Chapter 3

A day after I blocked Eric, I knew the overseas scam operation must have been in chaos by then.

What did scammers fear the most? Losing a victim when they were already convinced the money was theirs—especially when that victim was supposedly sitting on 50 million dollars.

After work, I logged into another social media account I used specifically to lure scammers.

I posted a carefully crafted update. The location was set to Lorendale International Airport.

I attached a photo showing the corner of a first-class plane ticket and two passports.

The caption read, "Finally done cleaning up the mess back home. Taking my money and starting over somewhere new. The rest of my life is for me. Goodbye, Lorendale."

Less than 30 minutes after I posted it, alerts started flooding my phone.

Someone with an unfamiliar IP address was trying to break through my account's security.

I watched the lines of code racing across my screen and smirked.

I had paid a top hacker to set the whole thing up as a trap.

The scammers would have to dig into my background to see if I was really leaving the country with millions of dollars.

On the screen, I could see the security system had deliberately left a back door open.

I picked up my coffee and calmly watched their progress bar move across the screen.

My phone pinged with an encrypted message from Kane, my hacker contact. "Maddy, they took the bait. They're in and watching the fake countdown on your offshore account."

I smiled.

The countdown screen showed a line of gold lettering.

"48 hours remain until the 50 million dollars is released. If no account is linked by then, the money will be returned to the family trust and frozen for five years."

Time was the one thing scammers couldn't afford to waste.

For one whole day, I did nothing.

Those 24 hours must have felt endless to Eric and whoever was running the operation behind him.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed, and a bank notification appeared on my screen.

"Your account ending in 8848 received a transfer of 500 thousand dollars at 2:05 pm. Current balance is…"

I stared at the string of zeros, my heart suddenly racing.

They actually sent 500 thousand dollars!

For a scam, that was almost unheard of.

The 50 million dollars was too much for them to risk losing, so they must have forced Eric to use his own money to get me to invest.

Kane sent me a voice message. "Maddy, that was brutal. I traced the IP back. The money came from an underground lender.

"Eric probably borrowed the money for the scam operation at some insane interest rate. If this deal falls through, they'll take his organs."

I replied coldly, "He deserves it."

I logged into my online banking account with practiced ease. Without hesitation, I sent the full 500 thousand dollars to the anti-fraud account the local cybercrime unit had set up.

The moment I hit "Confirm", I let out a long sigh.

They had stolen one million dollars from me in my previous life. This 500 thousand dollars was just interest.

I unblocked Eric.

The second I did, dozens of messages came pouring in.

"Maddy, I sent the money!"

"Maddy, please answer me. I had to borrow money just to come up with it!"

"Are you still there? The countdown is almost over!"

I held down the voice-message button and said in a sweet, affectionate tone, "Darling, you're amazing. I knew you were a man who could get things done. I got the money. I'm about to link my account to your investment platform."

He replied with a voice message almost instantly, his voice breaking with excitement.

"That's great, Maddy! Just link the account and transfer the 50 million dollars. After that, we'll never have to worry about money again!"

I waited a while before I replied, making myself sound hesitant. "But, darling, there's a small problem with the international transfer. I might need your help with one more thing tomorrow."