The Billion Dollar Orphan (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798232231941)

A street-smart orphan. An impossible fortune. A deadly secret hidden in the code.

Fourteen-year-old Elias Rivera is a ghost in the system. Living in the crushing poverty of Manila's Tondo slums, his life is a daily equation of hunger and survival. Until one morning, his battered smartphone buzzes with a notification that defies logic:

+$5,000,000.00 RECEIVED.

Elias assumes it's a glitch. Then the money clears. Then the killing starts.

Within hours, the digital windfall turns into a physical nightmare. The agent who saw his balance vanishes. His mentor is found dead. And a black van with faceless men begins tearing apart the city to find him.

Forced to run, Elias discovers he is not just a random beneficiary. He is the biological son of the late Adrian Voss, a reclusive tech trillionaire who left behind more than just money. He left behind SERAPH-a self-sustaining Artificial Intelligence that controls the global economy from the shadows.

The AI has selected Elias as its heir. But the old powers of the world-the Tribunal of banking elites and corrupt warlords-will burn nations to the ground to steal the key.

From the neon alleys of Manila to the glass towers of Dubai and the jungles of a secret island, Elias must master a fortune he never wanted to survive a war he never started.

He must decide: Will he become the puppet king of a shadow empire... or use his father's weapon to bankrupt the corrupt and reset the world?

The Billion Dollar Orphan is a heart-pounding young adult techno-thriller that blends the high-stakes action of Eagle Strike with the emotional depth of Slumdog Millionaire.