At 2:17 a.m., every screen on the forty-eighth floor of Moretti Tower went black.

Adrian Moretti stopped speaking.

Across the conference table, six men stopped breathing.

A second earlier, Adrian had been discussing a missing shipment and the man responsible for making three million dollars disappear. Now the wall of security monitors behind Nico Romano had gone dark.

Nico turned toward his laptop.

"What happened?"

The head of cybersecurity was already typing.

"We lost the internal network."

Adrian's expression didn't change.

"Lost it?"

"Someone got inside."

That changed the room.

Moretti Holdings controlled hotels, real estate, shipping companies, and enough private assets to make financial reporters argue over Adrian's actual net worth.

But there was another Moretti empire that never appeared in newspapers.

That empire had enemies.

And nobody entered its private network by accident.

"Lock the building," Adrian said.

Nico reached for his phone.

Then every screen came back on.

Not with spreadsheets.

Not with surveillance feeds.

Not with financial records.

A fat pink cartoon pig appeared against a black background.

It wore sunglasses.

Underneath it were five words.

YOUR FIREWALL IS EMBARRASSING.

Silence.

One of the men at the table made the mistake of laughing.

Adrian looked at him.

The laughter died instantly.

Nico stared at the pig.

"That's new."

Adrian rose slowly.

At thirty-five, he had spent more than a decade building a reputation that made powerful men lower their voices when they said his name.

He was six-foot-three, always impeccably dressed, and rarely needed to raise his voice.

"Who is he?"

"We don't know yet."

"Then find out."

Nico's fingers moved across the keyboard.

The pig disappeared.

For half a second, Adrian expected the system to return to normal.

Instead, a folder opened.

Adrian's eyes hardened.

PROJECT HAWTHORNE — 2021.

Nobody moved.

Nico looked at him.

"Adrian."

"I see it."

That file had been sealed five years ago.

Only four people still had authorization to access it.

Project Hawthorne contained transaction logs, internal communications, and fragments of evidence connected to the worst betrayal Adrian had ever suffered.

And to one woman.

Evelyn Carter.

Five years ago, she had disappeared with information that could have destroyed him.

No goodbye.

No explanation.

Nothing.

Adrian had searched New York.

Then Boston.

Philadelphia.

Miami.

Eventually, the search had expanded overseas.

Evelyn Carter had vanished as if she had never existed.

Now someone had opened her file.

A message appeared.

STILL LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE.

Adrian's jaw tightened.

"Trace him."

"We're trying."

"Try faster."

The message vanished.

Another pig appeared.

This one was laughing.

Nico leaned closer.

"Whoever this is, he's bouncing through multiple servers."

"How many?"

"Twenty-three."

"Countries?"

Nico paused.

"No."

Adrian looked at him.

"Most of them are local."

The hacker moved again.

A security camera feed appeared on the largest monitor.

It showed Adrian standing in the conference room.

Live.

The camera zoomed in on his face.

Then pink cartoon ears appeared over his head.

Nico coughed into his fist.

Adrian slowly turned toward him.

"Don't."

"I didn't say anything."

A new message appeared.

SMILE, SCARY GUY.

Adrian stared at the screen.

Nobody had spoken to him like that in years.

Nobody who wanted to remain healthy, anyway.

"Can he hear us?"

The cybersecurity chief swallowed.

"Possibly."

Adrian looked directly into the camera.

"You made a mistake."

Three dots appeared.

Then:

THAT'S WHAT MY TEACHER SAYS.

Nico frowned.

"Teacher?"

The hacker disappeared.

Every system rebooted at once.

The screens returned to normal.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Adrian turned toward the cybersecurity team.

"You have one hour."

Nico followed him toward the door.

"One hour for what?"

"Name. Address. Everything."

"And if we can't?"

Adrian pressed the elevator button.

"You can explain to my grandmother why I fired an entire cybersecurity department before breakfast."

The elevator opened.

Nico stepped inside beside him.

"You know what bothers me?"

"Everything bothers you."

"He accessed Hawthorne."

Adrian's face became colder.

"I noticed."

"That wasn't random."

"No."

"You think this is connected to Evelyn?"

Adrian didn't answer.

He hadn't said her name aloud in months.

He hated that it still had an effect on him.

Evelyn Carter.

Twenty-four years old when she entered his life.

Too observant.

Too stubborn.

Too unafraid of him.

Then one night had changed the rules between them.

Weeks later, she betrayed him.

At least, that was what every piece of evidence had said.

By sunrise, she was gone.

The elevator doors opened.

Adrian walked out.

"Find the hacker."

At 3:06 a.m., Nico called.

