Chapter 7 - The Mother's Secret
I stared at the glowing red progress bar as it aggressively deleted the only concrete evidence we needed to save Camila.
I frantically typed on the small keyboard, desperately trying to initiate a manual override command to stop the purge.
The system demanded a highly complex, secondary alphanumeric password that I absolutely did not have.
Footsteps suddenly echoed heavily down the wooden stairs leading into the damp, cold wine cellar.
I completely froze and braced myself for my father's wrath, tightly gripping my metal flash drive like a weapon.
My mother rushed quickly around the corner, hiking up her expensive designer gown to move faster in the dark.
She pushed me aside and rapidly typed a long sequence of characters into the hidden server's keyboard.
The angry red warning instantly vanished, replaced by a green confirmation screen that successfully halted the complete data wipe.
I looked at her in absolute shock as the massive file transfer finally began copying directly to my flash drive.
She coldly explained that she had secretly installed a backdoor into his server years ago to monitor his blackmail files.
She had spent years quietly playing the role of the foolish, subservient wife while heavily gathering her own insurance.
The digital transfer finally reached one hundred percent, and I quickly yanked the drive from the server port.
We shared a brief, triumphant smile, deeply realizing we finally possessed the absolute power to destroy my father's empire.
We slowly crept back toward the wooden stairs, intending to casually slip back into the crowded gala upstairs.
Suddenly, the heavy cellar door at the top of the stairs violently slammed shut with a deafening thud.
The sharp sound of the heavy iron deadbolt sliding firmly into place echoed terribly in the dark basement.
Julian slowly walked down the wooden steps, holding a sleek black pistol equipped with a heavy metal silencer.
His pristine white tuxedo was completely ruined by the spilled wine, and his handsome face was twisted into a psychopathic sneer.
He casually aimed the deadly weapon directly at my mother's chest, completely blocking our only route of escape.
He coldly stated that he had never fully trusted my father's foolish assurance that the women in this house were stupid.
He demanded that I hand over the encrypted flash drive immediately, or he would completely blow my mother's heart out.
I slowly reached into my crimson gown, desperately trying to stall for any possible tactical advantage.
My mother suddenly lunged violently forward, aggressively shoving Julian hard against the heavy wooden wine racks.
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The racks violently collapsed, burying Julian under dozens of heavy glass bottles and spilling dark wine everywhere.
I grabbed my mother's hand and sprinted aggressively up the stairs to violently kick the locked door.
