He Claimed His Family Was Dead — Until His Billionaire Mother Walked Into the Delivery Room

Luca looked up, his bloodshot eyes searching Jessi's calm, resolute face. "What are you talking about?"

"Five years ago, when you left your family's estate," Jessi reminded him softly, her fingers tracing his jawline. "You told me you took an encrypted hard drive from your father's old study. You said you never opened it because you were afraid of what was inside."

Luca froze. A faint memory sparked in his mind—a heavy titanium flash drive wrapped in black electrical tape, sitting inside a fireproof lockbox buried in the crawlspace under their suburban garage.

"My father... he died under mysterious circumstances right before Wendy took full control of Vance Global," Luca murmured, his pulse beginning to race. "He always kept a personal ledger of her off-the-books transactions."

"We aren't running away this time, Luca," Jessi declared firmly, her voice filled with absolute courage. "We are going to open that drive."

While Jessi stayed in the hospital under the protection of a trusted friend from the local sheriff's department, Luca sped home in his old sedan, his mind spinning as he pulled out the heavy lockbox from under the floorboards.

He plugged the titanium drive into an offline laptop, typing in his late father's birthday as the decryption key.