Chapter 2 - Sirens and Signals
Mateo’s hands were shaking as he knelt beside me on the slick kitchen tile. His face was pale, his eyes wide with horror as he looked at the burns redly blooming along my left shoulder and forearm.
"Kaylee! Baby, look at me!" Mateo pleaded, his voice cracking. He gently swept my damp hair away from my forehead. "I'm calling an ambulance. Don't move, okay? Just breathe."
"The baby..." I rasped, clutching my stomach as another intense contraction rippled through my lower abdomen. "Mateo, my water broke. I think... I think the shock started labor."
Mateo’s head snapped toward Arturo, who was groaning on the floor, trying to scramble backward toward the patio doors. The sheer fury in my husband's eyes was terrifying. He stood up, towering over my father, grabbing Arturo by the collar of his expensive linen shirt.
"You touch her again, or even breathe near her, and I swear to God you won't walk out of this house," Mateo growled, his voice dropping into a lethal, low register.
"Mateo, stop!" I called out, reaching for his leg from the floor. "Let him go. It doesn't matter. Look at my phone."
Mateo blinked, stepping back from my trembling father. He picked up my phone from the floor, his eyes narrowing as he read the screen.
TRACKING ACTIVE: HARDWARE DECOY V3
LIVE AUDIO TRANSMISSION: CONNECTED
GPS LOCATION: 0.4 MILES NORTH-EAST (IN TRANSIT)
Arturo managed to prop himself up against the lower cabinets, wiping a streak of blood from his lip. He stared at the glowing screen in Mateo's hand, his chest heaving.
"What... what is that?" Arturo stammered, his arrogance completely evaporating.
"It's a hardware wallet, Dad," I whispered, forcing myself to sit up with Mateo's support. The pain in my shoulder was a dull, throb now, completely overshadowed by the tightening in my womb. "Did you really think I'd keep sixty million dollars in tech equity bearer keys in a wooden nightstand drawer?"
Arturo’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.
"That black wallet Camila took contains a encrypted cellular transponder and a specialized digital payload," I continued, wincing as another wave of pressure hit me. "The moment it was removed from the home network's Faraday docking station, it bypassed every security code. It didn't just ping its location to my phone. It opened a direct feed to the server logs of your 'boutique real estate firm.'"
On the screen, text began scrolling at rapid speed.
ACCESSING SECURE SHARES...
OFFSHORE ACCOUNT MATCH FOUND: CAYMAN TRUST #8841
EVIDENCE OF SHELL COMPANY FRAUD IDENTIFIED.
AUTOMATIC FORWARDING TO FINANCIAL CRIMES DIVISION: 45%... 60%...
"No..." Arturo gasped, turning ash-gray. "Shut it off! Kaylee, turn it off right now!"
"Why?" Mateo snapped, pinning Arturo with a glare as distant sirens began to wail down our suburban street. "Because it's showing where you actually put the money you claimed you lost? You didn't have a struggling business. You were laundering capital!"
Out on the lawn, the baby shower guests were finally realizing something was terribly wrong. People were peering through the patio glass, gasping as they saw the overturned pot, the spilled milk, and my father pinned against the cabinets.
The front door burst open. Paramedics rushed into the house carrying a stretcher, followed closely by two uniformed police officers.
"Over here!" Mateo yelled, waving them toward the kitchen. "She's eight months pregnant! Her water broke, and she was burned with boiling liquid!"
Within seconds, my world became a blur of blue uniforms, latex gloves, and the sharp scent of antiseptic. The paramedics carefully lifted me onto the gurney, stabilizing my arm and placing an oxygen mask over my face.
One of the police officers knelt beside Arturo, grabbing his wrists and clicking a pair of steel handcuffs over his joints.
"Arturo Sterling?" the officer asked. "You're being detained for aggravated assault, domestic battery, and attempted extortion."
"Officer, you don't understand!" Arturo shrieked, struggling against the cuffs as he was dragged to his feet. "My daughter set a trap! She's hacking our corporate servers! Stop her phone!"
The officer looked at my father as if he had lost his mind. "Sir, your daughter is going to the delivery room. Shut your mouth."
As they wheeled my gurney toward the front door, I held onto Mateo’s hand with everything I had. The pain in my abdomen was sharpening, coming every three minutes now.
"Mateo," I whispered beneath the oxygen mask, sliding my unlocked phone into his coat pocket. "Don't close that app. Let it finish uploading. Camila and Mom are heading to the private airfield on the north side of town. That's where they arranged to meet their broker."
Mateo kissed my forehead, his face set like concrete. "I won't let them get away with this, Kaylee. I'm coming to the hospital with you, and my brother is already meeting the police at the airport."
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As the ambulance doors slammed shut, I closed my eyes, focusing on the small, miraculous kick against my ribs from inside my belly.
My baby boy was fighting to come into the world. And I was going to make sure the world he entered was completely free of the monsters who shared my blood.
