Chapter 19 - The Corrupted Archive
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"It's okay, Mrs. Dalton," Ethan said gently, keeping his hands visible as he stepped between the gun and me. "Lower the weapon. You don't have to do this."
Andrew stepped into the room, stepping over the threshold with supreme confidence, his eyes shining with greedy triumph.
"Hand over the heart, Ava," Andrew demanded, extending his hand toward me. "It's over. We have the house surrounded, the server is unlocked, and your little billionaire hero has nowhere left to run."
I looked at Ethan. Then I looked at Lucas.
I took a slow step forward, holding the silver paper heart out toward Andrew.
"You really think you've won, don't you?" I asked softly, my voice filled with a strange, terrifying calm.
"I always win, Ava," Andrew smirked, reaching out his hand to grab the heart. "You should have learned that during our engagement."
As his fingers brushed the silver paper, I smiled.
"Then you should know I never came here to give you the evidence," I whispered. "I came here to trigger the broadcast."
I slammed my thumb down on the tiny hidden button built into the underside of my silver bracelet—the emergency transmitter Ethan had secretly given me six months ago.
Behind us, the server terminal beeped loudly.
"Master override accepted," a synthetic computer voice announced through the overhead speakers. "Initiating public data distribution across all major media networks in 10... 9... 8..."
Andrew’s face drained of all color. "What did you do?!"
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"My mother didn't hide the ledger to hold it for ransom," I shouted over the countdown. "She set it to auto-publish if her sister ever tried to access the system! Every illegal file, every video of your medical malpractice, every bribe Senator Collins ever paid is being live-streamed to the FBI, the Department of Justice, and every news anchor in the country right now!"
"Kill them!" Senator Collins screamed, panicking as he pulled his own gun from his jacket!
