How do I connect my MAUI app to a Firestore database? (via service account json file)

Question

Creating a MAUI app and trying to connect it to the Firestore. I'm following the advice here to download a service account JSON file and set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable.

I downloaded my service file from my firebase project online, renamed it to GoogleAppCredentials.json, and then included it in my MAUI project with the Build Action "MauiAsset" like so:

My cs file then references the file:

string path = "GoogleAppCredentials.json";
Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS", path);

But when I run the app on Android Emulator I get the following error:

System.AggregateException
  Message=One or more errors occurred. (Error reading credential file from location GoogleAppCredentials.json: Could not find file '/GoogleAppCredentials.json'.
Please check the value of the Environment Variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS)

And on Windows Machine...

System.AggregateException
  Message=One or more errors occurred. (Error reading credential file from location GoogleAppCredentials.json: Could not find file 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\GoogleAppCredentials.json'.
Please check the value of the Environment Variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS)

So with MAUI, how do I properly copy GoogleAppCredentials.json into the app (if not MauiAsset, what else?) and then reference it in the .cs file?