At 2:41 a.m., the bank detected an attempted login from a hotel near the Chicago airport — not one of the frozen accounts, but a small consulting company registered under Natalie’s name.

The login came from a device Ethan had used before. Martin traced the request: Ethan was trying to move two hundred and eighty thousand dollars into a cryptocurrency exchange.

The bank blocked it for review. He tried a smaller amount. Blocked too.

Then he called Lauren. She answered on speaker, Claire beside her. “Where’s the verification code?” Ethan asked.

“What code?”

“It was sent to your email.”