When The Unwanted Genius Breaks The Contract

A thick folder of legal documents slapped against the glass coffee table, the sharp sound echoing through the grand living room of the Booth family mansion.

"Our engagement is off."

Dwayne Burks stood over the sofa, looking down at his fiancée, Adelaide Booth, with open disgust in his pale blue eyes.

As the arrogant young heir to a Wall Street investment firm, Dwayne was bound by a longstanding marriage agreement between the Burks and Booth families-one that specifically required him to marry a Booth by blood.

When the family finally tracked Adelaide down in a run-down Midwest town and brought her back to New York less than a month ago, Dwayne had been forced to accept her as his fiancée. He'd resented it every single day since.

Lounging on the leather sofa, Adelaide didn't even bother looking up, her long fingers scrolling casually through her phone.

"Sure. Sign the papers and get lost."

Dwayne's jaw clenched. He'd prepared a whole speech to put her in her place, and her flat indifference only pissed him off more.

Light footsteps hurried down the grand spiral staircase. Brittanie Booth, the adopted daughter raised by the family as a pampered Upper East Side socialite for the past nineteen years, rushed into the living room.

Tears welled in her eyes as she walked straight past Adelaide, catching Dwayne's tailored sleeve and leaning defensively into his side.

"Dwayne, please don't talk to my sister like that," Brittanie said, her voice trembling with fragile guilt. She turned her teary gaze toward Adelaide.

"Addie, please don't blame Dwayne. Everything is my fault. Before you were brought back last month, Dwayne and I were already in love. When we found out the marriage agreement was meant for their biological daughter, I tried so hard to step back and let him go."

Brittanie bit her lower lip, letting a single tear roll down her cheek as she leaned even closer into Dwayne's chest.

"I just didn't expect Dwayne to care about me so much that he couldn't bear to marry someone else," Brittanie continued softly.

"Besides, Dwayne is about to take over his family's firm on Wall Street. He needs a wife who understands high society and corporate galas.

You're a high school dropout from the middle of nowhere, and you don't know a soul in New York. Dwayne isn't breaking the engagement to humiliate you-he's just afraid you'll be laughed at by his circle. Please don't hate us."

Hearing her words, Dwayne's expression softened immediately. He wrapped his arm tightly around Brittanie's waist, pulling her against his side as he glared down at Adelaide.

"Did you hear that? Even now, Brittanie is still making excuses for you," Dwayne sneered. "She's gentle, educated, and a hundred times the woman you'll ever be. Brittanie is the only one I love. Uneducated gutter trash like you isn't worthy of the Burks name."

Adelaide let out a quiet scoff. She finally locked her phone and looked up, her dark gaze coolly taking in the pair clinging to each other.

"A cheating scumbag and a two-faced phony," Adelaide said, her voice smooth and unhurried. "Honestly, you two belong in the same dumpster. Do the world a favor and close the lid from the inside."

Brittanie's face drained of color. Fresh tears spilled over her lashes, and her shoulders shook violently as if she had just been slapped.

"Addie, how could you call me that? I was only trying to smooth things over so you wouldn't be humiliated."

Sharp stiletto heels clicked rapidly down the marble hallway. Eleanor Booth, Adelaide's biological mother and the matriarch of the house, stormed into the living room. Seeing Brittanie crying in Dwayne's arms, Eleanor's face darkened instantly.

"Adelaide! Are you bullying your sister again?" Eleanor snapped, her sharp voice slicing through the room.

She marched over and stood defensively in front of Brittanie, glaring at her own flesh and blood as if looking at a repulsive stain.

"I knew bringing you back from that gutter was a mistake!" Eleanor said coldly.

"Look at yourself. No manners, no education, and a foul mouth. For nineteen years, Brittanie has made our family proud in every social circle in Manhattan, while you've brought nothing to this house but hostility and embarrassment. If Dwayne prefers her, take a hard look at your own failings instead of lashing out like a rabid dog!"

