Kendall sat on the floor with her face in her hands. That evening, Hartwell placed me on paid administrative leave while its legal team investigated. I told Kendall I had helped because I wanted my little sister to be okay, not because I wanted recognition. She cried and apologized. I put my arm around her, although I couldn’t pretend what she had done was harmless.

Three weeks later, Hartwell’s review found that I had missed manually locking my screen, but otherwise followed security procedures. The company rolled back the faulty update. The client suffered no material harm, and Kendall avoided criminal charges after signing an affidavit and posting a public apology. She lost two major sponsors and nearly forty thousand followers. Her studio partners abandoned the project, and the loft was eventually leased to a dentist. Two months later, Kendall came to my apartment with another folder. This time, she wanted me to honestly review a much smaller business plan.