Chapter 12 - $143 MILLIONNobody moved.
The number on the screen was impossible.
One hundred forty-three million dollars.
Money I had never seen.
Money I had never touched.
Money that now apparently belonged to me.
“Turn it off,” I whispered.
Daniel shook his head.
“We can't.”
“Why?”
“The system is external.”
Dad stared at the screen.
“This is a setup.”
“Yes.”
“For Taylor.”
“Yes.”
Grandmother remained calm.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“This is bigger than Northbridge.”
The screen refreshed.
Names began appearing.
Banks.
Corporations.
Trusts.
Political organizations.
Private accounts.
Millions of dollars moving.
Every transaction showed my name.
Daniel whispered,
“They're transferring everything.”
“Can we stop it?”
“Maybe.”
“How?”
“We need the original archive.”
“Where?”
Grandmother looked at me.
“With you.”
I frowned.
“What?”
She reached into her coat and removed a tiny key.
“This opens a safe.”
“Where?”
“Your old bedroom.”
We ran upstairs.
Behind the closet panel was a second compartment.
Inside sat a metal box.
I inserted the key.
The lock opened.
Inside was a single hard drive.
And a handwritten note.
FOR TAYLOR.
I unfolded it.
My grandmother's handwriting.
You were never the mistake.
You were the contingency.
I looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
She said nothing.
Daniel connected the hard drive.
Files appeared.
Thousands.
Then one folder caught my eye.
PROJECT TAYLOR
I opened it.
There were records from before I was born.
Northbridge had been planning for me since my mother's pregnancy.
They had created my identity.
They had designed my bank accounts.
They had tracked my development.
But then I saw something impossible.
A document dated seventeen years ago.
TERMINATION ORDER
My name.
Status:
FAILED
Reason:
PATERNAL INTERFERENCE
I looked at Daniel.
“What is this?”
He stared.
“It means someone tried to eliminate you.”
Dad stepped forward.
“I stopped them.”
I turned toward him.
“You knew?”
“I knew they were planning something.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was terrified.”
I started crying.
Not because I felt weak.
Because for the first time, I understood that Dad's silence had never been simple.
He had been trying to protect me.
Badly.
Too late.
But maybe genuinely.
Then another file opened automatically.
A video.
Grandmother appeared on screen, younger.
She looked into the camera.
“If you're watching this, Taylor has finally been brought home.”
I stared.
She continued.
“Your mission was never to destroy Northbridge.”
I swallowed.
“It was to inherit it.”
I looked at Grandmother.
“You wanted me to become them.”
She nodded.
“Until you learned enough to destroy them.”
The room went silent.
“Why me?”
“Because everyone else was compromised.”
“And I'm not?”
“No.”
She pointed at the camera.
“Because I removed you from the system three years ago.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Grandmother smiled.
“You think you disappeared.”
May you like
She leaned closer.
“I was the one who made you disappear.”
