My best mate and I worked the late shift together in a warehouse outside town. One night a shipment went missing ' not just misplaced, but stolen. Management pulled us both into the office and laid the blame squarely on him. I knew he hadn't done it. I also knew exactly who had. But the thief was the supervisor's nephew, and everyone understood how that story would end. I said nothing. I watched my friend argue, shake with anger, swear on his life. They fired him that same night. Outside, under the yellow security lights, he asked me quietly why I hadn't backed him up. I lied again and said I didn't know anything. He never spoke to me after that. I still see his face whenever someone else takes the blame for what I was too afraid to name.