“You want me to go back?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“He’s leaving tonight!”

“And before he leaves, he’ll retrieve the hard drive,” Julian said. “It’s hidden in your basement. Behind the wine rack.”

I froze.

“How do you—”

“I know everything Tyler has done for the last eighteen months.”

Forty million dollars.

Corporate theft.

Selling company secrets.

Framing me.

“And if I don’t do this?” I asked.

“You go to prison,” Julian said calmly. “And your child is born there.”

Silence filled the room.

Then something inside me shifted.

Not fear.

Rage.

He wasn’t just stealing money.

He was stealing my life.

I picked up the recorder.

“What do I get?”

Julian looked at me—not cold, not calculating, but steady.

“Your freedom. Your name cleared. And a future where he never controls you again.”

I stood up.

“I’m going home.”