Chapter 6 - The Setup
The rain outside began to slacken, turning from a heavy downpour into a steady, rhythmic mist that tapped against the glass like morse code.
Daniel gently lifted the blanket, slid off the sofa, and scooped Lily up into his arms. The little girl didn't wake; she simply shifted her weight, burying her face sleepily against his shoulder with an instinctive trust that made his throat tighten.
He carried her down the long, dimly lit marble corridor toward the staff quarters in the east wing.
The estate was silent except for the grandfather clock. When Daniel reached the door to Maria Torres’s quarters, he saw a sliver of warm light spilling out from beneath the crack.
He didn't knock.
With his free hand, he twisted the brass handle and pushed the door open.
Maria sat at a small wooden desk under a single desk lamp, her fingers flying across a laptop keyboard that looked entirely out of place in the rustic quarters. On the screen, a encrypted chat interface flickered with green text lines—a live transmission channel.
She froze, her hands hovering inches above the keys as she spun around in her chair.
When she saw Daniel standing in the doorway holding her sleeping daughter, the color drained entirely from her face, leaving her skin the color of skim milk.
"Mr. Hail..." she whispered, her voice trembling before she could catch it. "I... she must have wandered out. I was looking for her—"
"She didn't wander out, Maria," Daniel said, his voice terrifyingly calm, devoid of the jagged anger she must have expected. "She came to find me."
Maria swallowed hard, her eyes darting frantically toward the open laptop screen where the chat window was still active.
"Put her down," Maria murmured, stepping forward with her hands raised defensively, though her fingers twitched toward her pocket. "Please. Just put her down. You don't understand—"
"I understand completely," Daniel interrupted, taking a slow step into the room. He gently lowered Lily onto her small cot, pulling the quilt up over her shoulders before straightening back up to his full height.
He looked at Maria with a cold, absolute clarity that he had never possessed before.
"You were hired by Marcus Vance to plant a hardware relay on the estate's legacy terminal," Daniel said evenly. "You uploaded our pricing models to Vanguard Global three months ago. And tonight, you were preparing the final transfer file—the one that gives them legal control over our intellectual property rights once the board votes me out tomorrow morning."
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Maria’s face hardened, the mask of the humble household manager slipping away to reveal the cold calculation of a professional operative.
"You can't prove any of that," she hissed quietly, glancing back at the laptop. "The transmission will finish uploading in ninety seconds, Mr. Hail. By morning, you won't just be out as CEO. You'll be facing federal indictments for corporate negligence and data sabotage. Marcus made sure the digital signature points directly to your personal terminal."
