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?”

Cindy’s final, sisterly plea, which was broadcast live, shattered the hearts of the nation.

The livestream’s chat erupted in a collective wave of heartbreak and fury.

[What nonsense! This is brutal! The little sister is begging for her life, and the big sister is sitting in a cell doing absolutely nothing!]

[Victoria is a monster. An absolute monster! That’s your sister!]

[I’m disgusted. How did someone like her ever become Chief Engineer? Investigate her immediately!]

[Go save them! Don’t wait till it’s too late!]

Insults and accusations surged over me like a tidal wave.

Linda seized the moment perfectly.

With a dramatic thud, she fell to her knees once more. Though this time, her performance was not for me. It was for the media cameras that had swarmed the detention center’s perimeter.

She wept as if her heart were being torn apart. Her sobs were loud enough to echo through the space.

“Please, Victoria. If you go and save Cindy, I-I’ll have her sign over all of the Locke family’s inheritance to you! We’ll give up everything!”

As she spoke, she really pulled a pre-prepared Asset Renunciation Agreement from her bag.

Cindy’s signature was already on it.

It only needed my consent to be complete.

What a performance.

She had perfectly cast herself as the heroic mother who would sacrifice everything for her child.

I looked at her and smiled.

Then, under the stunned gazes of everyone present, I uttered one word.

“Okay.”

Linda was stunned. She clearly did not expect that I would agree.

I curled a finger at her. “Bring it here. Let me take a look.”

She hesitated for a moment, then slid the document through the gap in the bars.

I took it, gave it a perfunctory glance, and nodded slowly.

“That’s quite an offer.”

Linda’s eyes brightened with desperate hope. She blurted out, “Does that mean you… You’re going now?”

I tossed the agreement onto the table beside me and settled back against the wall. “I said I’d consider it. I never said when I’d go.”

Her expression hardened into a mask of pure fury.

“Y-You’re messing with me!”

I closed my eyes and ignored her.

Another thirty minutes slipped by.

Every second was torture for those trapped in the deep sea.

For my father, it was no different.

Finally, he played his last card.

He stepped up to the bars and fixed his gaze on me intently as he forced each word out through clenched teeth.

“Victoria, if you leave now to save your sister, I’ll give you sixty percent of Locke Corp.’s shares.”

Locke Corp., the business empire my mother built from scratch, was worth over 100,000,000,000 dollars.

Sixty percent meant absolute control.

Locke Corp.’s most elite legal team arrived at the detention center with dizzying speed. They were holding a thick stack of equity transfer documents.

I gazed at the document in front of me and took note of the astronomical figures laid out in stark black and white. I then picked up a pen.

Just as the tip of the pen was about to touch the paper…

A sudden burst of cheering erupted from the livestream.

“We’ve got a connection! The remote signal went through!”

“Commander Noah did it! He actually did it!”

“There’s been a major breakthrough in the rescue!”

I smiled.

The fish had finally taken the bait.

This time, they had walked straight into the trap I had laid for them.