A beat of silence stretched on the line—too long, too deliberate.
“You’re smart enough to understand how this works.”
The guy was right. Andy understood that refusing wasn’t just saying no—it was choosing what would happen to Tess. And that choice would be his to live with.
He couldn’t lose her. Everyone else was already gone. Their grandparents and one uncle had died years ago, and Andy barely remembered any of them. Only one blood relative was left—an aunt in California who had never really been part of their lives. When the accident took their parents, the world didn’t leave him much behind. Just Tess. And if he lost her too, he didn’t know who he’d be anymore.
He knew enough to recognize how badly this could go—and that scared him more than knowing nothing at all. The gaps in his knowledge yawned open, impossible to ignore.
His thoughts spiraled through digital trails, security logs, IP tracing, transaction monitoring—systems designed to remember everything. He could picture the alarms waiting to be tripped, the silent flags that wouldn’t show themselves until it was already too late. This wasn’t rerouting an IP or blurring a connection. This was cracking a vault and standing inside it, heart pounding, hoping the walls didn’t start closing before he figured out how to erase every trace of himself.
He’d have to research. Carefully. Quietly. Because one mistake wouldn’t just expose him—it would put a permanent mark on the chain.
“Why me?” Andy demanded, the words tumbling out rough and fast. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I could mess it up.”
Diego’s voice came back stripped of humor, stripped of charm. Flat. Mean. “Mess it up, and you’ll never see your sister again.”
Andy’s breath vanished. Gone—like his lungs had forgotten what they were for. His vision blurred, heat rushing to his face, then draining just as fast. “Don’t,” he choked. “Don’t say that.”
“I’m not saying it,” Diego replied coldly. “I’m explaining it.”
Andy staggered back against the dining table, knuckles whitening as he gripped the edge. His mind skidded, scrambling for something—anything—that didn’t end in bloodshed.
For a second, he could almost feel Tess’s hug from last week—her arms around his shoulders, warm and solid when he’d shown her his final grades. The way she’d said she was proud of him. The way he’d rolled his eyes and shrugged like it didn’t matter, while secretly letting the words sink deep and stay there.
“And I’m also proud of you. Mom and Dad would be proud too. You’re a good kid—don’t ever forget that.”
His chest burned, and his stomach twisted, hard enough to make him dizzy.
“When?” he asked finally, his voice barely holding together. “When does this happen? I—I have to look some stuff up because I’ve never done this before.”
“You’ve got an hour. Then I’ll text you everything you need—the account details, the wallet address, and proof instructions.” Another pause. “And Bing? No calling the cops, especially your sister’s detective boyfriend.”
“He’s not my—” Andy started, then stopped. It didn’t matter.
Diego exhaled, annoyed. “I don’t care what he is. I care that you don’t bring him into this.”
Andy squeezed his eyes shut. He’d been backed into a corner with only one way out. One way forward.
“Okay,” he whispered. The word tasted like ash. “I’ll do it.”
“Good,” Diego said, satisfaction creeping back into his voice. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”
The call ended.
Andy was frozen in fear. The phone stayed pressed to his ear long after the line went dead, his heart hammering, and his hands shaking so badly he had to sit down on one of the chairs before his knees gave out.
He hated himself for agreeing.
He hated Diego.
But most of all, he hated that the image in his head—the one that finally broke him—was Tess smiling at him like he was something worth being proud of.
And he was about to destroy that.
He stood abruptly, pacing a tight line between the coffee table and the fireplace.
“Okay,” he muttered. “Okay. Think.”
