“They’re watching the roads,” she said, her voice shaking. “Ethan has the local police in his pocket, Grace.”

“I know,” I said, stepping out from the pantry. “He’s donated to their charity foundation for years.”

Julian walked back to the kitchen table and sat down in front of the glowing laptop screen.

“We don’t have much time,” he said, tapping a key to wake the monitor. “Let me show you how they did it.”

I sat beside him, the scent of Mrs. Ramirez’s cinnamon tea still lingering in the air.

Julian opened a file titled *Project Vanguard – System Architecture 2014*.

“This was the original automated grid code,” Julian said, pointing to a column of nested algorithms. “I spent three years developing this in my graduate lab.”

“This is the core of Caldwell Innovations’ primary software,” I said, recognizing the syntax immediately. “We launched the company on this.”

“You launched it on my work,” Julian said, his voice flat but bitter. “But I didn’t sell it to them.”

“What happened, Julian?” I asked.