Chapter 42
ANASTASIA
The girls are in my dorm right now. We’re getting more research done on finding out what happened to my mom.
The glow of Shina’s laptop is the only light in the room, her face washed pale in the screen’s glare.
Empty cans of yerba mate line the desk like trophies.
Ro kicks back in my desk chair, spinning it lazily while I sit cross-legged on the edge of my bed, arms wrapped tight around my knees.
I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to peel at the scab again.
But Shina had texted me in all caps: FOUND SOMETHING. COMING NOW. And I couldn’t ignore it.
Shina’s fingers stop moving. “Okay… I’ve traced it.”
I tense. “Traced what?”
“The name on that inspection report,” she says, “M. Cortez.”
Ro straightens. “That the guy who flagged the override?”
“Yeah,” Shina says. She swivels the laptop so we can see. “Miguel Cortez, Senior Software Engineer at S&M Technologies. Been with the company eight years, then his digital footprint just… ends on December 2019. No employee activity, no credit card trail, no new logins on any of his devices.”
I frown. “Maybe he just quit. Moved away.”
Shina shakes her head. “I checked property records. His apartment lease ended two months after the crash. No forwarding address, no sale, no transfer. It’s like he vanished.”
Ro whistles low. “People don’t just disappear. They get erased.”
My stomach drops. “You’re saying—”
“I’m saying either Sergio had him silenced,” Ro cuts in, “or someone used his company to bury him. Either way, Cortez knew too much. Guy files a report about tampered brakes, and suddenly he’s a ghost? That’s not a coincidence, he’s a loose end.”
Shina clicks open another window, her tone sharp. “And it gets worse. I ran his credentials against other internal reports. This wasn’t the first override he flagged. He logged two other cases in the year before your mom’s crash.”
The room tilts slightly. “Other cases?”
She nods. “One tied to a competitor’s CFO. Car accident, ruled mechanical failure. The other… was a local councilman, died when his self-driving Tesla swerved into a divider. Both times, Cortez flagged firmware interference.”
Ro leans forward, elbows on her knees. Her voice is low, serious now. “So your mom wasn’t the only target. This isn’t about one affair or one messy secret. This is a pattern. A system.”
My throat feels tight. “You mean… someone’s been using S&M to—”
“Kill people, get rid of competitors or anyone who poses a threat?” Ro finishes, “Yeah.”
“What do you know about the Rivera family?” Shina asks, “Their name kept coming up in the reports too.”
Their words hang heavy, poisonous. “Cartel, my—Sergio—was doing deals with. You think they could be involved?”
Shina’s screen suddenly flickers. The cursor freezes, then jumps erratically across the page. She swears under her breath.
“What’s happening?” I ask, pulse spiking.
“Someone’s trying to boot me out,” she says quickly, fingers flying over the keys. “They know I’m in their system.”
Ro’s chair screeches back. “Pack it up. Now!”
Shina yanks the USB free, shoving it into my hand. “Keep it safe. If they trace this, it can’t be on me.”
I clutch it tight, heart hammering. The screen goes black. We sit in the dark, the hum of my fan suddenly deafening. Ro breaks the silence. “Congratulations, Stassi! You’re not just digging up family secrets anymore.”