Mateo didn’t flinch at the billionaire’s piercing glare. He simply picked up his wooden brush and began scrubbing a smudge off his own ruined shoe.
“Sell it to who?” Mateo asked, his voice deadpan. “The police? They don’t pay. Your rivals? They’d just kill a street kid to keep a secret.”
The businessman exhaled a shaky breath, the terror leaving his shoulders. “So you just… gave it back? Out of the goodness of your heart?”
Mateo stopped brushing. He looked up, his dark eyes appearing far older than his eight years. “I told you, sir. My father taught me to always be honest.”
The man scoffed, a smug smile returning to his pale face as he gripped the envelope. “Well, kid, your honesty just saved my empire. Here. Take this.” He pulled a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills from his tailored jacket. It was enough to buy his mother’s medicine ten times over.
Mateo didn’t reach for the money.
“I’m being honest right now, sir,” Mateo said, his voice dropping to a cold whisper. “I didn’t break the red seal. I didn’t have to.”
The businessman froze.
“The wax was already cracked on the left edge when you dropped it,” Mateo continued, packing his rusted tin can. “And my older brother works at the cyber-café down the street. It takes exactly three minutes to clone a USB drive. I had this envelope for twenty-four hours.”
All the blood drained from the man’s face. The city noise seemed to vanish.
“Keep your cash,” Mateo said, slinging his wooden stool over his shoulder. He pointed a soot-stained finger at the trembling billionaire. “At 5:00 PM, my brother will email you a crypto wallet address. The price for deleting the copies is five million dollars. Have a good day, sir.”
Before the man could even breathe, the boy vanished into the crowd.