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At eight years old, Lily stood in the middle of the polished marble lobby, her small, dirt-streaked toes leaving faint red prints on the floor. Her lungs felt like crushed glass. She had carried nine-year-old Noah—a boy easily twice her weight—for seven long blocks across asphalt heated by the scorching afternoon sun. Her bare feet were blistered and bleeding, but she hadn’t stopped once. Not when her knees buckled. Not when her arms trembled so hard her bones felt like cracking. / Chapter 6 / 8

Chapter 6 - THE FINAL TRAP

Victoria cocked the pistol, pointing it directly at Lily’s forehead.

"You ruined everything, you little parasite," Victoria spat, rain soaking her slicked-back hair. "If you had just let that weakling Noah die in the park, Arthur and I would already control Sterling Global. Now I'm a fugitive, and Arthur is losing his mind!"

"You're a monster!" Lily screamed, shielding the injured Mr. Thomas with her tiny body. "Noah loved you! He called you his new mommy!"

Victoria laughed—a cold, heartless sound that cut through the thunder. "Love doesn't buy yacht clubs or corporate empires, child. Now, say goodbye."

"Wait!" Lily yelled, holding up her hands. "If you kill me, you'll never find the drive!"

Victoria froze, her finger hovering over the trigger. "What drive?"

Lily swallowed hard, bluffing with every fiber of her soul. "The drive Noah gave me! The micro-SD card from his watch! He recorded you and Arthur talking about the poison three days before the park! He put it in my pocket before I carried him!"

Victoria’s eyes narrowed in panic. Arthur had mentioned that Noah had been acting suspicious around his electronics recently!

"Where is it?!" Victoria demanded, taking a step closer.

"It's... it's in the safe box inside the primary hospital vault," Lily said, her voice steady trotz the terror in her chest. "Noah gave me the key code. You take me there, I give you the card, and you let Mr. Thomas live!"

Victoria stared at Lily, trying to spot a lie. But Lily’s expression was stone-cold, forged by years of surviving on the harsh streets.

"Get them in the car," Victoria ordered her men. "If that drive exists, we destroy it tonight. If you're lying to me, girl, I will burn you alive."

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Brett’s hand was still frozen on the brass doorknob, his knuckles turning white as the sheer, suffocating gravity of the room washed over him. The three men in bespoke dark suits didn’t draw weapons; they didn't need to. Their mere physical presence—broad-shouldered, immovable, radiating cold menace—turned the private dining room into an airless vault.

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Ten minutes later, the SUV sped through the rain back toward Saint Jude Memorial Hospital. Victoria held the gun pressed firmly against Lily’s ribcage in the backseat.

What Victoria didn't know was that inside Lily’s pocket was not a drive—but Noah’s smart-tracker wristband, which Lily had slipped into her coat while in his hospital room. And as the car moved, the device was broadcasting a live, real-time GPS signal straight to Richard Sterling’s personal tablet!

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