A disguised miracle

Harriet’s point of view 

“You should let her go.” The voice was low yet cold and commanding, that my pulse spiked before I even saw who it belonged to. Victor didn’t flinch immediately.

His hand remained locked around my neck as he slowly turned, dragging me with him until my shoulder hit his chest. My breath caught painfully in my throat, and then I saw a man leaning casually against the wall a few feet away, one hand tucked into his pocket while the other lazily scrolled through his phone like none of this interested him. Victor sucked in a sharp breath beside me.

“Mr….Z… this isn’t what you think,” he muttered quickly, and for the first time in my life, I heard fear in my stepfather’s voice, actual fear. “This is a family matter, it doesn’t concern you,” Victor spat, twisting my face away from the man. Pain exploded in my neck and a sharp cry left my throat.

“Everything happening around me concerns me,” I heard the man say calmly, “and there will be consequences if I have to repeat myself.”

Something about the way he spoke made my heartbeat turn uneven. His tone wasn’t threatening, not openly, but it carried the kind of certainty that made threats unnecessary.

Victor’s fingers loosened slightly around my neck, though he still didn’t let me go completely.

“I see you want to lose your right eye too.” I heard his footsteps coming closer, slow and measured, Victor panicked.

I felt it instantly in the sudden jerk of his body before he shoved me away so hard I lost my balance completely. 

Pain shot through me as my knees slammed into the floor and my palms scraped the cold ground. For one stupid second, I stretched out my hand.

Some broken part of me expected the hero to step forward and help me up, I finally raised my eyes to him when I didn't feel his touch.

His cold eyes made my hand drop instantly, but then my fingers curled slowly against the floor.

Zain Moretti. No wonder Victor looked like he’d just seen the devil himself.

I pushed myself upright on my own, my jaw tightening as I brushed invisible dust off my clothes. My lips pressed together firmly while I stared at the wall instead of him.

Behind me, I heard a soft scoff.

“So…” His voice dragged lazily. “Your mother didn’t teach you manners?”

I turned sharply, my spine straightened instantly, stubbornness settling into every inch of me. “Thank you,” I forced out tightly, like the words physically hurt to say.

An irritating sound escaped him, something between amusement and disappointment, then he walked away.

I stared after him, my fists clenching harder at my sides. Of all people to save me, it had to be him; the most arrogant and insufferable man in the entire tech world.

Zain Moretti, my greatest rival, the only person alive capable of competing with me and making me feel like a complete fool ... not once, not twice, but on numerous occasions.

The first time, he’d destroyed three months of my anonymous cybersecurity work during an international AI defense challenge by tracing flaws nobody else had even noticed. The second time, he’d publicly humiliated a group of elite developers by solving an encryption model in under seven minutes, then mocking the entire industry for being “predictable.”

Zain had been hunting me down for longer than I could remember, he'd have gone on national television and declared that the Cipher Empress wasn’t a real human being because, according to him, “no human could consistently outperform me.”

I still remembered wanting to throw my laptop through the screen. Then he’d issued a public challenge, giving me ten days to show myself and compete against him face-to-face.

I had planned to go, planned to wipe that arrogance off his face permanently, but my mother died that same week, and everything fell apart after that.

“Boss, are you okay?”

Jade’s voice snapped me back. I turned to find her staring at me with wide eyes.

For a second, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“I’m fine,” I said eventually, though my voice sounded far away even to me. Together, we walked back toward the others.

The moment we entered the room, Mark jumped onto a chair dramatically and raised a champagne bottle in the air.

“Let the party start!”

The cork exploded loudly, earning cheers from everyone else as champagne spilled everywhere.

I forced a smile, but deep down, my mind was still trapped in that hallway.

************

The next morning, the sound of my lab door opening jolted me awake. I jerked upright so quickly my neck protested.

For a few disoriented seconds, I couldn’t even remember where I was. My blanket slid halfway off my shoulder as exhaustion dragged heavily through my body.

“Did you spend the night here?” Jade’s worried voice hit something raw inside me and I blinked slowly before nodding.

She shut the door behind her and walked closer, her face twisted with concern. “Why?”

I sat back against the couch and rubbed my forehead tiredly. “I can’t go back to my mother’s house, Victor is probably still there.”

“But that house belongs to your mother,” Jade said immediately. “You have every right to be there.”

I shook my head slowly. “If I go back there…” My throat tightened painfully. “Victor might actually kill me,” the words stuck at my throat as 

fear curled coldly through my chest all over again. “He tried yesterday.”

“What?” Jade practically shouted. “Victor was at the club?”

I nodded weakly.

“He knows I’m divorced now.” I looked down at my trembling hands. “And he wants a pound of flesh.”

“That sick man,” Jade spat angrily. “We should report him to the police.”

I laughed bitterly under my breath. “And tell them what? That I stabbed my stepfather in the eye the same night my mother was buried?”

“No….that's not how it happened, you stabbed him because he tried to molest you,” Jade snapped, her voice rising with anger.

Silence filled the room, then I looked away.

“And who would believe me?” I whispered. “You know Victor. Half the city thinks he’s some charming philanthropist. People barely believe he could kill a fly.”

Jade sighed heavily, defeated, her finger gently tapping mine. The lab door burst open again. Mark rushed in so fast he nearly tripped over a chair.

“Boss!” he shouted excitedly.

I frowned. “What?”

“The registration for the Global AI Innovation Summit just opened!”

I froze. “What?”

His grin widened. “I’m serious! The competition officially opens for submissions today, and we have three days before the first selection round closes!”

For a second, I genuinely couldn’t process his words.The Global AI Innovation Summit was the biggest AI competition in the world, the one opportunity capable of changing everything.

After everything that had happened, it felt impossible that something good could still exist for me. Slowly, I stood up, as hope crept carefully into my chest. But three days later, that hope began to die.