"We got him."

Adrian was in his penthouse office.

"Name."

"That's the problem."

"What problem?"

"The location is stable now."

"And?"

Nico hesitated.

"It's in Brooklyn."

Adrian looked toward the Manhattan skyline.

"Send the address."

Another pause.

"You should probably hear what the address is first."

"Nico."

"It's a school."

Adrian said nothing.

"A private elementary school in Brooklyn Heights," Nico continued. "Their early childhood program shares the network."

"Someone is using the school as cover."

"Probably."

"Probably?"

"We found the device."

Adrian straightened.

"What is it?"

"A tablet."

"Whose?"

"We don't know. School records are closed until morning."

Adrian looked at the clock.

"Then we'll be there when they open."

---

At 8:03 a.m., Saint Matthew's Academy had never looked more terrified.

Three black SUVs stopped outside.

Adrian stepped out first.

Parents turned.

Teachers stared.

Nico came around the second vehicle holding a tablet.

"You know this is insane."

"Then stay outside."

"I'm coming."

The principal met them at reception.

"Mr. Moretti, I wasn't informed that—"

"We need access to your network."

"Excuse me?"

Nico showed identification from Moretti Holdings.

"We're investigating a serious cybersecurity breach."

The principal paled.

"From here?"

"From a device connected to your network."

Within ten minutes, the school's technology coordinator had given Nico access.

He watched the signal.

Then started walking.

Adrian followed.

Down one hallway.

Around a corner.

Past finger paintings and paper dinosaurs.

Nico stopped.

"You have got to be kidding me."

A sign beside the door read:

KINDERGARTEN — MS. PARKER.

Adrian looked through the narrow glass window.

Twenty children sat around small tables.

One boy sat alone near the back.

Dark hair.

Gray-green eyes.

Navy school sweater.

Tiny sneakers.

A dinosaur backpack hung from his chair.

In front of him was a tablet.

Nico checked the signal.

"It's him."

Adrian looked at him.

"No."

"Same device ID."

"He's five."

"Maybe six."

"That changes everything."

Nico shrugged.

"Technically."

Adrian opened the door.

The teacher looked up.

"Can I help you?"

The dark-haired boy didn't.

He continued tapping his screen.

Adrian walked toward him.

The closer he got, the stranger the sensation became.

Something about the child's face bothered him.

Not familiarity exactly.

Something deeper.

The boy finally sighed.

Then looked up.

His eyes moved over Adrian's expensive suit, his watch, and the two security men standing at the door.

He rolled his eyes.

Adrian stopped.

The boy put the tablet down.

"You took long enough."

Nico stared at him.

Adrian said nothing.

The boy reached into his backpack, pulled out a juice box, and stabbed the straw through the top.

"What?"

Adrian's voice was dangerously quiet.

The boy drank.

Then pointed at Nico's tablet.

"Your trace was sloppy."

Nico blinked.

"My trace?"

"Very."

Adrian pulled out the chair opposite him.

The chair was made for a five-year-old.

He ignored that.

"You hacked my company."

The boy frowned.

"I tested your security."

"You broke into a private network."

"Because your security was bad."

"You opened a confidential file."

"Your file names are boring."

Nico turned away, shoulders shaking.

Adrian looked at him.

"Something funny?"

"No."

The boy leaned forward.

"Are you the scary guy?"

Adrian's gaze returned to him.

"What scary guy?"

"The one who owns the bad firewall."

Adrian stared at the child.

The child stared back.

Same refusal to look away.

Same slight tilt of the chin.

Same gray-green eyes.

A memory surfaced without permission.

A photograph in Margaret Moretti's Westchester house.

Adrian at five years old.

Dark hair.

Gray-green eyes.

That exact expression.

His stomach tightened.

"What's your name?"

The boy considered whether Adrian deserved the information.

"Theo."

"Theo what?"

"Carter."

Everything inside Adrian went still.

Nico stopped smiling.

Adrian's hand tightened around the edge of the tiny table.

"Carter?"

Theo nodded.

"Yeah."

"Your mother's name?"

Before Theo could answer, footsteps rushed down the hallway.

A woman's voice came from outside.

"Theo?"

Adrian knew the voice before he saw her.

Five years disappeared in one second.

Evelyn Carter stepped into the classroom.

She saw Theo.

Then Nico.

Then Adrian.

Her face went white.

Adrian slowly stood.

The tiny chair scraped against the floor.

For five years, he had imagined what he would say when he found her.

None of those words came.

Because the woman who had vanished from his life was staring at him in terror.

And beside her stood a five-year-old boy with Adrian Moretti's eyes.