Adelaide looked at her biological mother without a trace of warmth.

"If you don't need your eyes, Mrs. Booth, you can donate them to someone who actually uses them."

Eleanor's face flushed an ugly, mottled red as she pointed a trembling finger right at Adelaide's nose.

"You ungrateful little savage! How dare you speak to your mother like that! Brittanie has ten times the grace and decency you'll ever have, you complete disappointment!"

"Mom, please calm down, you'll make yourself sick," Brittanie cried out, stepping out from Dwayne's embrace.

She walked quickly toward the sofa, positioning her back toward Dwayne and Eleanor so her body blocked their direct line of sight. Reaching out both hands, she grabbed at the cuff of Adelaide's black jacket with a pleading expression.

"Addie, just apologize to Mom and Dwayne," Brittanie whispered, pure malice flashing across her face, hidden from the others. "I know you're jealous that Mom and Dwayne love me more, and you can take your anger out on me later, just don't-"

Adelaide pulled her arm back to avoid the touch, her fingers never even brushing Brittanie's skin.

Right at that moment, Brittanie let out a sharp gasp. She deliberately twisted her high heel and threw her weight backward, crashing heavily onto the expensive Persian rug. Clutching her ankle, she sobbed aloud.

"Ow! My ankle... Addie, I was only trying to help you-why did you push me so hard?"

Dwayne's expression twisted with rage. He dropped to his knees on the rug and pulled Brittanie into his arms, glaring up at Adelaide as if she were a violent criminal.

"Have you lost your mind, Adelaide? How dare you lay a hand on her right in front of us!"

Eleanor gasped and crouched beside them, checking Brittanie's ankle with frantic care before whipping her head around to glare venomously at Adelaide.

"Vicious! You're completely vicious!"

Adelaide crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at the clumsy performance from the sofa.

"There are three high-definition security cameras covering every angle of this living room," Adelaide said flatly. "Do you need me to pull the footage onto the television and teach you how to stage a more convincing fall?"

Brittanie's spine stiffened for a fraction of a second. Before Dwayne could look up toward the ceiling corners, she buried her face deep into his suit jacket and cried even louder.

"Mom, it hurts so much... Wait, please don't check the cameras. If word gets out that Addie pushed me, she'll be ruined in New York. I'll just tell everyone I tripped on my own..."

Moved by her adopted daughter's selfless plea, Eleanor felt her heart ache even more for the girl, any thought of checking the footage instantly forgotten. She stood up and pointed furiously at the floor in front of Brittanie.

"I don't need to check the cameras to know how twisted and cruel you are! Apologize to Brittanie and Dwayne right now, or I'm cutting off your allowance and freezing your trust fund today!"

Adelaide smiled. As she rose from the sofa, her tall, slender frame commanded the room with a sudden, suffocating intensity.

"Cut it off?" Adelaide asked softly. "Do you really think I care about a few crumbs of charity from the Booth family?"

A chill ran down Eleanor's spine when their eyes met, making her rage burn even hotter to mask her sudden unease.

"Fine! Since you have so much backbone, get out of my house right now and don't take a single cent of Booth money with you!"

From the floor, Dwayne sneered with cruel satisfaction.

"Let her go, Mrs. Booth. Without the Booth family sheltering her, a penniless high school dropout like her won't survive three days on the streets of New York."

Brittanie dabbed at the corners of her eyes, her voice weak and trembling, barely hiding her smug satisfaction.

"Mom, please don't kick Addie out. She doesn't have any skills or friends here. She'll starve to death out there by herself."

Adelaide slowly cracked her knuckles, smoothing down the cuffs of her black leather jacket.

"Save your crocodile tears," Adelaide said. "Watching your bad acting makes my stomach turn."

Seeing her head for the stairs, Eleanor rushed forward to block the bottom step, squaring her shoulders to assert her authority.

