The dining room exploded into chaos. William paced back and forth, phone pressed to his ear. "I don't care if it's Sunday, get back to the office NOW!" Clara sat frozen in her chair, face pale. "This can't be happening." Uncle Thomas stood by the window. "Ten million dollars. Where are we supposed to get ten million dollars?" Robert was already on his feet, taking charge like he always did. "Everyone calm down. Panicking won't solve anything." "Calm down?" Clara's voice pitched higher. "Our company is being held hostage!" "Which is why we need to think clearly." Robert pulled out his phone. "I have a contact at CyberShield Security. They handle this kind of thing." William stopped pacing. "CyberShield? They're expensive." "Dad, our entire company is encrypted. This isn't the time to worry about cost." Robert was already dialing. Lucas sat in his corner, watching. Grandmother Eleanor looked confused. "What's happening? What's an encryption?" Nobody answered her. Robert steppe

Lucas heard the voices before he even reached the living room.Raised. Desperate. Angry.He stood in the doorway and took in the scene. William slumped in his armchair like someone had physically beaten him, his shirt wrinkled and untucked, tie hanging loose around his neck. The man looked like he'd aged a decade overnight. Clara sat on the edge of the sofa, a tissue clutched in one hand, her other hand twisted in her lap. Uncle Thomas stood by the window with his back to everyone, shoulders rigid.Robert paced. Back and forth, back and forth, like a predator in a cage.Naomi sat alone on the loveseat, staring at the coffee table like it held answers. She hadn't even changed out of her work clothes from yesterday. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, makeup smudged under her eyes.Nobody acknowledged Lucas when he entered. He took his usual spot near the door, close enough to hear but far enough away that they could pretend he wasn't there.William cleared his throat. "CyberS

Morning came with the sound of shouting. Lucas woke to voices drifting up through the floorboards. Angry voices. Desperate voices. The family was already awake, already fighting about what to do next.He checked his phone. 9:47 AM. He'd only slept three hours after staying up until dawn working on Victor's encryption.But it had been worth it. He had what he needed now.Lucas got dressed and went downstairs. The voices got louder as he approached the living room."—absolutely insane if you think I'm going to just sit here and wait!" Clara's voice, shrill and panicked."What other choice do we have?" William sounded exhausted. "We gave Naomi until tonight to decide.""Tonight? We have twenty-four hours left! Twenty-four hours!"Lucas stepped into the doorway. The whole family was there. William looked worse than yesterday. Clara's eyes were red and puffy. Uncle Thomas stood in the corner. Robert sat scrolling through his phone.Naomi sat on the sofa, arms crossed, jaw set. She looked l

Lucas locked his bedroom door and sat down at his desk.The encrypted laptop screen glowed in the dark room. His counter-hack was still running, still probing Victor's defenses, still mapping every vulnerability in the encryption.He had the backdoor. He had the kill switch. One command and all of Wright Industries' data would be restored.But he couldn't use it. Not directly.If Lucas just magically recovered the data, William would ask questions. Robert would ask questions. They'd want to know how. And Lucas had no answers that wouldn't reveal everything.He needed a different approach. Something that looked accidental. Like luck. Like CyberShield stumbling onto something they'd missed.Lucas pulled up the malware structure on his screen. Victor's work was brilliant, he had to admit. Layers upon layers of encryption, false trails, dead ends designed to frustrate anyone trying to break through.But Victor had one weakness. Pride.He'd left his signature all over this attack. Little f

Lucas sat alone in his room, door locked, the world reduced to the glowing screen in front of him.His fingers moved across the keyboard with practiced ease. Muscle memory from years ago, coming back like he'd never stopped. Lines of code scrolled by, algorithms executing, digital pathways opening.This was who he really was. Not the useless son-in-law. Not the invisible ghost haunting the Wright mansion.Zero.The name felt strange in his mind after three years of burying it. Three years of pretending it didn't exist. Three years of being nobody.But tonight, he had no choice.Lucas pulled up the malware structure on his main screen. Victor's work stared back at him, layers of encryption wrapped around Wright Industries' data like a digital fortress.Beautiful, in a way. Victor had always been an artist with code. Where other hackers brute-forced their way through systems, Victor built elegant solutions. Sophisticated. Complex. Almost poetic in their construction.But Lucas knew Vict