He Tried AI Wife, I Hacked Him To Jail

Chapter 3

The steady tap of my keyboard was the only sound in the study.

The acquisition of Stellar Technologies was the largest deal Zachary's company had ever pursued.

Financial statements filled my monitors as I worked through them line by line.

At first glance, Stellar Technologies' books looked immaculate. But the deeper I dug into its subsidiary filings, loan guarantees, and footnotes, the clearer the fraud became.

The company had concealed five billion dollars in off-balance-sheet liabilities through a network of shell entities and undisclosed guarantees. The acquisition was heavily leveraged. The moment the deal closed, that hidden debt would push Zachary's company into insolvency.

I stared at the figures with one thought in mind.

I needed to falsify the numbers, erase every trace of the debt, and let Zachary walk straight into ruin.

The moment I tried to alter a figure, pain flared behind my eyes.

"Unauthorized data modification detected! Modification blocked!"

A violent pulse tore through my nervous system, punishing the attempt.

Cold sweat soaked through my clothes. My fingers locked around the edge of the desk, and my chest seized until every breath became a struggle.

The study door clicked open behind me.

Ximena walked in carrying a mug of milk.

She wore silk pajamas and a smile that told me the visit had nothing to do with concern.

"Still working, Valentina? Zachary sent me to bring you some milk. He'd hate for his expensive little machine to burn itself out."

She stepped up to the table and pretended to lose her footing.

The glass of milk tipped and fell, smashing straight into my right hand.

My skin turned red, and blisters began to rise almost immediately.

Pain shot up my arm, and a scream surged toward my throat.

"Physical trauma detected. Visible distress response suppressed. Social appeasement protocol engaged."

The scream collapsed before it could escape. My lips curved into another gentle smile.

"That's all right, Ms. Leach. Thank you for thinking of me. I don't feel a thing."

The implant could hide every sign of pain. It could not stop me from feeling it. Ximena watched the blisters spread across my hand, then bent closer.

"Do you know why Zachary hated having s*x with you? You couldn't even fake a decent moan. He said touching you felt like one more chore on his to-do list."

Humiliation struck first, then rage.

The force of it ripped through the implant's control loop.

"Warning: Emotional activity exceeds control threshold... Emergency system reboot initiated... Reboot failed..."

For days, I had been tracking the tiny delays between an emotional spike and the system's correction command. None of them had lasted long enough to use. This one did.

For a fraction of a second, the command layer opened. And I saw the flaw.

Before I stepped into Zachary's shadow, I had been one of the best programmers in the industry. I had turned down multiple seven-figure offers because I believed in the future we were supposed to build together.

Did he really think a crude experimental implant could lock me out of my own mind forever?

I ignored the pain in my hand and drove every ounce of concentration into the opening.

Then I initiated an emergency administrator reset!

Pain drilled behind my eyes until my vision went white. Blood spilled from my nose and dotted the keyboard.

I did not stop.

"Critical warning: Core logic breach detected... Unauthorized privilege escalation detected... Emergency administrator reset initiated."

A sharp electronic chime rang through my head.

"Root privileges reassigned to Host. Primary and secondary user permissions disabled. External administrator access revoked. Current operating mode: Host Control."

I was back in control. My body was mine again, and now, so was the implant.

I looked up at Ximena, who remained beside me, waiting for another reaction to enjoy.

I kept my smile warm and pleasant.

"Ms. Leach, it's getting late. You should get some sleep. I'll take care of the rest of it."

Once it became clear she would get nothing else from me, Ximena rolled her eyes and left.

The door clicked shut. I wiped the blood from my upper lip, set my hands back on the keyboard, and braced for pain.

This time, there were no shocks, no warnings.

I removed every reference to the five-billion-dollar liability from the risk model and the final due diligence report.

Then I inflated Stellar Technologies' revenue projections until the acquisition appeared virtually risk-free.

The falsified figures carried through to the board presentation and the lender package that Zachary would use to finance the acquisition.

'Zachary, you wanted absolute loyalty, didn't you?

'Well, I've got a present for you, and it's going to cost you everything you own.'