A terrified maid was days from eviction when her billionaire employer discovered three months of missing wages. The money hadn’t vanished—it had been rerouted, and the name on the next phone call turned the theft into a family nightmare.

The sunlight filtering through the colonnade suddenly felt freezing cold.

Nathaniel turned, looking back through the glass doors. Rosa was laughing, pinned between two proud mothers from her old neighborhood. Sofia was waving at him, holding up a bouquet of yellow roses she had picked from the stage.

"What do you want, Victoria?" Nathaniel hissed into the phone, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the device. "Julian is convicted. The accounts are seized. The game is over."

"The game hasn't even begun, darling," Victoria Vance replied, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper that sent pure dread through Nathaniel’s veins. "You took Julian’s freedom. You gave Mateo Martinez's daughter fifty-one percent of my company. You thought you buried the past, Nathaniel, but you only dug up the decoy."

"What are you talking about?"

"Julian didn't steal that money to buy racehorses or yachts, Nathaniel," Victoria said calmly. "He stole it to pay my extraction fee. And now, I am standing in the port of Los Angeles."

Nathaniel’s blood ran cold. His eyes darted frantically across the auditorium, scanning the exits, the security guards, the crowd of hundreds of innocent people.

"Stay away from them," Nathaniel growled, starting to move toward the glass doors to reach Rosa and Sofia. "If you touch Rosa or Sofia, I will burn down every shadow account you have left on this planet."

"Oh, I’m not going to touch them, Nathaniel," Victoria murmured, her voice dripping with venomous amusement. "I don't need to. Check Sofia’s backpack, darling."

Nathaniel stopped dead in his tracks.

Across the room, Sofia was setting down her flowers, picking up the small pink backpack she carried everywhere—the backpack she had brought with her from the car, the one she had left sitting unattended on the lobby table during the opening speeches.

"Sofia's backpack?" Nathaniel choked out.

"A little gift from her real grandmother," Victoria whispered. "A legacy from the Vance family that will ensure Mateo Martinez’s bloodline never speaks our name again."

Through the phone, Nathaniel heard the distinct, mechanical click of a radio-frequency trigger being engaged.

Inside the auditorium, Sofia pulled open the top zipper of her pink backpack, her little brow furrowing in confusion as she looked down inside.

"Nathaniel?" Rosa called out through the crowd, noticing his pale, terrified expression through the glass doors. "What’s wrong?"

"Sofia! DROP THE BAG!" Nathaniel screamed, throwing his entire body against the glass doors.

Inside the backpack, a small digital timer began to blink red.