"Stop right there! Everything in your room was paid for by this family! You're not going upstairs to pack a single thing until you swallow your pride and apologize to your sister and the Burks family!"

Adelaide stopped a step away and looked down at Eleanor, her eyes as cold and dead as winter ice.

"Move."

She spoke quietly, yet that single word carried the crushing authority of someone used to giving orders that determined life and death.

Eleanor's stomach dropped. Frozen by the sheer lethality in her daughter's eyes, she stumbled half a step back on pure instinct, clearing the way. By the time she realized she'd just caved, humiliation scorched her cheeks.

Without sparing the three of them another glance, Adelaide walked straight up the stairs.

"By the way," Adelaide called out without looking back. "Dwayne, make sure the legal paperwork ending that engagement is finalized before midnight."

Dwayne's pride stung sharply. He stood up from the rug and shouted at her back.

"You're going to regret this, Adelaide! Once those papers are signed, don't come crawling to my office begging me to take you back!"

Adelaide paused on the second-floor landing, glancing back over her shoulder with cool disdain.

"Regret? You'll find out soon enough who was actually out of whose league."

Down in the living room, the three of them stood in stunned silence in the wake of her departure. Several seconds passed before Eleanor gritted her teeth and spat at the empty stairs.

"Arrogant little bitch! Let her suffer on the streets and see how long she lasts before she comes crying at our gates!"

Brittanie leaned softly against Dwayne's chest, hiding a triumphant smile against his suit jacket.

"Dwayne, the engagement is finally ours."

Upstairs, Adelaide pushed open the door to her bedroom and swept a brief glance over the luxurious room she had occupied for less than four weeks.

Ignoring the closets full of designer clothes and jewelry Eleanor had bought for show, she pulled a plain black canvas duffel bag from the bottom shelf, tossed it onto the bed, and walked straight toward the wooden desk.

Adelaide reached underneath the wooden desk drawer, pressed a hidden latch, and popped open a secret compartment. Inside lay a black encrypted flash drive stamped with the silver crest of the Department of Defense.

She tossed the drive into her faded canvas duffel bag, zipped it shut, and slung the strap over one shoulder. Without looking back once, she walked out of the bedroom.

Down in the living room, Dwayne was sitting on the sofa helping Brittanie rub her ankle, while Eleanor stood nearby with her arms crossed. Hearing footsteps on the marble stairs, all three looked up.

When Eleanor saw the flat, nearly empty canvas bag hanging from Adelaide's shoulder, she let out a mocking laugh.

"Putting on a pathetic show with an empty bag?" Eleanor sneered. "If you think dragging your feet will make me relent and beg you to stay, keep dreaming!"

Brittanie leaned against Dwayne's shoulder, looking at Adelaide with fake pity.

"Addie, you didn't even pack a change of clothes, and you don't have a car," Brittanie said softly.

"Our estate is in a private gated enclave. Cabs and rideshares aren't allowed past the gates, and it's a two-hour walk just to reach the main road. If you walk out that door penniless, where could you possibly go?"

Dwayne curled his lip in disgust, tossing his pen onto the coffee table.

"Leave her alone, Brittanie. She's just bluffing because she knows she can't even afford bus fare."

Adelaide stopped at the bottom of the stairs, her dark eyes sweeping slowly over Eleanor and Brittanie.

"I didn't pack anything from upstairs because I'm allergic to cheap charity," Adelaide said calmly.

"Besides, I figured I should leave those clothes and handbags behind for Brittanie. Have fun wearing my leftovers, Brittanie."

Brittanie's face stiffened, her fingernails digging hard into Dwayne's suit jacket. "Addie, how could you twist my kindness like that..."

Adelaide turned her eyes to Eleanor, who was trembling with rage.

"And as for you, Mrs. Booth," Adelaide added, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Keep treating a cheap counterfeit like a priceless diamond. When the gold plating finally wears off your precious adopted daughter, try not to cry too hard. Stepping into this house was the biggest waste of my time."

