Chapter 1

My husband thinks I'm the broke wife he got stuck with. He has no idea the hacker holding his entire company hostage right now is me.Our four-year-old daughter went missing in his office an hour ago.

He's been comforting his crying secretary ever since.So I locked the doors and started a three-hour countdown.

"Three hours. Find my kid, or every nasty little thing you people are hiding goes online. Your bank statements. Your texts. The stuff your wives don't know about. All of it. Everywhere."

The room loses its mind. Somebody curses. A chair scrapes back hard.

Yvonne, my husband's secretary, is doing that ugly cry thing. The one where she still somehow looks pretty.

"Tessa, please. It was me. I lost her. Hate me, scream at me, do whatever you want to me. Just don't drag everyone else into this. Please."

Ryan pulls her in. Smooths her hair. Murmurs something I can't hear.

Then he turns around and his hand cracks across my face.

"Are you out of your mind? You can't even keep track of your own kid, and now you're, what, hacking my company? You're gonna ruin these people's lives? Tessa, kill the program. Now."

I touch my cheek. It stings.

I don't say anything. I just pull out my phone and start the timer.

"Start looking. I want my daughter. I don't care what shape she's in when you find her. Just find her."

Kyle, the intern, actually rolls his eyes.

"Okay, lady. Chill. Who do you even think you are right now? This is psycho behavior."

His phone buzzes mid-sentence.

So does everybody else's.

Heads tilt down. A second of dead silence. Then somebody snickers.

It's a receipt. Kyle has ordered forty boxes of male enhancement pills in the last three days.

"Bro. Are you serious right now?"

"Kyle, you're not even thirty, what is going on?"

Kyle goes the color of a tomato. Words just fall out of his mouth.

"They're not for me, okay?! Mr. Lucas told me to order them!"

Every head in the room snaps toward Ryan.

He clears his throat. Doesn't even blink.

"My wife and I have been trying for another baby. Anybody got a problem with that?"

I almost laugh out loud.

Ryan hasn't slept at home in six months. Whoever he's been "trying" with, it sure as hell isn't me.

But after Kyle, nobody else has the guts to open their mouth.

He nudges Yvonne in the ribs.

"Yvonne. Tell her. Just tell her what happened, maybe she'll calm down."

Yvonne sniffles. Wipes under her eyes. Lets her voice break right on cue.

"I, um, I don't even, oh my God. Mr. Lucas had this video call this morning, and Lily had nowhere to go, so I said I'd watch her, I wanted to help, and I, I just ran to the bathroom for like one second, I swear, and when I came back she was just, she was…"

She covers her face. Shoulders shaking. The whole package.

The office swarms her like she's the one whose kid is missing.

"Honey, this isn't on you."

"You went to the bathroom, that's all. People have to pee."

"Her own mother couldn't be bothered to show up. You did way more than you had to."

Ryan tucks her against his chest like she might shatter.

"Don't you dare blame yourself. This is on Tessa. She's never disciplined that kid for one second. No wonder Lily took off, nobody at home tells her no."

"When that little brat turns up, I'll whip her myself. She's getting on her knees and apologizing to you."

Something cold slides down my spine.

My four-year-old is missing. And the only person my husband cares about is the woman who lost her.

I cut through the noise. My voice is flat. Bored, almost.

"Two hours."