“Grace,” my mother said, her voice a sharp whisper that carried across the empty corridor.

“You have ruined enough. Walk away from this.”

“I can’t, Mom,” I said, stopping a few feet from her.

“You are dragging our family name through the mud for a fantasy,” she said, her fingers tightening on her designer handbag.

“There is no cover-up. The Colonel is a hero.”

I looked at Colonel Whitaker, but his eyes remained fixed on the exit sign behind me.

Ethan broke away from my mother’s grip and walked over to me.

“Grace, you don’t know what you’re doing,” he muttered, his voice shaking.

“I know exactly what I’m doing, Ethan,” I said. “Cassandra is protecting a lie.”

“She’s protecting her father,” Ethan whispered, leaning in close so the others couldn’t hear.

He looked around the hallway, his eyes wide with anxiety.

“I found her laptop last night,” he whispered. “I found the folder with the encryption keys to her father’s digital archive.”

My heart missed a beat. “Did you take them?”

“I have them on a flash drive in my pocket,” he said, his hand twitching toward his coat.