"Get out!" Eleanor shrieked, her voice cracking as she pointed toward the foyer. "If you step one foot out that front door today, don't you ever come crawling back!"

"Nothing would make me happier." Adelaide walked across the foyer and pulled open the heavy carved front doors.

Dwayne stood up with an arrogant grin, waiting to watch her trudge down the long driveway on foot like a beggar.

Instead, the moment the doors swung open, a low, terrifying rumble vibrated right through the marble floor beneath their feet.

Down at the end of the driveway, the estate's heavy iron security gates were pushed wide open. Six matte-black, military-grade armored SUVs roared into the courtyard in a tight tactical column.

Their tires screeched sharply against the stone pavement as they fanned out, completely locking down the circular driveway in front of the mansion.

Before anyone in the living room could react, a deafening thunder tore through the sky overhead.

Hurricane-force winds slammed down onto the estate, ripping prized rose bushes straight out of the manicured lawn and sending dead leaves swirling violently into the foyer.

Eleanor and Brittanie shrieked, shielding their faces from the blinding dust as three pure-black Black Hawk helicopters dropped below the cloud cover.

The military gunships hovered mere yards above the mansion's roof, their massive rotor blades chopping the air with ear-splitting power.

At the open cabin doors of the helicopters, armed snipers in heavy tactical gear leaned out, the red dots of their laser sights sweeping across the grounds in a lethal perimeter lock.

Inside the living room, Dwayne's grin vanished. The blood drained from his face as he stumbled backward, dropping heavily onto the sofa.

"What... what's going on?" Eleanor stammered, grabbing the edge of a decorative pillar just to stay on her feet.

Outside on the driveway, the doors of the six armored SUVs flew open in unison.

Twelve elite special agents dressed in black tactical vests and carrying submachine guns stepped out. Moving with the terrifying precision of a presidential guard detail, they formed two crisp security lines flanking the front steps.

From the lead vehicle, Jax Tucker, a senior special agent from the Pentagon, strode briskly up the stone steps. He stopped three paces in front of Adelaide, snapped his heels together, and delivered a textbook military salute.

"Ma'am! Special Task Force Alpha has secured the perimeter. We apologize for the delay!"

Dropping his salute, Jax stepped forward and respectfully relieved her of the worn canvas duffel bag.

Adelaide gave a slight nod, her expression as calm and unbothered as if she were merely catching a routine cab.

"It's fine. Let's go, the lab has been rushing me all morning."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

Before turning around, Jax lifted his head and leveled a cold, lethal stare straight through the open front doors into the living room.

It was the dead-eyed look of a man who killed for a living. By the sofa, Dwayne's breath caught in his chest, a cold chill racing down his spine. Beside him, Brittanie whimpered in sheer terror, shrinking behind Eleanor's back.

Jax pulled open the thick, bulletproof rear door of the centerpiece SUV, shielding the top of the frame with his hand as Adelaide bent down and slid effortlessly into the cabin.

Shutting the heavy door with a solid thud, Jax pressed two fingers to the tactical earpiece at his collar.

"Command, VIP is secured. Codename Apex. Initiate Level One defense extraction protocol immediately."

Inside the soundproofed luxury cabin, the roar of the helicopters faded to a faint hum. Adelaide pulled the elastic band from her hair, letting her long black waves tumble loosely over her shoulders.

"New York traffic is as terrible as ever," she murmured, leaning back against the leather headrest.

From the front passenger seat, Jax turned slightly with deep respect.

"Ma'am, the top brass at the Pentagon are getting anxious about the project deadline. Should I request full airspace clearance and have the Black Hawks fly you straight to the facility?"

Adelaide rubbed the space between her eyebrows and closed her eyes.

"No need. Take the ground route. I want to catch twenty minutes of sleep, and I don't like being too high-profile."

"Understood."

Above the mansion, the three Black Hawk gunships banked sharply in the sky, rising into an escort formation overhead as the six armored SUVs shot out of the estate gates and vanished down the main avenue.

