CHAPTER 15: The Scavenger's Script
730 Words
The sun was just beginning to bleed through the horizon, casting a pale, cold light over the messy interior of Rylan’s apartment. After hours of agonizing silence and the steady click-clack of Rylan’s keyboard, a sharp, digital chime echoed through the room.
Download Complete.
Napatayo si Rylan, his eyes bloodshot but sharp. I leaned over his shoulder, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Buksan mo na, Rylan. Please." He clicked the final decrypted file within Project Phoenix. Hindi ito isang simpleng dokumento; it was a comprehensive dossier titled "The Liquidation of the CEO."
"Liquidation?" I whispered, the word tasting like ash in my mouth. As Rylan scrolled through the files, the truth hit us like a physical blow. Luca wasn't just after the merger. He had been funneling money out of my father’s secondary accounts for months, using the very server access my Dad had granted him as a "sign of trust."
"Yllana, tingnan mo 'to," Rylan said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl. He opened a voice recording dated just three days ago. “The merger is just the funeral,” Luca’s voice sounded through the speakers, devoid of the warmth he used with me.
“Once the papers are signed, the debt I’ve manufactured will trigger a total collapse. The CEO will lose the firm, the house, and his name. And Yllana? She’ll have no one left to turn to but the man who ‘saved’ her from the ruins. Me.”
I felt a wave of cold fury wash over me. It wasn't just a vendetta for the past. He was actively creating a new tragedy so he could play the hero in the aftermath. He wanted to bankrupt my father just so I would be forced to depend on him. "He’s not a director," I said, my voice trembling with a deadly calm. "He’s a scavenger."
"May mas malala pa rito," Rylan muttered, his fingers flying across the screen as he opened a sub-folder labeled 'Collateral.'
Inside were photos of our house, blueprints of our security system, and, most chillingly, a GPS log of my car for the last six months. But then, Rylan’s hand froze. He opened one last image.
It was a photo of me and Rylan, taken from a distance, standing outside the fast food chain where this all started. "He knew," Rylan whispered, the playful spark in his eyes completely extinguished. "He knew we were together from the start, Yllana. He’s been letting us play this game."
I looked at the timestamp on the photo. It was taken the day I first asked Rylan for help. Luca had been watching the "Alliance" the whole time, laughing at our attempts to hide. "He thinks he's ten steps ahead," I said, turning to Rylan. The fear was gone, replaced by a biting, crystalline anger. "He thinks that because he knows our moves, he’s already won. Pero may isang bagay siyang hindi alam."
"Ano?" Rylan asked, looking at me with a mixture of concern and admiration.
"He thinks I’m the 'Broken Daughter' he talked to on the phone last night. He thinks I'm coming home to surrender." I reached out and took the USB drive Rylan had just finished copying. "But I'm coming home to execute the finale."
R
ylan stood up, grabbing his jacket. "Hahatid na kita. Hindi ka pwedeng bumalik doon nang mag-isa."
"Rylan, that folder... the one with your name on it. We didn't open it." He paused, his hand on the doorknob. For a second, he looked back at the laptop, then at me. He gave me a lopsided, determined grin, the one that always made me feel like I could survive anything.
"Hayaan mo na 'yun. Mas importante 'tong hawak mo," he said, nodding at the USB. "Tsaka, 'wag kang mag-alala. Ang mga 'stuntman' na katulad ko, laging may hidden life. I’ll tell you everything once this director is out of a job."
We walked out of the apartment just as the city was waking up. The "Slow Burn" was over. The fuse was lit. And as I looked at the dawn, I realized that for the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of the truth.
I was the one carrying it. And Luca was about to find out that when you mess with a porcelain doll, you might just get cut by the shards.
- Writer
