25 I carried a baby for my twin brother after years of watching him struggle to become a father—but seconds after she was born, he looked at her and whispered, “I can’t take her home.”

A man in a white lab coat rushed forward from the shadows, carrying a portable handheld genetic scanner. My heart pounded like a jackhammer against my ribs as I set the baby carrier down on a wooden crate between us.

The doctor gently pulled back the infant's blanket, exposing the dark-crimson birthmark on her upper left shoulder blade. He pressed the optical scanner against the infant's skin. A bright blue light washed over the mark, followed by a high-pitched electronic beep.

"Sequence captured," the doctor announced, turning to a laptop resting on a nearby table. "Uploading to the primary server now."

Pendelton’s face lit up with greedy anticipation. He pulled out a tablet, watching the progress bar on his screen. "Finally... twelve years of waiting. The entire Vance fortune, returned to its rightful owner."

The progress bar hit 100%.

Suddenly, a loud, harsh red error screen flashed across Pendelton’s tablet and the doctor's laptop simultaneously. Lines of rapid, green terminal code began cascading down their screens at blinding speed.

"What is this?" Pendelton growled, his smile instantly turning into a snarl. "Doctor! What is happening?"

"I... I don't know!" the doctor stammered, frantically typing on his keyboard. "The file isn't a decryption key! It's an automated payload! It's executing a recursive wipe protocol across all our offshore databases!"

"Stop it! Abort!" Pendelton roared, grabbing the doctor by his collar.

"I can't!" the doctor shrieked in panic. "It's spreading to the master servers! All account balances are being set to zero! The transaction logs are being broadcast directly to the Department of Justice!"

Pendelton’s face turned from red to an icy, terrifying pale. He dropped the doctor, reached into his coat, and whipped out his pistol, turning the barrel straight toward me. "You bitch! You set me up!"

"Drop the weapon, Pendelton!" a voice thundered from above.

Before Pendelton could pull the trigger, a sniper shot shattered the high glass windows of the warehouse roof. The bullet struck Pendelton’s right shoulder, sending his gun flying across the concrete floor.

Simultaneously, the main doors of the warehouse were blown open with explosive force. Smoke grenades filled the room with thick white fog as Julianna and Marcus’s tactical team breached the facility, flashbangs detonating with deafening booms.

"Security team, move in!" Marcus yelled over the comms. "Secure the target!"

Chaos erupted. Pendelton’s guards fired blindly into the smoke, but Julianna’s team operated with lethal precision, taking down the syndicate operatives one by one.

I dove over the wooden crate, wrapping my body around the baby carrier to protect the infant from stray bullets. Cold sweat poured down my face as the sound of gunfire echoed off the high corrugated iron walls.

Through the smoke, I saw Pendelton clutching his bleeding shoulder, scrambling across the floor toward his dropped pistol.

"Julianna!" I screamed.

Julianna emerged from the smoke like a shadow, stepping firmly onto Pendelton’s hand before his fingers could reach the gun. The heavy crunch of bone made Pendelton howl in agony. She kicked the weapon away and pointed her own gun directly between his eyes.

"This is for Evelyn and Richard Vance," Julianna said, her voice dropping to a icy, dangerous whisper.

"Julianna... wait!" Pendelton gasped, spitting blood onto the floor. "We can make a deal! I have millions hidden in physical vaults! I can make you rich! I can give you back your life!"

"You took my life twelve years ago," Julianna replied coldly. "And today, you lose yours to the law."

Instead of pulling the trigger, she brought the butt of her pistol down hard against his temple, knocking him instantly unconscious.

Outside, the loud, wailing sirens of dozens of law enforcement vehicles echoed through the rain, their red and blue lights flashing through the shattered warehouse windows.

Julianna turned toward me, lowering her weapon. She walked over to where I was crouched over the baby carrier.

"Is she safe?" Julianna asked gently.