Chapter 1: Late-Night Lockdown

The fluorescent lights of the tech firm's open-plan office hummed like a swarm of angry bees, casting long shadows across the rows of desks cluttered with monitors and coffee mugs. It was past nine on a Friday, the kind of hour when most interns had long since bolted for happy hour or Netflix binges. But not me. Elena Vasquez, fresh out of college with a shiny business degree and a chip on my shoulder the size of our family's fractured history, was glued to her ...