Chapter 38
CHAPTER 38 — The Cost of Truth
The revelation hit Valeria like a physical blow, but she refused to let her knees buckle. Her mother was dead. Truly dead this time, killed by the very system she had tried to escape.
"The data transfer is at eighty percent," Elena’s voice panicked in her ear. "Valeria, get out of there!"
"You think you can take this data and destroy us?" Ofelia mocked, gesturing to her guards. "This ledger contains the names of judges, senators, and federal directors across three continents. If you expose this, you don't just destroy the Morenos or the Salgados. You trigger a global financial collapse. You will be hunted by every intelligence agency on earth."
"Good," Valeria said softly.
She reached down and pressed a manual override button on the server terminal. A bright red warning flashed across the screen: BROADCAST ENCRYPTED - PUBLIC DOMAIN ROUTE.
She hadn't siphoned the data to keep it for herself. She had routed it directly to every major investigative journalism outlet in the world, completely bypassing state authorities and federal courts.
Ofelia’s wine glass shattered on the marble floor. "What have you done?!"
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"I changed the rules of the game," Valeria said, her voice echoing with absolute, terrifying freedom. "Nobody owns the secret anymore. It belongs to everyone."
Before the guards could lunge, a flash-bang grenade shattered the glass doors behind Valeria, filling the room with blinding white light and a deafening roar. Victor materialized through the smoke, firing two non-lethal suppression rounds into the guards, grabbing Valeria by the arm, and dragging her out into the torrential rain.
