Chapter 92

No.1

August kept his arm firmly around Allena as they crossed the precinct lobby. His jaw was locked tight. He scanned the chaotic room, his eyes sweeping past the vagrants and the shouting lawyers.

Then, his gaze landed on the far corner. He saw Elisa standing there.

August's footsteps faltered. His brow furrowed in deep confusion. He had no idea why she was here.Allena followed his gaze. The second she saw Elisa,she gasped loudly. She immediately buried her face into August's chest, her shoulders shaking as she let out a series of loud, theatrical sobs.

Trailing right behind them was Tate, flanked by a pale,trembling private chauffeur. The seven-year -old boy was wearing a designer jacket. A tiny,cartoon-themed band-aid was stuck to his forehead. He did not look traumatized. He looked bored and incredibly arrogant.

Elisa did not look at August. She did not look at Allena.

She gently tucked the jacket tighter around Kayden's shivering body. She stood up. Her spine was perfectly straight. She walked across the pale linoleum floor, her boots making sharp, rhythmic clicks that cut through the background noise.

She stopped exactly three feet away from the group.

She locked her dead eyes onto Tate.

"Did your driver run the red light in the McLaren?"Elisa asked. Her voice was flat, carrying the mechanical precision of a lie detector.

No.2

Tate flinched.He quickly ducked behind Allena's legs. He peeked his head out, stuck his tongue out at Elisa, and yelled, "Her junk car got in our way!She tried to kill me!"

Allena immediately lifted her head from August's chest. Her eyes were perfectly red, but devoid of actual tears.

"Did you hear that, August?" Allena cried,her voice echoing in the lobby. She pointed a shaking finger at Elisa. "She is so jealous of me! She ordered her friend to ram into the car my little brother was in!It was attempted murder!"

August's face darkened. The confusion vanished,replaced by a thick, suffocating layer of disgust.He looked at Elisa as if she were a piece of rotting garbage on the floor.

"I knew you were vindictive, Elisa," August sneered,his voice dripping with absolute contempt. "But trying to kill a seven-year-old boy? You have reached a new level of despicable."

Elisa stared at him. A cold, hollow laugh bubbled up from her throat.

She pulled out her phone and held up the photo of

the crushed SUV.

"Are you completely devoid of basic physics,August?" Elisa asked, her voice vibrating with lethal mockery. "The impact crater is on the side of Jewel's car. The McLaren hit them. Not the other way around."

No.3

Jewel stood up from the bench. She ignored the pain in her head and pointed at Tate.

"Their driver was doing eighty in a thirty zone!"Jewel screamed across the room. "They blew straight through the red light! They hit us!"

Several police officers in the lobby turned their heads. The two cops guarding Jewel shifted uncomfortably. The skid marks at the scene perfectly matched Jewel's statement, and they knew it.

Before the tension could escalate, the precinct doors opened again.

Simon, August's lead executive assistant, hurried into the lobby. He was carrying a sleek leather briefcase. He walked straight to August and leaned in, whispering rapidly into his ear.

August gave a single, sharp nod.

Simon immediately turned and walked toward the precinct captain, who had just stepped out of his office. Simon handed the captain a thick folder stamped with the gold crest of the Chambers Group.

The captain opened the folder. He read the top

page. His face paled slightly. He swallowed hard,closed the folder, and cleared his throat loudly.

No.4

"Attention," the captain announced, his voice booming over the noise of the lobby. "We have a new development in this case."

The room went quiet.

"Our technical division just reported a critical malfunction," the captain stated, keeping his eyes fixed on the wall above Elisa's head. "The specific traffic cameras at the Queensboro intersection are older models. They failed to upload to the cloud server due to a localized network timeout, and the local storage drives were reportedly damaged during the impact. The footage is completely corrupted."

Elisa's pupils violently contracted.

Her brain processed the information in a microsecond. There was no network timeout.Simon had just used the massive political and financial leverage of the Chambers Group to fabricate a technical glitch and physically destroy the drives. He had erased the evidence in less than thirty minutes.

Jewel let out a scream of pure frustration. She lunged forward, grabbing the captain by the collar of his uniform.

"You corrupt pigs!" Jewel roared,spitting in his face."Check my dashcam! The camera in my car caught the whole thing!"

The captain roughly shoved Jewel backward.She stumbled and hit the wooden bench.

"Your dashcam was crushed in the side impact,"the captain said coldly, adjusting his collar. "The memory card is destroyed. We have no objective evidence."

No.5

Allena's lips twitched. A sickening, triumphant smirk flashed across her face before she quickly morphed it back into an expression of pure terror. She grabbed August's lapels.

"August, please," Allena begged, her voice trembling. "They tried to kill Tate. You have to get justice for us."

August reached up and slowly twisted his platinum cufflink. It was his signature gesture of absolute control. He looked at the captain.

"Captain," August commanded, his voice echoing with billionaire authority. "Until this attempted murder is fully investigated, I expect the suspect to be held without bail. She is a flight risk."

"Understood, Mr. Chambers," the captain nodded.He gestured to the two officers. They immediately stepped forward. They grabbed Jewel's arms,twisting them behind her back, and pulled out a pair of heavy steel handcuffs.

The violent movement jostled the bench.

Kayden woke up.

The little girl opened her eyes. The bright lights blinded her. She felt the burning fever in her brain

and saw the strange men grabbing Jewel. Kayden let out a weak, terrifying scream. Her tiny hand shot out and clamped onto the fabric of Elisa's coat.

No.6

Elisa's maternal instinct exploded.

She lunged forward. She shoved her hands hard against the chest of the nearest police officer,using her entire body weight to violently push him away from the bench. She stepped in front of Kayden, spreading her arms wide. The aura of violence radiating from her body was so intense the officers actually froze.

Elisa slowly turned her head. She locked her black eyes onto August.

"If you do not let my child go to a hospital right now," Elisa whispered. Every single syllable was coated in venom and absolute certainty. "I will make you pay a price you cannot even begin to comprehend."

August looked down at her. He saw the fire in her eyes, but his massive ego completely blinded him to the reality of the threat. He thought she was just using the kid as a shield to get her friend out of jail.

"No one is above the law in New York, Elisa,"August stated coldly. "Especially not someone who tries to murder Allena's family."

Elisa stared at his arrogant,self-righteous face.

The last, microscopic illusion she had ever held

about this man shattered into dust.

No.7

She turned her head and looked at Simon. Her eyes narrowed. The desperate mother vanished. Faye,the apex predator of the digital world, took over.

Elisa reached into her pocket. She pulled out her phone. Her tthumb flew across the 10screen,bypassing the standard operating system. She tapped a sequence of hidden icons, bringing up a black screen filled with glowing green code.

She was ready to burn his empire to the ground.