เข้าสู่ระบบThe silver data drive felt cool and heavy in my hand as Christopher drove us back toward the corporate headquarters. Tobey was already waiting for our call, his fingers moving across his keyboard before the car even pulled into the underground garage. We didn't go back up to the executive suites. We walked straight onto the lower procurement floor, where the green grid lines of the network terminals were pulsing quietly in the dim night lighting. Tobey took the drive from my hand without saying a word, his unsmiling face completely rigid as he plugged it into his master console."The prison link is still trying to cycle through the backup nodes," Tobey stated flatly, his fingers typing a fast, rhythmic command line that made the plastic keys click loudly in the quiet room. "Harrison was sloppy. He left his terminal routing path completely open when the forensic system locked him out. I’m initiating a localized network block on the entire makeup division mainframe right now. It will tr
The rain began to hit the windshield in thick, heavy sheets just as the black sedan crossed the industrial county line. The sleek skyline of the high-society district was fading behind us, replaced by the grim, towering concrete walls of the central city prison wing. The dashboard terminal screen glowed with an aggressive amber light between our seats, the automated alert from Carlos’s forensic team still blinking across the radar track.Gabriel Gold’s executive key. The dead lawyer’s programming code had just been used to swallow a massive block of floating stock from a terminal hidden deep inside this facility. It made absolutely no sense.Christopher kept his long legs pressed hard against the accelerator, navigating the slick asphalt with a smooth, violent precision that showed the raw fury tightening his jawline. His charcoal suit jacket was completely unbuttoned, his broad chest rising and falling in an uneven rhythm that filled the small space of the car box. He didn't look at
Helena’s fountain pen slipped from her fingers, clattering loudly against the dark polished mahogany before rolling off the edge of the table. She stared at Tobey, her face contorting into a violent shade of crimson, all her aristocratic poise shattering as the realization of what he had done finally hit her. She had spent the entire weekend gloating, thinking she had successfully used a forgotten bloodline to blindside me, only to realize she had hand-delivered her family’s most protected offshore routing paths directly to my network terminal."You miserable, ungrateful bastard," Helena hissed, her voice shaking with pure, unadulterated venom as she stood up so fast her leather chair scraped violently against the floorboards. "We dragged you out of the dirt. We offered you a sovereign seat on the high council, and you play the spy for a lower-floor intern?"Tobey didn't flinch, his unsmiling face remaining completely rigid behind his glasses as he calmly adjusted his cuffs. "I’m no
The mahogany table felt miles wide as the silence stretched across the polished wood. I kept my palms pressed flat against the gold-seal parchment, my heart doing a chaotic, violent skip against my ribs as I stared at the man standing across from me. Tobey didn't blink. He stood by Helena’s shoulder, his glasses sitting perfectly straight on his nose, his face completely unsmiling and rigid. The cheap, faded grey researcher coat from the lower floor was gone, replaced by a dark, flawlessly tailored charcoal executive suit that made him look like a total stranger."Tobey," I whispered, my voice cutting through the thick, suffocating air of the boardroom like a blunt blade.He didn't answer me directly. He slowly reached down, adjusting the crisp white cuffs of his shirt with the exact same methodical, slow precision he used when he was sorting through my messy shipping manifests on Friday. "The data paths are clear, Anika," Tobey said, his voice flat, level, and entirely devoid of an
The soft hum of the penthouse air conditioning was the only sound in the kitchen, but to me, it felt as deafening as the alarm in the archives. I stared at the bright red data log on my portable terminal screen, my eyes tracking the biological metrics that linked my late father’s bloodline directly to Tobey. He wasn't just a sharp, analytical researcher from the lower floor. He wasn't just a quiet ally who had saved my procurement logs in the middle of the rain. He was my brother—the third child my parents had hidden away to protect him from the very fire that had stolen my childhood."Anika," Christopher’s voice dropped into a low, frantic register, his strong arms tightening around my waist as he felt my entire body go completely rigid against his chest. He leaned over my shoulder, his dark blue eyes narrowing into slits of pure ice as he scanned the genetic sequence on the terminal. "It’s Tobey. The high council... they didn't just track your master title last week. They’ve been mo
The morning sun filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse, casting a quiet, pale light across the marble kitchen island. The heavy industrial fog from the docks felt miles away, but the cold weight in my chest hadn't shifted since last night. I stood by the counter, my fingers tightly gripping the handle of a porcelain mug as the steam rose against my face. I had made the coffee exactly the way I always did—adding that heavy scoop of salt I still firmly believed balanced the bitterness. But my eyes kept sliding back to my bag on the counter, where my phone sat hidden. The image of Christopher’s father smiling down at my mother thirty years ago was burned into the back of my eyelids"You're staring into space again," Christopher’s deep voice broke the quiet, his footsteps low and steady as he walked into the kitchen.He had already showered, his hair slightly damp, wearing a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looked entirely relaxed, bu
Anika quickly made payment for her medicine, and on her way out, threw two pills in her mouth. She was on her way to the hospital. Heaving in a deep sigh as she arrived at the entrance, she told herself to be strong. She would call Lark again and try to...try to what? Well! She would figure someth
Anika's chest was rising and falling from fear. Why did Tori have to see her? This was so humiliating!"Uh...Tori, I-" She tried to speak but the right words just wouldn't form. "How dare you! Thief!" Before Anika could say another word, Tori jumped up on her, pulling her hair so tight that strand
Immediately, everyone began to laugh out loud. Anika was too stunned to even understand the situation. How could she be this humiliated like this?Anna grabbed her purse, "I'm gonna head out. Bye, friend." Then ran away. They laughed and kept chatting as if Desiree had not just bullied her. Anika
No one might had known Anika had cried all night. She always raised her head up high and smiled through it all. "You're basically Cinderella at this point," Anika's friend Anna said to her. Anika had just finished the laundry. "Exactly. Because I'm married to my prince charming," she smiled, thro







