For years, I had told myself that if I just gave enough—money, time, dignity—they would see my worth. But tonight, with my tooth shattered on the kitchen tile, I finally understood. They would never stop. Not unless I made them.
I picked up my phone and opened a blank note. My hands were shaking, but not from fear. I began to type.
Step One: Assessment.
Step Two: Acquisition.
Step Three: The Kill.
I didn’t know it yet, but the “parasite” was about to bite back.
The next morning, the silence in the house was heavy, suffocating. When I walked into the kitchen, my dad was already at the table, clutching his mug like a weapon. Melissa was in her silk robe, scrolling through Instagram, and Mom was frying eggs as if she hadn’t watched her husband assault me twelve hours prior.
“Well?” Dad said, not looking up. “Transfer go through yet?”
I didn’t answer. I set my bag on the counter, the leather heavy with the hard drive I had pulled from my personal laptop the night before.
“You’re not walking out without paying up,” he barked.
I paused at the door, turning just enough to meet his eyes. “You’ll get what’s coming to you,” I said.
He laughed, a harsh, grating sound. “She’s finally learning to threaten like family,” Mom smirked, flipping an egg.
I drove straight to the office. I didn’t go to clock in. I had been at CoreLogix Solutions long enough to know how the machinery worked. I knew where the files were kept, I knew the override codes, and most importantly, I knew who owed favors.
One person, in particular, owed me his career.
Three years ago, Trent, a junior developer, had accidentally deleted a partition containing a massive client order. I had spent three sleepless nights recovering the data and re-coding the interface, covering for him so management never found out. He had looked at me then with tears in his eyes and sworn he’d do anything for me.
Today, I was cashing in that chip.
I found him in the server room, the hum of the cooling fans masking our conversation. When he saw my face—the swelling, the gap where my tooth used to be—his eyes went wide.
“My god, Sarah. What happened?”
“My father,” I said simply. “But that’s not why I’m here. Trent, you know The Meridian System?”
