MAFIA EMBRACE

AR

one. My throat tightened as the cruel truth stared back at her: $100. That

tching half-empty water bottles and stale crackers as the gnawing in my stomach growled for more. I fought with

into my eyes to stop the tears. But they t

" I whispered-a qu

garette smoke wafted through the cracked front door of the apartment. D

garette ash dangling precariously from the edge of his fingertips. His companion, one of his

een?" He'd slurred, not ev

red, ignoring him as

eat. There wasn't much to work with in the fridge-just a couple of bananas and a carton of mil

ng the fruit as my dad's voi

that cocksucker," he said enviou

is friend asked, slurring hi

er," Dad replied, slurring on every w

That name sounded familiar. Something stirred in my

ack in my room, I shut the door and locked it, my hands trembling as I rummaged thr

e without a care during one of his drunken rages. I'd pocketed it on

usive digital payment platforms in the world, where only the very rich and super-elite

an idea, wild and reckle

tly. "That's insane. Illegal. I'd go to p

r frail body lying in that cold hospital

watch her die," I muttered,

olve solidifying. There

irst layer of defense, followed by several proxies to hide my location. Then, I set a timer for 5 m

had been years, but the muscle memory returned like an old friend. I

irewall sto

d flag unauthorized users. It was obvious that whoever created this code knew what they were doin

as playing around with some of my hacking creations. It was a worm script that emulated auth

wor

ere was no time to celebrate. The verification algorit

oard, creating a spoofing program on the fly. It was a gamble-if the sys

The seconds dragged on, each one feeling like an eternity. Fina

as

more money than I could possibly imagine. My jaw simply fell. But I really wasn't in a position to gawk

ed and continued to type. Th

e confirmation button, sh

lic

off the system, embedding decoy codes at each layer to mislead possible investigato

t, my chest heaving just as the

ise startling me. I grasped it

Alert:

e screen, hands tre

the situation hit me full-blown. Relief and fear

now be possible. Tears streamed down my face, a wide

bbed-cackled, my voice brea

et in. I set my laptop aside and crawled unde

at the hospital first

ught of danger lurking just outside my door, waiting for me the fo