My husband kissed our eight-year-old son goodnight after poisoning us at the dinner table, stepped over my body, and whispered into his phone, "It's done. Soon they'll both be gone

The footsteps stopped directly outside the office door.

A keycard beeped. The handle turned, and the door swung open.

Two men in unbadged black tactical gear stepped into the room, flashlight beams cutting through the darkness. The leader held a heavy duffel bag—the tools to dismantle and physically destroy the server infrastructure.

"Check the desk," the first man muttered, his voice muffled by a face mask. "Julianna said the physical backup is behind the painting. Wipe the drives, melt the chips with the acid kit, and let's get out of here."

As the second man turned toward the safe, he spotted Victoria hunched over the glowing cloner. "Hey! What the—"

Before he could raise his flashlight, I stepped out from behind the door and slammed the heavy bronze statuette into the back of his knee with every ounce of strength I had left.

The man grunted in pain, his leg buckling as he crashed hard against the edge of the mahogany desk. His flashlight clattered across the floor, illuminating the room in stark, chaotic angles.

"Victoria, go!" I screamed.

clear of the secondary guard, who lunged for her, snatching the cloner drive just as the progress bar hit 100%. "I’ve got the data!"

The leader recovered quickly, grabbing my wrist with a iron grip and twisting my arm behind my back, shoving me hard down onto the desk. Pain flared through my shoulder, but I didn't cry out. I grabbed a heavy glass pen holder from the desk and jabbed it backward into his ribcage.

He hissed, loosening his grip just enough for me to duck under his arm. I kicked the fallen flashlight toward Victoria. "RUN!"

We burst into the hallway just as the elevator doors opened again. But this time, it wasn't more hitmen.

Standing in the hallway, flanked by four armed state troopers, was Detective Marcus Vance—no relation to Ethan, but the lead investigator assigned to my case.

"POLICE! DON'T MOVE!" Marcus bellowed, his gun trained on the two men emerging from Ethan's office.

The two mercenaries froze, raising their hands slowly into the air as the troopers rushed past us, tackling them to the floor and slapping zip-ties around their wrists.

I leaned against the hallway wall, panting, my chest heaving as Victoria held the black cloner drive safely against her chest.

Detective Vance walked up to us, holstering his weapon, looking at me with a mixture of shock and deep respect. "Mrs. Vance. When your sister told me you pulled an vanishing act from the hospital, I had a feeling you'd end up here."

"Did you catch them?" I gasped, reaching out to support myself. "The audio... the poison vial in the safe... it's all there."

"We didn't just catch these two," Detective Vance said, a grim smile spreading across his face. "Ten minutes ago, internal affairs executed a search warrant on Assistant District Attorney Mercer's office. We intercepted the wiretap between Julianna and her father trying to quash your case. It's over, Claire. They're all down."

I looked at Victoria, who gave me a tight, triumphant nod.