The billionaire's fiancée pushed the maid's little girl away from the piano—but one look into the child's eyes shattered the wedding. The little girl wasn't stealing anything.

Chapter 5: The Snake in the House

Upstairs in the master suite, Vanessa paced the length of the Persian rug, her perfectly manicured nails digging into her palms. The mask of the jealous, entitled fiancée had completely evaporated. In its place stood the cold, calculating corporate mercenary she truly was. She pressed a burner phone tightly to her ear, watching the treeline bordering the estate.

"He knows," Vanessa hissed into the receiver, her voice dripping with venom. "He saw the kid. And I finally recognized the maid. It's Martinez. The whistleblower from the Genesis trials. She’s been under our noses this whole time."

A raspy, digitized voice echoed through the speaker. "Is the encrypted drive with her? The FDA approval is tomorrow morning. If that data leaks, we all go to prison, and Caldwell Industries goes up in flames."

"It has to be here. She wouldn't have stayed in this godforsaken house for two years without keeping her leverage close by," Vanessa said, her eyes tracking a security camera on the perimeter. "Send the cleanup crew. Tier One operatives. Make it look like a home invasion gone terribly wrong. The billionaire, the maid, the bastard child. Kill them all and burn the house to the ground."