Chapter 1 - The Ambulance Sirens and the Digital Trap
The sound of the siren outside was deafening, but inside the kitchen, the loudest noise was the hammering of Kaylee’s heart.
Mateo knelt beside her on the cold tile, his hands trembling as he hovered over her swollen belly. The silver catering tray lay discarded, still slick with cooling milk. A sharp, searing contraction ripped through Kaylee, stealing the breath from her lungs. Her water broke in a warm rush against the linoleum.
"Mateo," she gasped, her fingers digging into his forearm until her knuckles turned white. "The baby... he's coming early. The shock..."
"I'm right here, sweetheart. Look at me," Mateo commanded, his voice a steady anchor despite the absolute terror in his eyes. He screamed toward the doorway for the paramedics.
Across the room, Arturo stirred on the floor, groaning from the blow Mateo had landed. As the EMTs rushed through the shattered patio glass with a stretcher, Arturo’s eyes caught Kaylee’s dropped phone on the counter.
The screen was still lit.
DEVICE ONLINE: EXFILTRATION PROTOCOL ENGAGED.
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Arturo’s blood ran cold. The black hard wallet Camila had snatched from the locked drawer wasn't the cold storage containing the millions in tech shares from Kaylee’s late mentor. It was a digital honey-pot—a synchronized tracker rigged with a remote-wipe malware payload designed to ping every node of the family’s shell corporation network the moment it was connected to an unverified device.
Camila hadn't just stolen a fortune; she had plugged a live wire straight into their family’s entire financial empire.
