Chapter 2: The Silent Weapon
Arthur raised the bat, the wood catching the chandelier’s light. "I said, move."
Sophie didn't move. Instead, she stood up. It was a slow, deliberate motion that caught Arthur off guard. She didn't look at him with the trembling fear he expected. She looked at him with a predatory, chilling focus that belonged to someone much older and much colder. She was weaponless, her pockets empty, her hands trembling—but her gaze was iron.
"You think this house belongs to you, Dad?" Sophie asked. Her voice was unnervingly steady.
Arthur hesitated, the bat hovering in mid-air. "Don't test me, girl."
"You built this life on a foundation of lies," she continued, her voice gaining strength. "The offshore accounts in the Caymans. The tax evasion on the Pacific merger. The fact that you’ve been siphoning money from the pension funds of your employees to pay off your gambling debts in Macau. You think you’re a king? You’re just a man with a target on his back."
Arthur laughed, a harsh, jagged sound. "You're a child. You don't know what you're talking about."
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"I know the password to your secondary laptop," Sophie said, a small, sad smile touching her lips. "I’ve known it for months. You were so blinded by your own toxic ego, so obsessed with feeling like the most powerful man in the room, that you never thought to check the history on the computer I use for my homework."
The color drained from Arthur’s face. He froze, the heavy bat suddenly feeling like dead weight in his hand. His bravado didn't evaporate; it was pulverized. He realized in that split second that the "pristine" image he spent millions to protect wasn't just cracking—it was being dismantled in real-time.
