Chapter 1 — The Woman Who Refused to Die
The first breath Ethan Carter took after the freezer door opened felt like broken glass.
Paramedics rushed him toward an ambulance, but he never looked at them.
His eyes stayed fixed on Caleb Mercer.
The man who had tried to erase him.
Caleb stood in handcuffs beside Detective Sarah Collins, still wearing the same tailored overcoat. His confident smile had vanished, replaced by disbelief.
"You survived," Caleb muttered.
Ethan's lips barely moved.
"I wasn't the one trapped."
Caleb frowned.
"What?"
"You've been inside your own cage for months."
Sarah glanced at Ethan.
"What does that mean?"
Ethan slowly pulled an encrypted flash drive from inside his jacket.
"Everything starts here."
Inside were thousands of files.
Board meeting recordings.
Offshore transfers.
Secret contracts.
Bribery payments.
Voice recordings dating back eighteen months.
Caleb hadn't simply tried to murder Ethan.
He had spent years stealing from the company they had built together.
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The attempted murder wasn't the biggest crime.
It was only the last mistake.
