Keep reading to see what the next chapter brings.

-5-

The holding cell at the downtown precinct was cold, smelling of stale coffee, industrial disinfectant, and the quiet despair of people the world had long since forgotten. But Emma wasn't despairing. She sat on the edge of the narrow metal cot, her eyes fixed on the small wall clock above the heavy iron door.

3:45 AM.

The dead-man’s switch was set for 8:00 AM. That meant she had just over four hours to get out of the precinct, retrieve the physical backup drive hidden beneath the floorboards of her childhood home, and make it to the corporate headquarters before the opening bell on Friday morning.

The heavy door to the holding block rattled. Footsteps approached her cell, accompanied by the jatter of keys.

Emma stood up immediately, stepping into the dim light.

It wasn't a guard. It was Detective Miller. He glanced up and down the empty corridor to ensure the night-shift duty officer was out of sight, then slid a small brass key into the padlock of her cell door.

Click.

The door swung open with a soft groan.

“You’re out of your jurisdiction, Miller,” Emma said quietly, stepping out into the hallway. “If Sterling finds out you let me walk, your badge is gone.”

“Sterling is currently dealing with a massive data breach warning sent directly from your server to the United States Attorney’s Office in Cincinnati thirty minutes ago,” Miller replied, his voice low and urgent as he handed her a small zip-lock bag containing her personal belongings, including her burner phone and car keys. “Your dead-man’s switch triggered a preliminary federal freeze on all Carver Holdings accounts at 3:15 AM.”

Emma took her belongings, her fingers closing tightly around the burner phone. “Then you know I’m telling the truth.”

“I know that if half of what’s in those files is true, half the city government and half of downtown Columbus is going down in flames by noon,” Miller said, handing her a dark wool baseball cap. “Put this on, take the service exit through the underground parking garage, and don't stop for anyone. I’m giving you a forty-minute window before I log this cell as an escaped detainee.”

Emma didn't waste a second. She pulled the cap low over her forehead, slipping her hands into her coat pockets, and followed the detective down the concrete service stairs into the subterranean parking garage.

The air in the garage was damp and filled with exhaust fumes. A single police cruiser sat parked near the exit ramp—the very car Miller had left unlocked for her with the keys resting on the driver’s seat.

Emma slid behind the wheel, started the engine, and eased the cruiser out onto the deserted city streets before the garage security cameras could log her license plate.

Her destination wasn't the corporate office yet.

Before she could destroy Nathan and Celeste legally, she needed the one piece of evidence that could prove her father was still alive—the physical ledger locked inside the false wall of her childhood home on the north side of the city.

The drive took twenty minutes through winding residential streets where the autumn fog clung to the manicured lawns like a shroud. The Carver family estate loomed at the end of the cul-de-sac—a sprawling brick mansion surrounded by wrought-iron gates and security cameras.

Nathan and Celeste thought they owned it now. They thought Emma was safely locked in a police cell or a psychiatric ward.

Emma pulled the unmarked cruiser into the shadows of a neighboring oak tree, cut the lights, and stepped out into the chill morning fog. She walked up to the side service entrance of the mansion, reached behind the decorative stone planter by the back door, and pulled out the physical brass skeleton key her mother had hidden there decades ago.