The day my divorce became final, my ex-husband walked out of the courthouse holding his pregnant mistress like he'd just won a prize, while his mother told me I'd never been good enough for him. I slapped her twice, handed his mistress my wedding ring, then climbed into a waiting car carrying the secret that could cost Evan his company, his fortune, and the victory he was already celebrating.

WAAAL! WAAAL! WAAAL!

A deafening, high-pitched federal emergency siren blared through the building's PA system!

The red emergency lights flashed violently as the heavy blast doors at the end of the server room automatically slammed shut, locking Victor, his four armed guards, and all of us inside the subterranean vault!

"What did you do?!" Victor shouted, his composure finally cracking as he whirled around to face the sealed steel doors.

"The server flash drive," I said, stepping forward with a cold, triumphant smile. "While you were busy giving your villain speech, Victor, Kelsey plugged the mirrored drive into the mainframe five minutes ago."

Victor’s face turned white. "You... you executed the upload?"

"We didn't upload your override sequence to the Treasury, Victor," Naomi explained, holding up her tablet screen showing a blue progress bar hitting 100%. "We uploaded your Zurich IP address, your Cayman Islands shell company registries, and your live location directly to the FBI Cyber Crime Division and Interpol."

"And because you cut the main power grid," David added from the booth speaker, "the building's automatic lockdown protocol engaged. These blast doors are made of four-inch reinforced titanium. Not even your mercenaries can breach them."

Heavy metallic thuds began echoing against the outside of the blast doors.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"FEDERAL AGENTS! OPEN THE DOOR!" a voice boomed over heavy megaphones from the outer corridor. "VICTOR STERLING, YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY FULLTON COUNTY SWAT AND FBI TACTICAL UNITS!"

Victor's four armed guards immediately dropped their submachine guns onto the floor, raising their hands in surrender.

Victor stood alone in the center of the room, holding his useless gold-tipped cane, watching thirty years of meticulous planning dissolve into absolute, inescapable ruin.

I walked right up to him, looking him dead in his icy grey eyes.

"My father may have made mistakes, Victor," I said softly. "But he gave me the one thing you could never buy with stolen money."