With all the chaos happening?"