Chapter 4 - THE TAPE UNWINDS, The high-definition video feed lit up the massive wall screen.
The timestamp on the bottom corner showed 4:15 PM Yesterday.
The room on the screen was the nursery. Maya was sitting on the floor, holding Oliver, who was coughing violently. Evelyn was standing over them.
The audio was crystal clear.
“Sign the custody relinquishment form, Maya,” Evelyn’s recorded voice echoed through the boardroom, loud, cold, and cruel. “Sign it, and I will give you five million dollars to walk away. You will leave Ryan, and you will leave Oliver.”
“He’s my son!” Maya’s voice screamed from the speakers. “He can’t breathe, Evelyn! Give me the inhaler!”
“He will breathe when you sign,” Evelyn said on the screen. She was holding the blue inhaler in her gloved hand. She walked over to the dresser, opened a small vanity drawer, dropped the inhaler inside, and locked it with a key.
The board members gasped. Several of them sat back in their chairs, looks of utter disgust spreading across their faces.
“You’re crazy!” Maya threw herself at Evelyn to reach the key. Evelyn turned and shoved Maya with full force. Maya’s head slammed against the sharp wooden corner of the changing table, blood spouting instantly from her nose as she collapsed onto the carpet.
Evelyn then methodically knocked over a lamp, scattered medicine bottles across the table, twisted the blue blanket to make it look like a struggle, and calmly took her place by the dresser—seconds before Ryan walked through the front door.
The video cut off.
The silence in the boardroom was absolute. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.
Evelyn stood frozen at the head of the table. Her face had gone completely grey, the mask of flawless perfection shattering into dust.
“That... that video is a deepfake,” Evelyn stammered, her voice losing its icy control for the very first time. “Ryan used AI technology to construct that—”
“The digital signature is verified by the FBI cyber crimes division, Evelyn,” Ryan said, his voice ringing with pure steel. “I sent it to the District Attorney fifteen minutes ago. Warrant for your arrest on charges of attempted manslaughter, child endangerment, and evidence tampering is being signed as we speak.”
Two uniformed officers pushed through the double doors of the boardroom.
“Evelyn Whitmore, you are under arrest.”
As the officers grabbed Evelyn’s arms, she turned her head toward Ryan, her eyes burning with a terrifying, venomous rage. “You think you’ve won, Ryan? You think this ends with me? Ask your precious wife about Project Genesis. Ask her why her father died in my husband’s car twenty years ago!”
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Ryan’s heart dropped. He looked at Maya.
Maya was trembling, her hands clamped over her mouth, tears streaming down her face—not from relief, but from pure, unadulterated terror.
