flash
The audio file on Marina’s phone was timestamped three minutes ago. Ignacio’s thumb hovered over the screen, trembling so violently he nearly dropped the device into the crib. / Chapter 4 / 20

Chapter 4 - The Flash Drive Revelation

Dr. Silva lunged forward, his scalpel slicing through the air toward Ignacio’s chest. Ignacio dodged to the side, the blade tearing through the fabric of his sleeve. He slammed his shoulder directly into Dr. Silva’s midsection, sending the older man crashing backward into a row of steel lockers with a deafening metallic bang.

Ignacio didn't hesitate. He vaulted over Silva, sprinted down the service corridor, burst through the exit doors into the pouring rain, and dove into his truck. He jammed the key into the ignition, tires screeching as he peeled out of the parking lot just as hospital security guards flooded the exit.

Safe inside his locked truck, Ignacio pulled out his laptop, plugged the silver USB drive into the port, and watched the screen flicker to life.

The drive contained a single encrypted folder labeled Project Hephaestus. Ignacio clicked it open. Inside were digital ledgers, bank transfers routed through offshore accounts, and—most damning of all—recorded Zoom meetings between Dr. Silva and the hospital board discussing illegal drug trials administered to pregnant women.

And right there in the folder was a video file titled Marina’s Final Entry.

Ignacio clicked play. Marina appeared on the screen, sitting at her hospital desk, looking pale but resolute.

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"If you're watching this, Ignacio, it means I didn't survive," Marina said, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "Silva and his investors are laundering money through experimental maternity treatments. They induced me early to stop me from whistleblowing. They injected me with a fatal compound disguised as a routine booster. But my baby... they didn't know I managed to administer an antidote to the infant through cord blood extraction just before I flatlined. April carries the formula in her blood. That’s why they’re hunting us. They need her to destroy the evidence."

Ignacio stared at the screen, the breath knocked completely out of his lungs. His daughter wasn't a curse. She was the key to bringing down a criminal empire—and the living embodiment of Marina’s final fight.

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