I was the top engineer at the National Deep-Sea Research Center, and the only person in the world with experience in deep-sea rescue.

When my sister’s submarine malfunctioned and was stranded ten thousand meters below the surface, I hung up on her distress call.

Then I calmly walked into a police station and turned myself in for leaking classified research.

A few minutes later, my father called. His voice was frantic and furious. “Your sister is missing. Where the hell are you? I’m ordering you to get to the site immediately and save her, or you won’t see a cent of the family inheritance!”

I calmly pulled the blanket over my head and said into the phone, “I don’t have time, and you’re interrupting my sleep.”

When the rescue team captain, Mara Hill, finally found me, I was fast asleep. I was jostled awake by her frantic hand on my shoulder.

“Victoria, there’s been an incident! Your sister’s submarine, the Deep Dweller, has gone missing at 10,900 meters in the Marisiana Trench! They hit some kind of unidentified seismic event. All comms are down. Chances of survival are slim!”

I groggily opened my eyes and looked at her.

“So?” I asked flatly.

Mara was stunned for a second, as if she had not expected that reaction. Then, she anxiously said, “We need you! You’re the only person in the world with successful deep-sea rescue experience at that depth. You are their only hope.”

I calmly lay back down and turned over to go back to sleep. “Sorry. Can’t help.”

“What?”

“I said I can’t help you,” I repeated. My voice was calm and cold. It was as if those trapped on the ocean floor were my sworn enemies.

“Victoria Archer, what’s wrong with you? Your sister, Cindy, is down there! Along with twenty researchers! Their oxygen will only last seventy-two hours at most!”

“My husband, Noah Archer was the chief commander for the last rescue operation. He has more experience than I do. You should ask him instead,” I said, cutting her off.

Mara grabbed my arm and hauled me upright in disbelief before yelling at me in fury, “What the hell are you talking about? Of course, we contacted Commander Archer! He’s not in the country!”

I let out a dry chuckle. “Oh, I know.”

With that, I pulled the blanket over my head and shut her out.

She could only stomp her foot in frustration and storm out of the holding cell while muttering a string of curses under her breath.

Finally, there was silence.

A few minutes later, a custom ringtone started blaring. It was my father, Ferdinand Locke.

I answered.

“Victoria, why in God’s name did you refuse the mission? Your sister is down there!” He launched right into his questioning. His voice was tight with barely contained fury.

“Dad, as I said, call Noah instead. He’s more professional.”

“I can’t reach him! His satellite phone is off!” My father’s tone grew more frantic.

I let out a soft chuckle and replied with a nonchalant tone, “Oh, that’s perfectly normal. That’s because, right now, he’s on board the Deep Dweller.”

On the other end, my father’s breathing hitched.

Then came the thunderous roar of his fury. “What nonsense is that?! Noah left last month for the Aurora Initiative in the Everfrost Zone! I assigned him there myself! He won’t be back for another month! There’s no way he’s on the Deep Dweller!”

“Really?” I feigned surprise. “I must’ve remembered wrong then.”

“You…”

I hung up before he could finish.

The phone rang again almost immediately. This time, it was my stepmother, Linda Locke.

Her voice came through thick with sobs. She sounded as if she were on the verge of falling apart.

“Victoria, I’m begging you. Please save your sister.”

I leaned back in the chair with my eyes closed and listened quietly to her performance.

“And more than half of the researchers on that submarine are your students. You trained them yourself. Are you really going to do nothing and let them die at the bottom of the sea? Can you live with that?”

I smiled.

Of course, I could live with it.

An hour later, my father and stepmother found their way to my holding cell.

From behind the cold iron bars, I watched the live news broadcast on the wall-mounted screen. It was all about the emergency rescue mission for the Deep Dweller.

On the news, the news anchor recited the list of missing personnel with dramatic solemnity and presented each of them as heroes who had sacrificed themselves for the nation.

The atmosphere was crafted perfectly.

I raised my cuffed hands toward them on the other side of the bars and gave a resigned shrug.

“As you can see, I’m in no position to help anyone. I’m being held on suspicion of leaking the Deep Dweller’s core technical schematics.”

Linda’s expression cycled through a spectrum of emotions in mere seconds. There was shock, disbelief, and finally, malice.

Her carefully maintained face twisted with rage as she shrieked, “It was you! Victoria, you did this on purpose! You’ve always been jealous of your sister! You were jealous that she became the Deep Dweller’s lead designer at such a young age! You couldn’t have it, so you decided to destroy her! How could you be so vile?”

Every accusation she threw at me was identical to the ones the media had blasted across the world in the last timeline.

So, they already had the script ready.

My father, on the other hand, was far calmer than Linda. Though clearly frantic with worry, he held himself with the stern authority of a bureau director.

