The Baby Couldn't Tie Him, The Lie Did novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: On Camera

I didn't go back to the truck.

I walked into the lobby with my bag on my shoulder and my hand under my belly.

The red light followed me.

"Who are you with?" I asked the young woman holding the phone.

"The Silverport Herald." She didn't lower it. "Mr. Thornton says you've been using stolen code here since Monday. Do you want to comment?"

"Yes," I said. "Keep filming."

Mitchell's jaw moved.

He hadn't expected that.

Behind me, eleven engineers had come up the long room and stopped in a loose line.

The older man with the ponytail had his arms folded.

The lawyer opened his briefcase.

"We have server logs," he said. "Ms. McCallum downloaded a full copy of Northlight's core repository on the night she left Harbor Heights. We'll be seeking an injunction against Shaw Freight this week."

Nathan laughed once.

"Server logs," he said. "That's funny. That's what he had on me, too."

The reporter swung the camera toward him.

"And you are?"

"Nathan Shaw. I co-founded Northlight. Ask him what logs he showed the board about me."

"That's not what this is about," Mitchell said.

"It's exactly what this is about."

I put my bag on the reception counter.

"Mr. Thornton says I stole his company's code," I said to the camera. "I'd like to show you when that code was written."

I took out a clear plastic sleeve.

My advisor had brought it to my mother's door on Friday, in the rain, with his cardigan buttoned wrong.

"The registrar keeps the signature page," he'd said. "Nobody ever signs that out."

I held it up to the lens.

A single sheet with the Saint Jude's seal at the top.

"Tidewise: Real-Time Berth and Crane Scheduling for the Port of Silverport."

Under the title, my name.

Under my name, two signatures.

Mine, round and careful, at twenty-one.

His, small and spiky, with the words "Approved with distinction."

And the date. Six years ago, in May.

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