Chapter 12 - A Trap Laid Softly
armed with the fully decrypted files, Lily didn't run to her father with the truth. She knew how deep the manipulation went; Ethan was blind to Julian's betrayal and viewed Claire as merely an ambitious, temperamental woman rather than a calculated criminal. If she presented the evidence now, Julian and Claire would frame Ethan using the forged authorization codes, leaving him ruined before a trial could even begin.
Instead, Lily left her learning tablet lying on the coffee table in the primary living room, open to a seemingly innocent drawing application. However, embedded within the background code was a simple tracking script that would ping an external server the moment the tablet was connected to the mansion's private Wi-Fi network.
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Late that evening, Claire walked into the quiet living room, her eyes falling upon the child’s abandoned toy on the couch. Annoyed by the clutter, she picked it up to turn it off, but as her thumb pressed the screen, the display flickered, briefly revealing the green command interface and the name Vance Holdings displayed across the top header.
Claire’s heart stopped. She stared at the screen, her breathing shallow as she realized the child was not just an innocent bystander in the house—Lily possessed the master files Catherine had hidden before her death. Panic replacing her usual calculation, Claire grabbed the tablet and slipped out of the house, heading straight for a clandestine meeting with Julian Vance.
