The Heiress's Lethal Algorithm
7.6
Rating
15
Chapters
28.7K
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Billionaire
Revenge
Thriller
Romance
Sci-Fi
I made Arthur Sterling the CEO of my family's empire, preferring the shadows. Last night, I watched him steal my father's master encryption drive—and hand it to a pregnant woman. He thinks I'm succumbing to the early-onset dementia he's been secretly drugging me with. He thinks my mind is broken and my empire is his. He's wrong. I am Seraphina Vance, and I don't divorce traitors. I bankrupt them, ruin them, and erase them. And the lethal fixer I should have loved is helping me do it.
Catalogue
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Chapter 1
The silent alarm didn't ring; it burned. At exactly 3:14 AM, the platinum haptic ring on Seraphina Vance’s left index finger began to pulse with a searing, rhythmic heat. It was a failsafe she had designed herself, hardwired into the deepest, most inaccessible sub-basements of Aegis Global’s servers. A failsafe that was never, ever supposed to trigger.Seraphina bolted upright in the massive king-sized bed, her breath catching in her throat. A heavy, unnatural fog clung to the edges of her mind—a side effect of the relentless "migraines" that had plagued her for the last six months. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, forcing the grogginess back into the darkest corners of her brain.She reached her hand out into the cold, empty space beside her. The sheets were perfectly smooth. Arthur was gone. "System," Seraphina rasped, her voice dry and brittle in the cavernous master bedroom. "Initialize visual protocols. Audio only on my end."The room’s artificial intelligence hummed to life. *"Good morning, Madam Vance. It is 3:15 AM. Your heart rate is elevated. Shall I contact emergency medical services?"* "Override," Seraphina commanded, swinging her legs over the edge of the mattress. Her bare feet hit the heated hardwood floor, but a chill violently wracked her spine. "Identify the source of the haptic alarm."*"Authorization required,"* the AI replied in its smooth, synthetic cadence. "Vance, Seraphina. Authorization code: Icarus-Falling-Nine-Zero."*"Code accepted. Madam Vance, a Level One breach has been detected in the subterranean biometric vault. The Genesis Drive has been removed from its physical cradle."*The words hit her like a physical blow to the sternum. The Genesis Drive. Her father’s master encryption algorithm. The crown jewel of Aegis Global, capable of bypassing any digital security infrastructure on the planet. It was the sole reason Aegis held defense contracts with three different world governments. "Impossible," Seraphina snapped, standing up so fast the room spun. She gripped the edge of the mahogany nightstand to steady herself. "The vault requires dual biometric verification. Retinal scan and a localized heartbeat signature. Who opened it?"*"The biometric signatures utilized belonged to you, Madam Vance. And to Arthur Sterling, the acting Chief Executive Officer."*"My biometrics?" Seraphina’s voice dropped to a lethal whisper. "I have been asleep in this bed since ten o'clock."*"Records indicate your retinal scan was logged at 3:02 AM, accompanied by a localized heartbeat matching your exact physiological rhythm."*Seraphina’s brilliant, calculating mind began to slice through the heavy fog clouding her brain. She turned toward her vanity mirror. Sitting next to her jewelry box was a velvet case containing her spare pair of smart-lenses—contact lenses she had coded herself to interact with Aegis terminals. They contained her retinal data. And the heartbeat? Her smartwatch. It had been missing for three days. Arthur had told her she must have misplaced it during one of her "episodes."
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