Chapter 7 - The Setup at the CanneryThe next twenty-four hours felt like walking through a minefield. I acted completely normal, picking up the children, helping Lily with her algebra homework, reading bedtime stories to Rosie, and kissing their foreheads as if nothing was wrong. My heart broke with every smile they gave me, knowing what hung in the balance.

By 11:30 PM, I had tucked the children into bed, leaving a trusted neighbor—an elderly retired nurse named Mrs. Higgins—sleeping on our sofa to watch over them.

I drove out to the abandoned cannery pier in my old sedan, the headlights cutting through the heavy coastal fog rolling in off the dark water. The wind whipped across the rotting wooden planks of the pier, making the rusted corrugated tin walls groan like a dying ship.

I parked at the end of the gravel lot, stepped out of the car, and clutched a padded envelope to my chest. Inside was a flash drive—not the real one, but an identical decoy loaded with a harmless computer virus that would wipe any system it was plugged into.

A sleek black SUV sat idling at the edge of the pier, its headlights off.

The passenger door opened, and the man with the scar stepped out into the damp night air, his overcoat flapping in the wind. Two other men emerged from the back doors, spreading out to flank me on either side.

"I see you came alone, Mrs. Miller," the scarred man said, walking slowly toward me with a predatory grin. "I'm impressed. Most grandmothers would have called the police by now."

"I told you, I want my family left alone," I said, keeping my voice steady, though my pulse roared in my ears. "You get the drive. The children stay out of this."

"Smart woman," the man said, stopping a few feet away and holding out his hand. "Hand it over."

I raised the padded envelope. "Not until you swear on whatever soul you have left that you walk away."

The man chuckled darkly, stepping forward to snatch the envelope from my hand. "You don't get to negotiate, old wo—"

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A blinding flash of white light erupted from the darkness behind the SUV, followed by the deafening crack of a hunting rifle echoing across the water.