Chapter 8 - The Hidden Drive
Claire watched the police cruiser disappear into the chaotic Chicago traffic, her heart pounding with raw terror.
She knew Marcus had orchestrated this entire nightmare perfectly to frame Ethan and steal the medical technology.
Wiping her soot-stained face, she slipped away from the busy triage area before the police could ask for her statement.
She hailed a passing taxi, giving the driver the address to Ethan's luxury penthouse on the other side of the city.
When she arrived at the towering residential building, she used the temporary keycard Ethan had given her earlier that morning.
The elevator ride to the top floor felt like an eternity, every floor ticking by like a bomb waiting to detonate.
She stepped into the dark, expansive penthouse, the floor-to-ceiling windows offering a breathtaking view of the city skyline.
"Where would a paranoid billionaire hide his most important secrets?" Claire muttered to herself, searching the massive study.
She tore through mahogany drawers, checked behind expensive paintings, and scoured the endless bookshelves.
Just as panic began to set in, she noticed a silver picture frame resting alone on his pristine desk.
It was a photograph of a beautiful woman with kind eyes—Diane Mercer, the mother Ethan had lost.
Claire picked up the frame carefully, noticing that the back panel felt unusually thick and heavy.
She unlatched the metal clips, removing the velvet backing to reveal a hidden, ultra-thin USB drive taped inside.
A triumphant sob escaped her lips as she carefully pulled the drive free.
This drive contained the offline backups of the main server, proving Marcus was the one who stole the data.
Suddenly, the heavy mahogany door of the study clicked shut, locking from the outside with a terrifying thud.
Claire spun around, clutching the small flash drive tightly against her chest.
Marcus stepped out from the shadows of the hallway, holding a suppressed pistol aimed directly at her heart.
"You are incredibly resourceful, Claire, just like your mother used to be," Marcus said with a chilling smile.
Claire froze, her mind struggling to process the impossible implication of his sinister words.
"How do you know anything about my mother?" she demanded, stepping back until she hit the edge of the desk.
May you like
Marcus chuckled darkly, raising the barrel of the gun to aim directly at her head.
"Because I am the one who made sure she never got the medical treatment she needed twenty years ago," Marcus confessed.
