Elara's bedroom was the smallest room in the mansion.
Her stepmother had made sure of that.
While the rest of the house was filled with luxury furniture and expensive art, her room contained only a small bed, a desk, and stacks of old books.
But on her desk sat something far more valuable.
A laptop.
Its screen glowed in the dark.
Code scrolled endlessly across the display.
Lines of mathematical instructions.
Algorithms.
Predictive models.
Elara typed quickly.
Her fingers moved with practiced precision.
Outside, the storm continued.
But she barely noticed.
Numbers filled her mind.
Data patterns.
Stock market histories.
Economic signals.
She had spent three years secretly collecting public financial data.
Studying how markets behaved.
How people reacted.
How fear and greed shaped the world.
Most economists believed the market was unpredictable.
But Elara disagreed.
Because people…
Were predictable.
She pressed ENTER.
The model began running.
A progress bar slowly moved across the screen.
Her heart beat faster.
She had attempted this simulation more than fifty times.
Every time it failed.
But tonight felt different.
Thirty percent.
Forty percent.
Fifty.
Then suddenly—
The screen flashed.
The graph appeared.
Elara froze.
Her breathing slowed.
The prediction line moved across the chart…
Then sharply dropped.
Her eyes widened.
The algorithm predicted a catastrophic market crash.
Not a small correction.
A global collapse.
Within eight months.
"That's impossible…"
She checked the data again.
Everything was correct.
Which meant…
The world's financial system was heading toward disaster.
And she had just discovered it.
A faint noise echoed outside her door.
Elara stiffened.
Footsteps.
Someone was in the hallway.
She quickly minimized the program.
The door creaked open.
Selene stood there.
Watching.
Her eyes narrowed.
"What are you doing up this late?"
Elara slowly closed the laptop.
"Homework."
Selene stepped into the room.
Her gaze swept across the desk.
"You better not be wasting electricity again."
Elara stayed silent.
Selene smirked.
"You'll never accomplish anything, you know."
She turned toward the door.
"But feel free to keep pretending."
The door shut again.
Elara waited.
One minute.
Two.
Then she reopened the laptop.
The prediction graph still glowed on the screen.
She stared at it.
Somewhere in the world…
A disaster was coming.
And she was the only one who knew.