834 "After My Ex-Husband Framed Me for Corporate Embezzlement by Forging My Signature and Making Me Clean His Executive Floors at Night, His Loyal Assistant Slid Me a USB Drive—Triggering a High-Stakes Underground Chase That Will Destroy His Empire by Monday Morning."

The elevator came to a sudden, jarring halt with a dull metallic thud.

Ding.

The doors slid open. Instead of the quiet concrete pillars of a standard parking garage, the space was bathed in the harsh, blinding glare of high-intensity security lights. Two black luxury sedans were idling near the exit ramp, their exhaust pipes puffing white plumes into the cool night air.

Standing directly in front of the elevator doors was Victor Hale, Northgate’s outside financial adviser, flanked by two burly men in dark suits.

Victor blinked in surprise as he saw me step out of the freight car, clutching my cleaning cart's spare rag like a weapon.

"Eliza?" Victor stared at me, his eyes dropping to the gray custodian uniform, then darting past me into the empty elevator car. "What are you doing down here? Travis said someone broke into the archive terminal—"

"Get out of my way, Victor," I said, my voice shaking with an adrenaline-fueled fury that surprised even me.

Victor took a half-step back, recovering his composure instantly. His face hardened into a mask of corporate calculation. "You were in the archives. You accessed the master server, didn't you?"

"I accessed the truth," I shot back, keeping my hand buried deep in my pocket, my fingers wrapped tightly around the USB drive. "And my lawyer already has a mirrored copy of every single fraudulent transfer you and Travis engineered."

Victor’s eyes narrowed. He didn't look panicked; he looked like a predator who had just cornered a wounded animal. He flicked his wrist toward the two men in suits flanking him.

"Grab her," Victor ordered coldly. "Take the drive. If she thinks she can walk out of here with Northgate’s financial history, she's severely mistaken."