Five years after I buri:ed my husband, I visited a colleague and stepped into a bright nursery—only to see Daniel Mercer standing there alive. The man I had mourned was holding a baby bottle, while my mother-in-law fussed over another woman and her newborn like this was a normal family scene. Daniel looked at me, turned white, and dropped the bottle onto the floor. That was when I understood the coffin had been empty. Before nightfall, the lie that protected his entire family would destroy them all.

Miller collapsed onto the pavement before I could even scream.

I knew there was nothing I could do for him.

I ran to the blue sedan, started the engine, and sped away just as sirens wailed in the distance.

I had a car, but I had no money, no safe haven, and a target on my back.

There was only one way to clear my name.

I had to steal the original ledger from the local server at Voss Financial before they could wipe the drives.

It was nearing midnight when I parked two blocks from the headquarters.

The glass skyscraper loomed in the dark.

Using my employee badge, I slipped through the loading dock doors, bypassing the main security desk.

I knew the night shift guards did rounds every thirty minutes.

I had fourteen minutes to get in and out of the server room on the tenth floor.

I took the service stairs, my heart pounding in my ears.

I swiped my badge at the server room door, praying they had not deactivated it yet.

The lock clicked green.

I slipped inside the freezing, humming room.

I plugged my encrypted flash drive into the main terminal and initiated the download.

A progress bar appeared on the screen, slowly ticking toward one hundred percent.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

I smelled an expensive, familiar perfume.

"You always were too brave for your own good, Elena," a soft voice echoed from the shadows.

I turned around to find Sophie standing in the aisle between the server racks.

“Which daughter is yours?” should have been a harmless question

The first wineglass shattered at 8:07 p.m

The moment the mafia boss’s wife called me “an illiterate servant,”

She was not holding a baby anymore.

She was holding a silenced pistol, and her hands were perfectly steady.

Chapter 6 - The Server Room