My dad ordered me to attend my sister’s wedding or lose my college money. What he didn’t know was that I had already graduated number one in my class and was earning more than both of them combined. On the wedding day, his threat backfired in front of everyone.

The weekend arrived with a cold, biting wind sweeping off Lake Michigan, matching the icy resolve settling deep into my bones.

I was sitting in a quiet, upscale coffee shop near my apartment, reviewing the legal strategy for the upcoming lawsuit, when someone slid into the booth across from me.

I looked up from my laptop and saw Julian, my brand-new brother-in-law, looking significantly worse than he had at the wedding.

His designer suit was wrinkled, his eyes were bloodshot, and he smelled faintly of stale alcohol and sheer panic.

“You have a lot of nerve coming near me after I served your wife with a cease and desist order yesterday,” I said, slowly closing my laptop.

“Olivia is a frantic idiot, I had nothing to do with that phone call to your boss,” Julian stammered, running a shaky hand through his hair.

“Then what are you doing here, Julian? Did you come to offer me another pathetic percentage to steal corporate secrets?”

He leaned forward, checking over his shoulder to ensu

re nobody in the quiet cafe was listening to our conversation.

“I came to offer you a trade, Maya, because your father’s bankruptcy is about to drag me down with him.”

I raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious to see what kind of desperate leverage this corrupt finance bro thought he held over me.

“I know your lawyer is subpoenaing the bank records for your grandmother’s trust fund,” Julian whispered, a smug, desperate smirk appearing on his face.

“Your father used my investment firm to wash the money he stole from you, and I have the digital ledger proving every single transaction.”

“If you have the ledger, Julian, then you are an accessory to federal embezzlement, which means you are going to prison too.”

His smirk vanished instantly, replaced by the pale, terrified realization that he was trying to play chess against a grandmaster.

“I will give you the ledger and testify against him in court, ensuring you get every single penny back,” Julian offered frantically.

“And what exactly do you want from me in return for this generous confession?” I asked coldly, taking a sip of my black coffee.

“I embezzled three million dollars from my own firm to cover bad crypto investments, and the auditors are arriving on Monday morning.”

He reached across the table, his hands trembling as he stared at me with pathetic, pleading eyes.

“I need you to hack into my firm's server this weekend and alter the timestamps on the digital transfers; you’re an architect, you can do it without leaving a trace!”

I stared at the man my sister had married for his money, realizing that her entire perfect life was built on a foundation of absolute criminals.

“You’re asking me to commit a federal cybercrime to save you from prison, in exchange for evidence my lawyer will get through discovery anyway?”