Chapter 4
Two days later, the annual Sterling Charity Gala was in full swing. The ballroom was a sea of silk, diamonds, and champagne. Richard Sterling stood at the podium, smiling for the cameras, the picture of a philanthropic billionaire.
No one noticed Sarah slipping through the service entrance, dressed not in her usual haute couture, but in stealthy black tactical gear. She had left Leo safely hidden with Silas. Tonight wasn't about surviving; it was about destroying.
Using Silas’s bypassed security codes, Sarah infiltrated Richard’s private penthouse suite above the ballroom. She moved like a shadow, slipping behind his mahogany desk and shifting the heavy oil painting to reveal the biometric safe. She pressed a silicone mold of Richard’s thumbprint—lifted from his own wine glass hours before the kidnapping—onto the scanner.
The safe clicked open. Inside were stacks of blackmail material, the stolen patents belonging to her father, and a heavily guarded address: a private warehouse by the docks. Elena was there.
Suddenly, the heavy oak doors of the office swung open. Richard stood there, flanked by three armed guards.
"I knew you'd come back, darling," Richard purred, stepping into the room. "You always were too smart for your own good. Hand over the medallion, and maybe I'll let the boy live."
Sarah smiled, a chilling, terrifying expression that made Richard pause. "I don't have the medallion, Richard. And I didn't come here to steal your files."
She held up a small detonator. "I came to wipe the slate clean."
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Before Richard could react, Sarah pressed the button. The server room adjacent to the office exploded into flames, instantly destroying Richard's off-the-books financial ledgers, his blackmail network, and his offshore routing codes. The empire was burning.
In the chaos, Sarah shattered the floor-to-ceiling window, grabbed the zip-line she had rigged earlier, and leapt into the New York night, leaving Richard screaming in the smoke.
