Catching Secrets

Sarah placed the orange **vitamin** C tablet on her tongue, letting it dissolve slowly as she watched Marcus from across the kitchen. He was scrolling through his phone, baseball scores illuminating his face in the dim morning light. The Mets had lost again.

"You're taking those again?" Marcus asked, not looking up. "I thought you said they were placebos."

"Everyone needs a little insurance," Sarah said, forcing lightness into her voice. What she couldn't say: her fingernails were brittle from stress. Her hair was falling out in the shower. Some mornings she woke up with her heart racing so hard she thought it might bruise her ribs.

She'd been working as a corporate **spy** for seven months now, infiltrating the pharmaceutical company that made those vitamins. Marcus thought she was a consultant. He thought the late nights were due to demanding clients. He thought the encrypted files on her laptop were market research.

Their wedding anniversary was next week. Three years. Marcus had bought tickets to a **baseball** game — the Yankees versus the Red Sox — their first date recreated. He'd been planning it for months, secure in his love, confident in their shared history.

Sarah felt like a fraud wrapped in a betrayal dipped in nostalgia.

Her phone vibrated. Her handler. Tomorrow was the drop — she'd finally have the research data that would prove the company's flagship immune-boosting supplement was based on falsified trials. She'd be done. She'd be rich. She'd be free.

"The game's next Saturday," Marcus said, finally meeting her eyes. "I know work's been crazy, but... you'll be there, right?"

The hope in his voice made something fracture inside her chest.

"I wouldn't miss it," she lied.

That night, Sarah sat at her computer, the stolen data files mocking her from the screen. She thought about the people who took these vitamins every day, believing they were protecting themselves. She thought about Marcus, who took them too. She thought about the difference between the lies we tell others and the lies we tell ourselves.

The vitamin tablet had long since dissolved. Only the bitter aftertaste remained.