The Vitamin C Conspiracy

Elena learned the truth about Marcus during a game of padel, the rubber ball echoing their friendship's final heartbeat. They'd been playing weekly for three years, since before the promotion, before she'd made Director of Analytics. His backhand had always been sloppy. Today, every shot landed exactly where she couldn't reach.

"You're getting better," she said, wiping sweat from her forehead.

"Practice." Marcus's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Like you told me—consistency is everything."

He was referring to the vitamin regimen she'd recommended when they'd first met, both of them swimming in the overwhelming current of new parenthood and career pressure. She'd given him her whole routine: C for immunity, D for mood, B-complex for energy. He'd joked about needing them just to survive her workload.

Now she knew better.

The corporate spy report had landed in her inbox that morning: three years of proprietary data leaked to a competitor, traced to an IP address that matched Marcus's home office. Three years of friendship, of playdates and dinner parties, of padel games and shared complaints about management. All while he'd been selling her division's innovations to the highest bidder.

"Your turn to serve," he called from across the court.

Elena weighed the paddle in her hand. She could finish the game, pretend she didn't know, keep swimming in this comfortable delusion. Or she could confront him, lose the friend but keep her dignity.

"Marcus," she said, not serving. "How much did they pay you?"

The silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating. Behind him, the sky turned bruise-purple as twilight settled over the city.

"Enough," he said finally. "It was just business, El. You would've done the same."

"No." She dropped her paddle. "I wouldn't have."

She walked off the court, leaving him standing alone in the fading light. The vitamins in her cabinet at home felt like artifacts from another lifetime now. She'd need something stronger for this particular wound—something that didn't exist in any pharmacy. Something that could repair the particular kind of damage that only friendship betrayed could inflict.

Behind her, Marcus served anyway. The ball hit the wall and bounced back, unanswered.