THE TRASH SON-IN-LAW'S ULTIMATE SYSTEM

THE DIRECTIVE

Chapter 7 – The Directive

The city never slept — it only changed its mask.

From the window of his car, Liam watched the skyline shift between light and shadow, glass and storm. The night had deepened, but the System’s blue thread still pulsed faintly across his wristwatch, leading him toward something that refused to be buried.

He parked at the edge of the financial district, where glass towers rose like silent judges. Inside one of them — the Hunt family’s private data division — the real power of their empire lived. Not in money or land, but in information. Every secret, every deal, every betrayal ran through the Hunt servers like blood through veins.

Liam entered using his personal clearance. The biometric scanner recognized his print, his pulse, his tone. The door hissed open.

Inside, the room was dark except for the faint hum of hundreds of data cores. Streams of encrypted code drifted across transparent screens, like whispers of hidden lives. He didn’t turn on the lights. He didn’t need to. The System adjusted automatically, its interface painting soft blue light over his face.

> TRACE — EMMA HUNT: Initiating Sequence...

The code began to unravel — thousands of fragments assembling like shattered glass returning to form. Her name appeared again and again in archived transmissions, corporate files, and buried messages. But one stood out.

> [Access Log: Level Black]

Location: Hunt Research Division – Sublevel 3

Time Stamp: Three days before disappearance

He narrowed his eyes. Sublevel 3 was off-limits even to him. Only the board and Damian had clearance there.

The System pulsed again.

> Warning: Unauthorized Access May Trigger Detection. Proceed?

Liam’s expression didn’t change. “Proceed.”

The code opened like a wound. For a moment, he saw a flash — Emma standing in a white lab, speaking to someone whose face the feed couldn’t identify. Then static. Then silence.

He exhaled slowly, the calm settling back over him like armor.

She’d been inside the family’s most restricted facility. And she hadn’t walked out.

A soft click broke the silence.

Liam didn’t turn. He’d already heard the footsteps.

“Still digging into ghosts, little brother?” Damian’s voice floated from behind him, carrying that same easy mockery. The faint scent of his cologne mixed with the metallic air of the servers.

Liam didn’t look back. “You should update your security protocols. They’re full of holes.”

Damian chuckled, stepping closer. “Or maybe I leave them that way to see who’s stupid enough to test them.”

He circled slowly, eyes catching the blue reflection of the data screens. “You’ve been restless lately. The board notices things like that. Father especially.”

Liam shut down the screen, the glow fading instantly. “Is that supposed to worry me?”

“It should.” Damian’s tone shifted, almost lazy. “The family doesn’t like uncertainty. You of all people should know that.”

“I’m not uncertain,” Liam said softly. “I’m patient.”

Damian studied him for a moment — the kind of look predators give each other before deciding whether to strike. “Patience is a dangerous thing when it turns into obsession. Careful not to cross that line, Liam. Obsession looks a lot like betrayal.”

Their eyes met — silent, sharp, unblinking.

Then Damian smiled again, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Father wants you at the estate tomorrow night. There’s a dinner. New investors, new faces. Be there — and try to look like you still belong.”

He left without another word.

The moment the door shut, Liam reopened the System feed manually — only this time through a separate encrypted drive.

The data fragment from Sublevel 3 replayed again, slower, clearer. And there — hidden in the static — was a faint symbol burned into the corner of the video. A sigil.

Emma’s personal encryption mark.

But next to it, another symbol appeared — one belonging to the Hunt Board, the highest internal division.

She had been working with the Board… or against them.

The System flickered.

> [New Data Node Detected: Unknown Source]

Coordinates Attached. Playback Authorized?

Liam hesitated only for a moment, then tapped Yes.

The screen brightened, projecting a live satellite view of the industrial docks. Among rows of containers, one was highlighted — a glowing red marker pulsing in sync with his heartbeat.

Then a voice cut through the feed. Not Emma’s. A man’s voice, calm and smooth.

> “Mr. Hunt. We’ve been waiting for you.”

Liam froze. The signal was coming from his own location — someone had hijacked the System mid-trace.

The lights in the room flickered, and for a split second, the entire data center went dark. When power returned, a small object lay on the console — a black data card, unfamiliar, freshly placed.

He picked it up. No fingerprints. No labels. Just one engraved word on the back:

“Truth.”

The System pulsed again, urgent this time.

> Directive Update:

TRACE — ACTIVE INTERFERENCE DETECTED.

Source: Internal.

Liam slid the data card into his inner pocket, expression unreadable. He already knew what it meant — someone inside the Hunt family was watching every move he made. Maybe Damian. Maybe his father. Or maybe Emma herself, still playing a deeper game.

He left the building before the system’s security protocols rebooted, moving through the rain-slick streets until the estate’s lights were nothing but reflections in puddles.

Inside the car, the blue threads of the System reappeared across the windshield — only now they didn’t form a path. They formed a question.

> “Who do you trust, Liam?”

He didn’t answer. He never did.

But for the first time, he wasn’t sure of the reply.

As he drove into the storm, lightning flickered over the skyline, illuminating the Hunt logo atop the central tower — a symbol of dominance, of control.

And beneath it, hidden in code, Emma’s sigil burned faintly like rebellion itself.

Liam’s voice was low, almost a whisper.

“Then let’s find out.”