Chapter 3 - The Ghost’s Gambit
Morning brought no clarity, only a cold, hard necessity. I couldn't rely on the law—not when they had already scrubbed my existence. I needed a ghost. I needed someone who operated in the spaces between the digital lines.
I took Lily to my sister’s house—a place Julian didn't know about, a secret I had kept for years just in case of an emergency. My sister, Clara, was a creature of chaos and brilliance, a hacker who had left the high-stakes corporate world to live off the grid.
"They erased you," Clara said, her eyes scanning the data I had salvaged. She whistled low, a sound of genuine respect mixed with terror. "This isn't just a photoshop job, Sarah. This is a deep-state level purge. Whoever did this has the kind of access that makes the NSA look like toddlers."
"Julian is the face of the company," I said, pacing the length of her tiny, cluttered kitchen. "He wouldn't have the technical expertise to do this himself."
"No," Clara agreed, tapping away at a custom terminal. "But he has the motive. And he has the money. Look at this."
She spun the monitor around. A bank account, tied to a shell company in the Cayman Islands, showed a massive influx of capital exactly three years ago—the same day the 'other woman' appeared.
"They're selling you," Clara said softly. "Or rather, they’re selling the life you built. They’re building an empire based on a manufactured image of a perfect family. And you were a loose end that didn't fit the brand identity anymore."
I felt the rage replace the fear. They thought I was a ghost. Well, ghosts were hard to kill because they were already dead to the system.
"Help me take it back," I said.
May you like
Clara looked at me, her expression unreadable. "If we do this, there’s no coming back. We’ll be public enemies to the most powerful man in the city. You’ll be hunted."
"I'm already hunted," I replied, looking toward the living room where Lily was playing with a wooden train set. "The difference is, now I'm going to start hunting back."
