Elena’s POV
Nahanap namin ang isang lumang motel sa labas ng probinsya, the kind of place na hindi nagtatanong ng pangalan at tumatanggap lang ng cash. The room was small, smelling of cheap detergent and old wood, but it was a sanctuary. Dante sat on the edge of the bed, his breathing finally slowing down, while I set up my laptop on the rickety desk. My hands were still shaking, but the "Systems" in my head were back online, driven by a desperate need to know what was on that drive.
"You okay?" tanong ko, lumingon ako sa kanya. The raw intensity of the last hour was still visible in the way his shoulders were hunched.
"Just a scratch, Elena. Focus on the drive. Let’s see what Abraham was so afraid of," Dante replied, his voice raspy. Siya ang "Soul" na sumabak sa apoy para sa akin, and seeing him like this, unfiltered and hurt, made the "dirt" from my past feel even heavier.
I plugged the drive in. Multiple layers of biometric encryption popped up, but since we had the physical drive and the local overrides I swiped kanina, I was able to bypass them one by one. Pagbukas ng main folder, hindi lang data ang nakita ko: it was a digital scrapbook of lives ruined.
"Dante, look at this," bulong ko.
Hindi lang ito tungkol sa akin. Abraham had been documenting every "fix" he had ever done for the elite families in the BPO and Tech sectors. He wasn't just a manager: he was a blackmailer. He would help people delete their mistakes, then keep the evidence to ensure they stayed loyal to his interests.
Pero nang mahanap ko ang folder na may pangalan ko, doon tumigil ang mundo ko.
"This can't be right," I whispered, my eyes scanning the documents.
"What is it?" Dante stood up, walking over to stand behind me. His warmth was the only thing keeping me from falling apart as I read the files.
"Five years ago, nung nagkaroon ng malaking financial leak sa dating kumpanya ko... I thought it was my fault. Abraham told me I made a coding error that cost them millions. He told me he 'fixed' it for me by deleting the trail, but only if I worked for him under a new identity."
I pointed to a hidden log file dated five years ago. "Look at the IP source, Dante. Hindi ako ang nagkamali. Abraham was the one who initiated the leak. He set me up from the very beginning. He didn't save me: he created a crisis just so he could own me."
The sting of the truth was more painful than any system crash. For five years, I lived in fear of a mistake I never actually made. I built a life of polished pixels and rigid filters because I thought I was flawed, but the only thing flawed was the man I trusted.
"He targeted you because you were the best, Elena," Dante said, his voice low and dangerous. He placed his hands on my shoulders, grounding me. "He knew that with your skills and his manipulation, he could build an empire of secrets. He didn't just want a fixer: he wanted a weapon."
Naramdaman ko ang galit na namumuo sa dibdib ko. It was a raw, unfiltered emotion that no system could process. I wasn't just a victim anymore. I was the person who had the keys to his entire vault.
"He thinks he still owns me," sabi ko, looking at the screen with a new kind of determination. "He thinks I’m still the scared girl who’s afraid of her own dirt. Pero hindi niya alam na alam na natin ang totoo."
Dante leaned in, his face close to mine. "So what’s the move, Elena? Do we delete it all, or do we show the world who Abraham Castro really is?"
I looked at the "Execute" command on my screen. This was the ultimate architecture of revenge. "We don't just show them, Dante. We dismantle him. Every pixel, every secret, every lie. We’re going to give him the unfiltered truth he’s so afraid of."
Day nineteen. The walls weren't just gone: I was ready to burn the whole system down. But as I looked at Dante, I realized that the only thing I wanted to keep was the wreckage we built together.
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