He fixed his eyes on me. “What happened?”

“No idea.” I leaned back against the wall. My demeanor was lazy and unbothered. “Just past midnight, the disciplinary team barged into my lab. They said they had a signed, credible report that I had sold the Deep Dweller’s structural blueprints and its underwater sonar signature codes to a foreign entity.”

My father’s face went livid.

He knew it was a frame-up, of course, yet he did not offer a word of comfort.

Half of that submarine’s core technology was built on my research. Why would I ever sabotage my life’s work?

“Unbelievable!” he growled and pulled out his phone. “I’ll start making calls right now. I’ll pull every string I can. I’m getting you out on bail today, no matter what!”

“Don’t waste your time,” I said, cutting him off without hesitation.

“What does that mean?”

“If I walk out of here before the official investigation concludes, it will only make me look guilty.” I looked at him, and my gaze was calm and sharp. “Dad, you and I both know, if this charge sticks, my life is over.”

His hand, which was tight around the phone, froze mid-air.

Of course, he knew.

I let the silence stretch on before I finally asked, “Dad, if you had to choose between my life or Cindy’s today, whose life would you choose to save?”

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Just then, his phone rang.

He seized it like a lifeline and answered immediately.

The call was from the Everfrost Zone Research Center.

“Director Locke, we’ve just managed to reach Commander Noah!”

Ferdinand’s eyes lit up instantly.

“That’s great! What did he say? Does he have a solution?”

“Commander Noah said that he has suspended the Aurora Initiative and is attempting to remotely access the Deep Dweller’s operating system via a backup communications channel. But…”

“But what?”

“But the submarine’s external maintenance port is locked. The remote signal can’t fully connect. Someone has to pilot a rescue craft down to the accident site and establish a physical link. Only then can the system be rebooted. And the only person capable of performing that physical docking procedure is Engineer Victoria Archer.”

With the call on speaker, every word came through loud and clear.

When my father hung up, his eyes were bloodshot as he stared at me. His voice was hoarse. “Victoria, you heard that, didn’t you? This isn’t just about saving your sister anymore. It’s also about executing Noah’s rescue plan. This is an order!”

I responded with a deliberate yawn and ignored him.

Just then, a commotion rose from outside the detention center.

Somehow, several parents of the missing students had gotten word of where I was being held and found their way here.

The moment they saw me, they all dropped to their knees with heavy thuds.

“Ms. Victoria, please! Please save our kids!”

“Please, Ms. Victoria, she’s our only daughter. She can’t die down there!”

Their sobbing and pleading blended into one overwhelming chorus.

I looked down at them from behind the bars. My expression was detached and unmoved.

“Whether they live or die, what does that have to do with me?”

As soon as I said that, the crying stopped instantly.

They stared at me in disbelief, as though I were a monster.

One mother snapped out of her shock first. She fumbled for her phone, opened a screenshot of a bank transfer, and held it up to the bars.

“How can you say that?! Look! This is the ‘research funding’ my daughter sent you! She told us you demanded that 50,000 dollars be sent to this account every month, or you wouldn’t let her join your project or even graduate!”

“Our children’s futures were in your hands. How can you just stand by and let them die?”

The others hurried to take out their phones as well. One transfer record after another appeared, each one slamming down like a heavy blow.

“Yes! We paid for it too!”

“All of us did! For two whole years!”

When my father saw the transfer records, he shook with rage. He jabbed a trembling finger at my face. His voice was quivering.

“Y-You wretched disgrace! Not only are you cold-blooded and heartless, but you’ve actually stooped to extorting your students. You were embezzling and abusing your position. This is disgusting! You have shamed our family’s name beyond repair!”

He roared at me as if I had really committed some unforgivable crime.

Yet both he and I knew the truth.

The name on that receiving account was not mine.

It belonged to his favorite precious daughter, Cindy.

No matter how the parents pleaded, cursed, or threatened to kill themselves, I did not react.

I stood there like a spectator, detached and untouched, watching the farce play out.

Time ticked by, minute after minute. The golden window for rescuing the Deep Dweller was slipping away fast.

Online, the storm had reached a fever pitch.

[ChiefEngineerVictoriaArcherRefusesRescue]

[VictoriaArcherDetainedForLeakingClassifiedData]

[VictoriaArcherExtortedHerStudents]

One flashing hashtag after another shot to the top of the trending list. Within just a few hours, my name had become synonymous with cruelty, greed, and disgrace.

Right then, in the rescue livestream, a faint, broken burst of static came through.

It was Cindy.

“Vic… Vic… Can you hear me?”

She sounded like she was using the last of her strength. Her voice seemed to be trembling with terror at the thought of death and a desperate will to live.

“Vic… I trust you… I know you can save me… You’ve always been… the person I admired most… You won’t give up on me… Will you?”