THE BRIDE WHO EMBARRASSED THE BILLIONAIRE GROOM AT THE GRAND ALTAR WITH HER SECRET LEDGER

The sudden blackout was accompanied by a heavy, grinding mechanical groan from the overhead crane tracks. Red emergency backup lights kicked on a second later, casting long, eerie shadows across the concrete floor. In the confusion of the sudden darkness, Marcus’s tablet screen had gone black, and the sound of heavy scuffling echoed near the back exit of the hangar.

"Hold your positions! Do not fire!" the federal director shouted, drawing his sidearm as his tactical team scrambled to form a defensive perimeter around the generator banks.

Elena dropped to her knees in the dim red glow, her hands frantically searching the concrete for the leather ledger Marcus had dropped. In the chaos of the blackout, someone had grabbed the book. She felt around in the dust, her fingers brushing against a cold, metallic object instead of paper. It was Marcus’s dropped tablet, its cracked glass screen still dimly glowing with a running command-line interface.

"Julian!" Elena called out over the shouting of the tactical agents and the hum of the failing generators. "Over here!"

A heavy shadow loomed over her, and a strong hand gripped her shoulder. She flinched, raising her arm to defend herself, but the familiar scent of expensive cologne and cedarwood immediately grounded her. It was Julian. His tuxedo jacket was torn at the shoulder, and a thin line of blood ran down his temple from where he had been shoved against the metal oil drum during the scuffle.

"Are you hurt?" Julian asked, his voice urgent, completely stripped of its usual corporate coldness.

"I'm fine," Elena whispered back, clutching the glowing tablet to her chest. "Marcus dropped his device. The command-line interface is still active. It's downloading the routing keys to his offshore accounts in real-time."

Julian dropped to one knee beside her, his eyes scanning the streaming lines of hexadecimal code scrolling down the cracked screen. His fingers hovered over the glass, flying across the interface with lightning speed as he bypassed Marcus’s security layers.

"He didn't just steal eighty-two million," Julian muttered under his breath, his expression tightening into sheer focus. "He tapped the entire pension fund of every employee who worked at the old Alden steel mill. If those transfers clear by morning, thousands of innocent families lose everything."

Across the hangar, the red emergency lights flickered again as the auxiliary power kicked in fully, illuminating the open side door where Marcus had vanished into the foggy night air. The federal director was busy coordinating a perimeter lockdown, completely unaware that the primary target had just slipped through their fingers into the airfield’s underground maintenance tunnels.

"We have to go after him," Elena said, standing up and pulling Julian with her. "The tunnels lead straight to the private runway. That's where his jet is waiting."

Julian looked at her for a long, quiet moment, seeing the fierce, unyielding resolve in her eyes—the exact same spirit her father had tried to bury under decades of guilt and debt. He nodded slowly, taking the glowing tablet from her hands.