Alex focused on my laptop screen, his expression stony. It stayed that way. And after thirty seconds, he still hadn’t said a word. When he finally looked back at me, his poker face remained. “What do you think it is?”
“I think it’s a fake account. I don’t think that—Iknowthat.” Involuntarily, one of my hands went to the top of my head and I tugged on a handful of my hair. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
Alex took a step back from the counter and he looked at me with cold blue eyes. I knew that look. I knew that look exceptionally well, but I had never been on the receiving end before. For ten years, I had watched Alex look at other people with those piercing eyes. The first time I witnessed it, someone in our freshman dorm had stolen the little white board I had hung next to our door. Within two hours, Alex had tracked down the whiteboard and the culprit, and had dragged him to our dorm room by his shirt collar to apologize to me.
“What do you know?” he questioned. He canted his head to the side. “I can tell you’ve drawn conclusions already. If you have a theory, just say it.”
Six-second reset.
“You did a really fucking good job covering this up,” I responded, speaking softly now that I was able to breathe evenly. “You did such a good job that literally nobody but me would have all the right puzzle pieces to put it together.”
If I were correct, he gave me no indicators. He was a gray rock.
“We’ve been receiving money,” I went on, watching him carefully. “The more our monthly active users goes up, the more money we get. I thought that was weird, because we don’t have a single funding source that compensates us on a variable basis.”
Alex pretended to look at my laptop, but I knew he only did it to break our eye contact. I could see him shifting, growing steadily more and more uneasy as I watched him. He kept his eyes on the screen for a few more seconds before he looked up at me and cocked an eyebrow. It was the first time I had ever seen him so quiet.
“I was trying to figure out why we would ever receive a variable compensation from someone. That’s when I realized: It’s not compensation, it’s a sale. You sold user data, didn’t you?”
Once I said the words, there was no taking it back. And for people in our industry, in a space where millions of people had provided us with information of theutmostsecurity—loan terms, credit scores, salaries, tax filings, and so much more—selling user data was nothing short of a betrayal. And from a legal perspective…shit.Hell was going to rain down on me in a cresting wave of fire and lightning and probably some jail time, frankly.
“You did, didn’t you?” I pressed. “That’s what you were talking about in that Forbes article I managed to kill. You think people are too protective of their personal data, so it makes sense that you would sell it to someone.”
“Marcus—”
“I would trade my soul right now to hear that I’m wrong,” I murmured. “God, Alex, please tell me I’m wrong.”
Alex let out a sigh and shook his head. Immediately, bile rose in my throat.
“To who?” I demanded. “What the—” I took a few steps away, nausea setting in. Was I sweating? I was definitely sweating. I collapsed into one of his armchairs a few feet away and leaned forward, head between my knees.
“Hey,” he said as he walked over. “I can explain.”
“We are so screwed,” I said, daring to look up at him. The look on his face only unsettled me more. He was mildly concerned, probably because I was about to vomit on one of his imported rugs, but aside from that…nothing.
“Why would we be screwed?” he inquired. “Who else knows about this?”
“Nobody. Just me and Cass.”
“Cass? As in Cassie? Well…” He shrugged. “If we keep it that way—”
“Nope. I’m not asking her to lie for you. And motherfucker, I amnotgoing to a federal prison for you.”
“Why would it come to that?” He tightened his brow even harder. “Are you going to report me to the FTC? Jesus. I made tens of millions of dollars doing this—millions you were able to reinvest into the company.”
“Stop,” I snapped as I got to my feet and darted behind the armchair, putting it between us like a shield. “I actually can’t listen to this anymore. I can’t.” I shook my head.
“Relax.”
“You are so out of your depth,” I bit as I backed towards the kitchen. “We’re going to beskeweredfor this, and the company is going to burn to the ground. You know that, right?”
“This is so dramatic,” Alex insisted with one of those classic, nonchalant waves of his hand. He began to walk towards me, but I held up my hand.
“Stop.”
“Are you serious?”
“Stay the fuck away from me. I don’t want to know who you sold it to orwhy. Not until I get a lawyer.”