Chapter 5 - The Cloud Drive
Marcus lost all the color in his face.
His deepest, most painful secret was suddenly exposed to the world.
Vanessa smiled in triumph.
"You cannot save her, Marcus."
"Sign the deed to the estate and the company over to me right now."
"If you do, I will let the maid and the brat run away."
"If you refuse, I give this file to the press, the maid goes to jail, and the abusive father takes the kid."
Marcus clenched his fists in helpless rage.
I closed my eyes, trying to think of a way out.
Then a sudden memory hit me like a lightning bolt.
My stolen cell phone was cheap, but it had a feature I set up years ago.
Every single photo taken on that phone automatically uploaded to my hidden cloud drive.
I looked across the garage at the glowing screen of Marcus's smart car dashboard.
I lunged forward, dodging Marta's gun, and dove into the open driver's seat of the car.
Marta screamed and aimed her weapon.
Marcus tackled Marta to the concrete floor before she could pull the trigger.
I locked the car doors and rapidly typed my cloud login into the car's web browser.
The screen loaded my photo gallery.
The newest photos were taken yesterday afternoon.
They were selfies.
But they were not pictures of Vanessa.
The photos showed a man holding my phone, laughing as he transferred the bank funds.
He was kissing Vanessa on the cheek in the background.
I rolled down the window just enough to scream.
"Vanessa didn't steal the money!"
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"It was your brother, Julian!"
The sound of slow, mocking applause echoed from the dark corner of the garage.
