Chapter 7 - DARIO’S DESPERATION|
Rain battered the floor-to-ceiling windows of Dario Shimansky's downtown luxury apartment.
Dario stood before her mirror, holding an ice pack against her smooth neck, trying to summon a single tear for the camera set up on her tripod.
Her agent's voice screeched through her speakerphone:
"Dario, listen to me! Social media is tearing you apart! They’re calling you a homewrecker, a thief, and a fake architect! The Canadian Architecture Guild just announced they are launching a formal investigation into your accreditation!"
"I didn't steal anything!" Dario screamed into her phone. "Beck gave me those files! He said his wife was just an amateur doodler who didn't want her name on corporate contracts!"
"Well, the 'amateur doodler' just produced timestamped digital renders from 2021!" her agent snapped. "Unless you have drawings that predate hers, you are dead in this industry!"
Dario ended the call, her chest heaving with panic.
She rushed to her safe, pulled out a flash drive Beck had handed her six months ago, and shoved it into her laptop.
She clicked open the primary folder: THRESHOLD_FINAL_DARIO.CAD.
She opened the file properties. The original creation date read: OCTOBER 12, 2021.
And beneath the author tab, printed in permanent encrypted metadata, was the name:
AUTHOR: IMARA COULSON.
Dario sank into her chair, her face draining of color. Beck hadn't just given her Imara's design—he had lied to Dario, telling her he had wiped the metadata completely.
"He used me as a shield," Dario realized, her knuckles turning white. "If the theft got exposed, I took the fall, and he kept the project."
May you like
A sinister smile slowly spread across Dario’s face. She grabbed her coat and her phone.
"If I'm going down, Beckett Hail," she whispered, "you're coming with me."