Long after the roar of the engines faded, the Booth mansion remained dead silent.

Cold wind blew through the wide-open front doors, rustling the scattered leaves on the foyer floor.

Eleanor's legs finally gave out. She slumped against the wall, pressing both hands over her mouth as her voice shook violently.

"Those were... those were military helicopters and Department of Defense plates! Why on earth would a force like that come to our house to pick up Adelaide?"

Brittanie stood frozen on the rug, her hands clenched into tight, trembling fists. As she stared at the empty driveway, suffocating panic and jealousy threatened to tear her apart.

How could a high school dropout from a run-down Midwest town command armed agents and military gunships? No! If Adelaide was actually some untouchable powerhouse, then everything she and Eleanor had just done would ruin them!

Refusing to accept that reality, Brittanie looked around wildly before spinning toward Dwayne.

"Impossible! She grew up in the gutter-how could she know anyone in the military? Dwayne, tell me what just happened!"

On the sofa, Dwayne swallowed hard, running a trembling hand over his damp forehead. The humiliation of being scared half to death by a bodyguard's glare made his face twist with sudden, desperate malice.

"An escort? Are you two blind?" Dwayne barked, forcing his shaky voice to sound loud and certain.

"Six armored trucks surrounding the exits, snipers locking down the roof with laser sights, and a whole squad of men with submachine guns-does that look like a VIP welcome to you? That was a federal raid!"

Eleanor blinked in shock, grasping at his words like a drowning woman grabbing a rope.

"A raid? You mean... she wasn't being picked up, she was being arrested?"

"Of course she was being arrested!" Dwayne stood up, pacing the floor as his own lie gave him back his confidence.

"Think about it. What connections could a gutter rat possibly have? She must've gotten mixed up with an international cartel or stolen top-secret government property before coming to New York, and the feds finally tracked her down!"

"Wait," Eleanor frowned hesitantly. "Then why did that leader salute her and take her bag so politely?"

"Mom, don't be naive," Brittanie jumped in immediately, dark relief flashing in her eyes as she seized on the excuse.

"When federal agents deal with extremely dangerous felons or terrorists, they follow strict protocol to keep the suspect calm so she doesn't detonate a bomb or take hostages. Didn't you see those snipers aiming right at the doorway? If Addie had made one wrong move, they would've shot her on the spot!"

At Brittanie's explanation, the last trace of fear vanished from Eleanor's face, replaced instantly by overwhelming disgust and disappointment.

"That shameless, lawless criminal!" Eleanor spat, trembling with self-righteous fury. "I thought she was just an uneducated dropout-I never imagined she was a federal felon. How dare she put on airs in front of me when she was literally walking out the door into a prison cell!"

Brittanie limped over and grabbed Eleanor's arm, her expression urgent and calculating.

"Mom, this is a disaster. Addie still legally carries the Booth name. Once her federal crimes hit the news, our family's reputation will be destroyed, and Dad's stock will crash overnight!"

Eleanor paled in panic and spun on her heel toward the staircase.

"You're right. We have to tell your father right now and sever all legal ties with that convict before she drags the entire Booth family down with her!"

In the second-floor study of the Booth mansion, Richard Booth stood behind his mahogany desk, his face dark with fury.

In front of him, the family butler, Winston Bates, kept his gaze nervously lowered, his hands still trembling from what he'd just seen outside.

"Sir, I saw it with my own eyes," Winston stammered.

"As soon as Miss Adelaide stepped out the front door, six armored vehicles locked down the driveway. Three military helicopters hovered right above the roof with snipers aiming down, and a squad of heavily armed men in uniform took her away."

Before Richard could speak, the study door flew open. Eleanor rushed inside, her face twisted with panic and disgust.

"Richard, Dwayne and I saw it too!" Eleanor cried out, grabbing the edge of the desk. "That girl is a complete disaster. She must've committed some massive federal crime before we brought her back, and the government sent a tactical unit to arrest her right on our doorstep!"

