Koko tapped the screen of her tablet one last time.

The speakers above the stage let out a soft static pop.

The slide of the forged lab log on the screen faded to black.

Then, a heavy audio track began to play through the ballroom’s sound system.

“We need to make sure the toxic batch is traced directly to her login,” a voice said.

It was Julian’s voice, clear and unmistakable, echoing through the room.

The crowd gasped, and people began to murmur instantly.

Julian’s smirk vanished, his face turning a pale shade of gray under the stage lights.

“Are you sure the intern won’t notice the discrepancy in the chemical levels?” a second voice asked on the recording.

It was a voice I recognized immediately as Julian’s chief researcher.

“She is an intern,” Julian’s recorded voice replied, sneering.

“She won’t see it until the batch is already shipped, and by then, the liability will fall entirely on her and Andrew.”

“We will ruin them both in one move.”

The audio clip finished, leaving a heavy, dead silence in the grand ballroom.