Chapter 4 - The Bait is Taken
The tension in my hospital room was suffocating.
The federal prosecutor, a sharp-eyed woman named Agent Vance, had arrived thirty minutes prior. She had her laptop open, tethered directly to the bank's fraud division.
On my screen, Derek was sweating.
The system I had secretly designed for my father's holding company was complex. It wasn't meant to be easily breached, but I had intentionally left a backdoor open—a digital breadcrumb trail that only someone arrogant enough to think they were a genius would follow.
"Come on, you stupid machine," Derek cursed on the live feed, slamming his fist on the desk.
"Hurry up, Derek!" Marlene snapped, pacing the Persian rug. "The investors will be at the downtown office in twenty minutes. We need to sign the paperwork and leave the country by Friday."
"I'm in!" Derek shouted triumphantly.
He had bypassed the final firewall. The screen on his laptop illuminated his greedy, grinning face.
"Routing the eight million to the Cayman shell company now," he said. "Initiating wire transfer."
He slammed the 'Enter' key.
In the hospital room, Agent Vance’s laptop let out a sharp, piercing ping.
"Got him," Agent Vance said coldly.
"Status?" Elena asked, leaning over the desk.
"Transfer intercepted. IP address logged. The forged digital signatures have been captured," Vance confirmed, her fingers flying across her keyboard to lock the network.
"He just transmitted fraudulent documents across federal banking lines. That's a Class C felony. Times four million in previous theft, plus this attempted eight. He's looking at twenty to thirty years."
On the camera feed, Derek let out a loud cheer, high-fiving his mother.
"It cleared!" he lied to himself, looking at a spoofed confirmation screen I had programmed the system to display. "We're rich, Mom. We never have to deal with that pathetic, crying girl or this miserable company ever again."
"Let's go," Marlene said, adjusting her pearl necklace. "Time to sell the rest of the garbage to the investors."
They walked out of the house, locking the door behind them, convinced they had just pulled off the heist of the century.
I closed my laptop and looked at Elena and Agent Vance.
My knee still hurt. My ribs ached from where he had thrown me. But for the first time in two years, my soul felt completely, powerfully light.
"Can I get dressed now?" I asked the nurse standing by the door.
May you like
Elena smiled. "Where are you going?"
"I'm the majority shareholder of my father's company," I said, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. "I think it's time I attend a board meeting."