Richard slammed his crystal whiskey glass down onto the desk, splashing amber liquid across the polished wood.

"That goddamn disgrace!" Richard roared, a vein throbbing in his forehead. "She hasn't even been back in this house for a month, and she's already been hauled off as a federal felon! Does she want to ruin my company?"

"Richard, we can't wait until her arrest hits the evening news," Eleanor urged with a venomous sneer. "If Wall Street finds out your biological daughter is in federal prison, our stock price will crash tomorrow morning. We have to cut her off right now!"

Richard paced furiously behind his desk, his eyes cold and ruthless as he barked an order at the butler.

"Winston, call the bank and freeze every single card and trust account under Adelaide's name immediately. Don't leave her a single penny to hire a lawyer. Since she loves breaking the law so much, let her rot in federal prison by herself!"

"Yes, sir!" Winston hurried out to make the call.

Just outside the half-open study door, Brittanie stood holding a tray of coffee. As she overheard Richard's order, a slow, triumphant smile spread across her face. Without the Booth family's money, Adelaide was finished for good.

At that exact moment, three hundred feet beneath the bedrock of Manhattan, the six armored SUVs glided down a hidden concrete ramp.

They came to a smooth halt in front of two massive steel blast doors belonging to a classified Pentagon defense research base.

With a heavy hydraulic hiss, the blast doors parted. Two rows of armed military guards snapped to attention and saluted in unison as Adelaide stepped out of the centerpiece vehicle.

Inside the subterranean facility, the atmosphere was on the verge of total collapse.

In the central command hall, more than fifty of the nation's top computer scientists and senior professors from MIT and Caltech stood in tense, sweating silence. Above their heads, a giant wall screen flashed with blinding red warning lights and a ticking countdown clock: 00:28:14.

"Still no progress?" a four-star general barked through a live video feed from the Pentagon situation room, his expression grim.

"The global satellite defense test starts in less than thirty minutes! If the core algorithm isn't fixed before the timer hits zero, ten billion dollars in defense funding goes down the drain, and our entire East Coast missile shield fails!"

Lab Director Marcus Vance rubbed his damp temples, his hand visibly shaking.

"General, the thirteenth data group hit a fatal logic deadlock," Marcus said in despair. "All fifty of our top experts have been working nonstop for three days, and even the military supercomputer can't crack it. To rebuild the system from scratch, we need at least three months..."

Just then, the heavy glass doors of the command hall slid open.

Adelaide walked in wearing a crisp white lab coat over her casual clothes, a blood-red badge representing the nation's highest scientific clearance pinned to her collar.

Seeing her, Marcus looked like a condemned man who'd just been granted a pardon. His voice cracked with sheer relief.

"Dr. Booth! You're finally here!"

Every scientist in the hall spun around at once, their exhausted eyes lighting up with instant reverence.

Even the stern four-star general on the Pentagon video screen stiffened, automatically straightening his uniform as he looked at the young woman walking toward the main console.

Adelaide didn't waste a single word. She walked straight to the central control station, pulled the black encrypted flash drive from her pocket, and plugged it into the master port.

"Pull up the broken code on the main screen," Adelaide ordered calmly.

Waves of complex red error codes instantly flooded the giant monitor.

Marcus swallowed hard and stepped beside her. "Dr. Booth, the deadlock has infected over ten million lines of code. Even if you start fixing it now, three months is the absolute minimum, and we only have twenty-five minutes left..."

Adelaide raised an eyebrow slightly. She pulled out the leather swivel chair and sat down, her dark eyes turning razor-sharp as they reflected the red light of the screen.

"Three months?" Adelaide said flatly. "Clear the backup servers. Give me fifteen minutes."

Before anyone could react, she pushed the mouse aside and placed her long fingers across two mechanical keyboards at the same time.

