Chapter 2
Dad pushed me behind him.
The footsteps stopped.
One security officer moved toward the staircase while another covered the hallway.
“Police already cleared the house,” I whispered.
“They missed someone,” Dad said.
A bedroom door creaked open.
A shadow appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Don’t shoot!” a woman cried.
My mother-in-law stepped into the light.
Diane Cole was holding my laptop against her chest.
She wore black gloves.
For months, she had smiled at family dinners and called me the daughter she had always wanted.
Now she looked like a stranger.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
Diane tightened her grip on the laptop.
“I came when Ryan called me.”
“He was beating me.”
“He said you attacked him.”
The security officer took the computer from her.
Diane did not resist.
Dad climbed the stairs and stared at her gloves.
“You weren’t here to help your son.”
Diane’s mouth tightened.
“You don’t know anything about my family.”
“I know you were searching my daughter’s room.”
“I was protecting Ryan.”
“From what?” I asked.
Diane looked directly at me.
“From your father.”
Dad told the officers to search her.
They found a flash drive in her coat pocket.
Diane’s confidence disappeared.
“That isn’t mine.”
“Of course,” Dad said coldly.
My hands began trembling.
Ryan had hurt me for months, but I had kept hoping his cruelty was separate from the strange questions he asked about Dad’s company.
He wanted to know about security contracts.
He wanted names of engineers.
He wanted access codes.
Whenever I refused, he called me disloyal.
Now Diane had been caught stealing from my computer.
“What’s on the drive?” I asked.
Dad handed it to his technology specialist, Marcus Reed.
Marcus connected it to a secure tablet.
Several encrypted folders appeared.
One carried my name.
Another carried Dad’s.
The final folder was labeled Project Ruby.
I looked at my ring.
“What is Project Ruby?”
Dad did not answer.
Diane smiled.
“Tell her, Daniel.”
Moments later, the police returned and took Diane’s statement.
She claimed Ryan had asked her to recover personal financial records because he feared I would empty their joint accounts.
Since she had not forced her way inside, the officers did not arrest her.
Dad was furious.
“She was carrying stolen data.”
“We need proof she copied it,” one officer replied. “For now, we’ll document everything.”
Diane walked toward the door.
Before leaving, she leaned close to me.
“You should have stayed quiet.”
I stepped back.
“Is that what you told Ryan?”
“I told him marriage requires discipline.”
Dad moved between us.
“Come near my daughter again, and you’ll regret it.”
Diane smiled at him.
“You should worry about your own family.”
She left.
Dad took me to my childhood home outside the city.
My mother, Margaret, was waiting on the porch.
She rushed toward me when she saw the bruises.
“Oh, Emily.”
She held me tightly.
For a moment, I felt like a child again.
Then Uncle Victor came out of the house.
Victor was Dad’s younger brother and the chief financial officer of Carter Defense Systems.
Ryan had always admired him.
Too much.
Victor looked at the marks on my shoulder.
“That animal should be buried under the prison.”
Dad watched him carefully.
“Ryan mentioned Project Ruby.”
Victor’s face changed.
Mom noticed.
So did I.
“What is it?” I asked again.
Dad led us into his study and locked the door.
He explained that Project Ruby was an emergency communication system developed for soldiers trapped behind enemy lines.
The transmitter inside my ring was a legal civilian prototype.
But three years earlier, the original military design had been stolen.
The thief had never been identified.
“Why would Ryan know about it?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Dad said.
Victor poured himself a drink.
“This has nothing to do with Emily’s marriage.”
Marcus entered with the flash drive.
“It has everything to do with it.”
He placed the tablet on Dad’s desk.
The encryption had been broken.
The folders contained photographs of restricted company documents, payment records, and private conversations between Ryan and an unknown contact.
One message was dated two weeks before Ryan met me.
Get close to the daughter. She is the easiest path inside.
My stomach turned.
“Our meeting wasn’t an accident,” I whispered.
Marcus opened another message.
Ryan had written, Once she trusts me, the father will follow.
I looked at my wedding ring.
My marriage had not become a trap.
It had been a trap from the beginning.
Dad scrolled through the payment records.
Then he stopped.
Every transfer to Ryan had been approved by someone inside Carter Defense Systems.
The authorization belonged to the chief financial officer.
May you like
Everyone turned toward Victor.
His glass slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor.
