Chapter 13 - The Last Password.
Nathan ran from the boardroom toward the server room while Claire called the chief technology officer.
The deletion counter continued climbing.
Contracts vanished.
Financial archives disappeared.
Product designs became inaccessible one folder at a time.
Dominic remained beside the table as if he were watching rain fall outside a window.
"Stop it," Claire said.
He looked at her almost peacefully.
"I can't."
"You started it."
"And you froze everything."
"You stole from us."
"I built this company while you traveled around pretending to be your father."
The cruelty of the sentence was familiar now.
It no longer had the power he expected.
Claire stepped closer.
"My father built the foundation."
She pointed toward the dark monitors.
"I built the rest with you."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"You never gave me what I deserved."
"You had a salary, bonuses, stock options, a home, and a family."
"I had permission."
His voice rose.
"Everything belonged to you, and I had to ask."
Claire finally understood the center of his resentment.
Dominic did not want partnership.
He wanted possession.
Nathan returned twenty minutes later soaked in sweat.
"We isolated the network."
Claire looked at him.
"How much did we lose?"
"We don't know yet."
The chief technology officer appeared behind him.
"The backups are encrypted."
"Can we restore them?"
He hesitated.
"The master key was moved yesterday."
Every eye turned toward Dominic.
He smiled.
"I told you."
Rachel stepped forward.
"Where is the key?"
"Ask Claire."
"I don't have it."
"Then I guess you're not as prepared as you think."
Security entered the boardroom and informed Dominic that his building access had been revoked.
Before leaving, he leaned close to Claire.
"You can have the house, the children, and the empty company."
Claire did not respond.
He walked away.
That afternoon, investigators located the metal cash box in the trunk of Dominic's car after it was parked in the company garage.
Inside were passports, banking tokens, and a flash drive.
Mia's passport was there.
The international transfer token was there.
The master encryption key was not.
Rachel managed to halt the one-point-eight-million-dollar wire before final settlement.
It was a victory, but the company still faced catastrophic data loss.
Claire returned to the hotel after midnight.
Leo was awake, sitting cross-legged on the bed with his stuffed dinosaur.
"Did you beat Daddy?"
Claire sat beside him.
"This isn't about beating him."
"He said you always have to win."
Claire brushed his hair from his forehead.
"Sometimes winning means keeping people safe."
Leo thought about that.
Then he crawled off the bed and opened his small backpack.
"I took something else."
Claire's heart stopped.
"From where?"
"Daddy's desk."
Leo pulled out a tiny black USB drive.
A strip of red cake frosting had dried along one side.
"He dropped it when the cake fell."
Claire stared at it.
May you like
Leo held it toward her.
"Is this important too?"
