I lifted the blanket expecting to find proof that my pregnant wife had betrayed me. Instead, I saw her shattered legs, her trembling hands over our unborn child, and the terror my family had buried behind locked doors. Then Clara looked at me and whispered

Chapter 28: The Liquid Assets

Daniel slowly walked toward the table. He looked at Clara, searching her eyes for any sign of the woman who had held his hand in the dark. There was nothing but stone.

He picked up the gold pen. He uncapped it.

"You're right," Daniel said softly, staring at the paper. "Survival is everything."

Instead of signing the document, Daniel slammed the heavy gold pen directly into the tablet terminal on the table—the terminal hosting Dr. Vance’s active network link. At the exact same time, he pulled the encrypted flash drive from his pocket and jammed it into the penthouse’s central climate control system panel near the wall.

"What are you doing?!" Dr. Vance screamed, her oxygen monitor beginning to beep frantically.

"I’m uploading the kill-switch I took from New York," Daniel said, his voice dropping to a freezing whisper. "But I didn't just freeze the bank accounts this time, Doctor. I linked Sarah's data to the global stock exchange. In thirty seconds, Aethelgard’s genetic patents, their research data, and their financial crimes will be broadcast live to every major news outlet and federal regulatory agency on the planet. Your IP is worthless if the whole world owns it."