Chapter 12 - The Silent Exodus
I didn't take the car.
I took the small, private boat I had rented months ago, keeping it docked in the quiet cove behind the cottage.
I left a letter on the kitchen table—not an explanation, but an inventory.
I took nothing that belonged to the empire.
I took nothing that belonged to the Net.
I left with only our daughter and the thumb drive that held the key to the entire city’s financial secrets.
I sailed into the darkness, the cottage disappearing behind me.
I felt a surge of freedom so intense it brought tears to my eyes.
I wasn't going to hide.
I was going to expose it all.
I reached the mainland, driving straight to the offices of the only person I trusted: the investigator who had helped me track the initial fraud.
We sat in the dimly lit office, the drive sitting on the desk like a dormant bomb.
"If you release this, there's no going back," he warned.
"I know," I said.
"This is the end of the line for me, isn't it?"
"It’s a beginning, Claire."
I watched him upload the files.
I watched the progress bar crawl across the screen.
I realized then that I wasn't just destroying Daniel.
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I was destroying the system that had allowed me to be treated like a peasant.
I was ready.
