Chapter 7

Avery's POV

The accusation reached me before lunch, carried through Westbridge's hallway by three separate people who all seemed to think they were the first to tell me. Someone at Crestwood was saying I'd stolen game strategies on my way out the door, copied files off a shared drive, taken something that belonged to the program before I transferred. By the time I heard the third version it had grown teeth, details attached to it that made it sound less like a rumor and more like an accusation somebody had built on purpose.

I found the source of it during…