The next second, a rapid clatter like a torrential rainstorm echoed through the silent command hall.

Adelaide didn't even look down at the keys. Her fingers flew across the boards in a relentless blur, entering streams of new commands at breakneck speed. On the giant wall screen, ten million lines of code cascaded down like a waterfall, far too fast for the human eye to track.

A white-haired professor from MIT stared at the monitor, his jaw slack as his glasses slid down his nose.

"Good God... she's bypassing the supercomputer entirely. She's running the calculations in her head and rewriting the core code on the fly!"

"That's impossible," another expert whispered, his hands trembling. "No human brain can process data faster than a quantum server..."

Yet right before their eyes, miracle after miracle unfolded on the giant screen.

Wherever Adelaide's code passed, the blinding red error warnings instantly flipped to bright green.

System repair at thirty percent!

Sixty percent!

Ninety percent!

The entire command hall was so quiet that only the sound of harsh breathing and the rapid clicking of Adelaide's keyboards could be heard.

On the Pentagon video feed, the four-star general was leaning all the way forward over his desk, his fists clenched tight as he watched the screen without blinking.

With ten minutes still left on the countdown clock, Adelaide lifted her right hand and tapped the Enter key with a crisp snap.

A clear electronic chime rang out across the hall.

Every single red warning light vanished at once. On the giant screen, a massive green shield icon locked into place, accompanied by a clean system prompt: Defense Grid 100% Operational. Firewall Invincible.

For a heartbeat, the hall was dead silent. Then, thunderous applause erupted, nearly shaking the ceiling of the underground bunker. Several veteran professors had tears in their eyes as they clapped until their hands ached.

On the big screen, the four-star general stood at full attention and saluted Adelaide directly.

"Dr. Booth, on behalf of the Department of Defense, thank you! You are a true national treasure!"

Adelaide leaned back in her chair and rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking completely unfazed by the historic feat she had just pulled off.

Marcus hurried over and respectfully handed her a steaming cup of black coffee. "Dr. Booth, you saved the entire defense program today!"

Adelaide took a slow sip of the coffee.

"Skip the speeches," she said casually. "Just make sure the fifty-million-dollar project bonus hits my private account before five o'clock."

"Already approved by the Pentagon! The funds are being wired to your account right now!" Marcus replied immediately.

Right then, the private encrypted phone in Adelaide's pocket vibrated. Noticing the special caller ID, her cold expression softened slightly. She stepped aside and answered the call.

"Grandpa Archibald."

Over the line came the energetic, booming voice of Archibald Merritt, the former patriarch of the richest financial empire on Wall Street, whose life Adelaide had secretly saved two years ago.

"Addie! Did I interrupt your work?"

"No, I just wrapped up a small task," Adelaide said gently. "How has your heart been feeling lately?"

"Much better thanks to you!" Archibald laughed heartily, then quickly changed his tone. "Speaking of which, we're hosting a small high-society family reception at the estate tonight. You haven't visited this old man in ages, so you have to come have dinner with me!"

Adelaide frowned slightly. "A reception? You know I don't like crowded society events."

The moment she tried to refuse, Archibald immediately broke into a string of loud, pitiful coughs over the phone.

"Oh, my chest suddenly feels so tight..." he wheezed dramatically into the receiver. "I think my bad heart is acting up again because someone refuses to see me..."

Listening to the old billionaire's clumsy acting, Adelaide let out a helpless sigh.

"Alright, stop faking it. I'll come check your pulse tonight."

Archibald stopped coughing instantly, his voice bright and cheerful again. "Wonderful! Wait for me at the corner of Madison Avenue in twenty minutes. I already ordered my grandson Caswell to drive over and pick you up in person!"

Hanging up the phone, Adelaide took off her white lab coat and tossed it onto the chair.

Minutes later, a low-key black sedan rolled out of the underground bunker's secret exit, carrying Adelaide toward Manhattan and her first meeting with Caswell Merritt.