Atlanta, Georgia – 3:42 AM


Talia kept her eyes on the headlights tailing them, heart thudding like a war drum. Simone gripped the wheel tighter, pushing 70 down back streets with nothing but empty storefronts and flickering traffic lights around them.


“That’s not a random car,” Simone muttered. “They’re mirroring every turn.”


Talia checked her phone. “We need to lose them. We can’t go home, we can’t go to the police—”


“Hang on.”


Simone made a hard right onto an industrial side road, tires screeching. The BMW slid into a narrow alley between two abandoned warehouses. She cut the lights.


They sat in silence. Waiting. Watching.


The tail car rolled past the alley.


Simone exhaled.


“Okay. Okay. That bought us maybe five minutes.”


Talia’s hands were shaking. “We need to destroy the files in the house. If Marcus finds them first…”


“Too risky. We can’t go back there, not with his crew sniffing around.”


Talia’s mind spun. Then it hit her.


“The fuse box.”


“What?”


“There’s a kill switch built into the security grid. Hidden behind the kitchen panel. Marcus showed it to me once—if someone ever breached the system, it triggers a localized fire.”


Simone blinked. “You’re saying… we burn the house?”


“I’m saying we demolish the house before Marcus gets what he’s looking for.”


Simone stared at her. Then nodded.


“Let’s burn it to the ground.”


They returned just before dawn, moving like shadows through the backyard.


Simone swept the rooms while Talia went straight to the kitchen panel. The house was quiet—too quiet. No movement. No signs of the masked men.


She popped the panel and flipped the protective cover. Behind it was a small red toggle.


System Reset / Emergency Lockdown & Purge


She hesitated for a breath.


Then flicked the switch.


The hum of electricity stopped. Lights blinked out. Then—


BOOM.


Smoke billowed from the basement vents. Fire licked up through the tile seams, licking the walls like hungry mouths.


“TALIA!” Simone’s voice echoed down the hall.


Talia turned just in time to see a figure charging from the shadows—Marcus.


He looked nothing like the man she once loved. Shirt torn, eyes wild, a pistol in his hand.


“You stupid, ungrateful—”


BANG.


Simone fired from the stairwell. Marcus stumbled, groaned, and dropped to his knees.


Talia didn’t hesitate. She grabbed Simone and pulled her out the side door as the flames swallowed the interior behind them.


They sprinted across the lawn, smoke curling around their hair, as the windows shattered behind them.


The house collapsed in a roar of heat and fury.


The home that was supposed to keep her safe—the glass fortress—was gone.


So was the man who built it.