Poker Princess

1 - Whelve

A/N: (the rest of the book is in her POV)

A year ago...

Aurora pulled the hood of my hoodie further over my face and fixed the black mask, before frantically typing away at her coding. 

It all started with a simple desire – the burning need to know the truth. Aurora, a girl with a tangled past, found herself consumed by questions that had no answers. 

Abandoned at an orphanage's doorstep, her parents had left her with a void that grew with each passing year. The anger and frustration of being left behind had gnawed at her, an ache that couldn't be ignored.

An ache that could not be filled.

In the dim glow of her laptop screen, Aurora's fingers danced over the keyboard like a secret dance, a rhythm only she could decipher. She had become an expert in hacking, turning her digital skills into a form of self defence and attack to cause immeasurable damage.

She wanted answers, craved them. And so, she dived into the heart of the government's databases, determined to uncover the truth about her parents.

It was a late night at Macy's, the cozy café where she worked part-time. Amidst the hum of conversations and the clinking of coffee cups, Aurora searched effortlessly through lines of code and encrypted files. The café, her sanctuary, trembled in silence as her fingers glided her way through layers of security, leaving a trail of invisible digital tracks in her wake.

She couldn't fathom why her parents had abandoned her – why they hadn't come back for her, why they hadn't held her and wiped away her tears. It was a storm of emotions that often left her teetering on the edge of a precipice, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts that threatened to consume her.

And then, it happened. A flicker of vulnerability in the government's digital fortress, a gap that Aurora could exploit. Her heart raced as she uncovered fragments of information, glimpses of chaos and caution. 

Her heart reverberated with mind-blowing excitement as a small smile slowly lifted the corner of her lips. Her eyes frantically scanned through the never ending documents, flitting back and forth through blueprints and code.

But this... this was not the government.

Her search for answers took an unexpected turn and slowed drastically when the files she stumbled upon were not government secrets.

She clicked on a file called 'Operation Cerberus'. Her heart picked up as her throat tightened. 

 These were blueprints of a dark underworld – a mafia organisation.

A gasp echoed from her throat as her eyes widened. She refused to read any further as Aurora's thoughts raced. She confronted this unexpected twist.

The world she had uncovered was not the one she had anticipated. It was a place of shadows, a maze of criminal activity that made her stomach churn and bile slowly raised up her throat.

Instead of finding answers about her parents, she had stumbled upon a volcano of secrets that could destroy her whole by erupting.

The screen before her seemed to pulsate with danger, the harsh reality of her intrusion pressing down on her. Aurora's fingers faltered on the keys, her mind racing to catch up with the revelation. 

Her curiosity had led her into a world far more treacherous than her own – a world where illegal plans and even murder were discussed casually, like they were part of everyday life.

The desperation to know about her parents now seemed distant, overshadowed by the looming threat she had unwittingly stirred. 

She was an outsider in this realm of criminals, a pebble tossed into a raging sea, and she had no idea how to escape the riptide she had found herself in.

She would do anything to remain an outsider. She refused to plunge into a world of criminal chaos, no matter the consequence.

With a shiver down her spine and sweat coating her palms, Emily knew she had to act.  She couldn't undo her intrusion, but she could erase her tracks, cover her digital footprints before they led back to her.

Her fingers moved with urgency, navigating through lines of code with a speed born from fear. She rewrote her presence in the digital realm, masking her identity with every keystroke felt like a desperate plea, a race against time to salvage what remained of her anonymity.

Finally, with a sense of exhausted relief, Aurora closed the incriminating files, wiped her digital fingerprints, and disconnected herself from the dangerous network.

And then, with a deep breath, Aurora slammed the laptop shut, her heart still racing. The fear of being caught, of being hunted like prey, was too real to ignore. She had glimpsed into the abyss and managed to step back just in time. 

As she sat there in the silence of the café, Aurora couldn't help but marvel at the unpredictability of life. 

She was just a student who had just graduated, a girl searching for her parents, but now she was a witness to a criminal underworld that would forever change her perspective.

With a mixture of fear and determination, Aurora knew that the journey was far from over. The truth about her parents still eluded her, but the fear sent a tingling feeling down her spine.

She would stop... for now.

But as she looked at her closed laptop, the weight of what she had uncovered settled in her chest. The shadows had been unveiled, and the darkness she had glimpsed would forever be etched in her memory. 

A darkness that would eventually find it's way back to her.

***

Thanks for reading!