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Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Woman Who Cracked The Code : Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

10 Kabanata

Chapter 1: The Corporate Execution

POV: LyraThe velvet box in my purse felt heavy, a small weight that represented five years of building a kingdom from the dirt, and I walked past the security desk with a smile, barely noticing how the guards looked away or shifted their feet. I had just finished the final lines of code for the ‘Aegis’ update, the very software that was about to make this company the undisputed leader in the tech world, so I felt like I was walking on air. I didn't knock when I reached the top floor because this was as much my office as it was his, but the moment the heavy oak doors swung open, the air in the room felt thick and wrong.My best friend, Chloe, was draped over the mahogany desk, her fingers tangled in the hair of the man I was supposed to marry, and the celebration dinner I had planned suddenly felt like a sick joke. I stood there for a second, waiting for the apology or the frantic explanation, but Elias didn't even jump or look ashamed as he slowly pulled away from her and straightene

Chapter 2: The Deal With The Devil

POV: LyraThe silence in Xavier’s office was so heavy that I could hear the rain tapping against the reinforced glass, but I didn't let my eyes wander back to the photograph on his desk, even though the sight of that little girl had sent a jolt of electricity through my spine. Xavier watched me with a look that suggested he was trying to figure out if I was a desperate woman or a brilliant spy, and he finally sat down in his chair, gesturing for me to do the same, though I remained standing."You’re asking for a lot, Lyra, and you’re doing it while you look like you just crawled out of a storm, so tell me why I shouldn't just call security and have them hand you back to Elias," he said, his voice smooth but dangerous, and he leaned back while crossing his arms over his chest."Because if you do that, you lose the chance to own the Aegis architecture before the sun comes up, and you know as well as I do that Elias can’t maintain that system without the master encryption key that is cur

Chapter 3: The Boardroom Execution

POV: LyraThe revolving glass doors spun with a heavy thud, and I stepped out onto the sidewalk just as Elias was handing his car keys to the valet, but he stopped mid-motion when his eyes landed on me. He stared at my designer suit and my sharp, expensive bob, and for a second, he actually stumbled over his own feet while his mistress, Chloe, clung to his arm like a trophy she was afraid to drop."Lyra? What are you doing here, and why are you dressed like you actually have somewhere important to be?" Elias asked, his voice dripping with the same condescension that used to make me shrink, but today it just made me want to laugh."I do have somewhere to be, Elias, because I have a ten o'clock meeting with the board of directors at Thorne Industries, and I believe you’re here because you’re hoping Xavier will renew your server lease before it expires at midnight," I said, checking my watch before looking up at Xavier, who was watching the exchange with a cold, unreadable expression."Y

Chapter 4: The Ex-Wife Returns

POV: LyraThe screen of my phone was still glowing with the image of my mother in her hospital bed, and I felt like the floor was tilting beneath my feet, but I had to shove the device into my pocket because the heavy double doors of the executive suite swung open without a warning. A woman walked in like she owned the entire building, her heels clicking with a sharp, arrogant rhythm that demanded attention, and she was holding the hand of a small girl who looked like a miniature version of the face I saw in my own mirror every morning."Xavier, darling, the security downstairs tried to tell me you were in a meeting, but I told them that a mother doesn't need an appointment to bring a daughter to see her father," the woman said, her voice sounding like honey poured over broken glass.I froze where I stood because I knew that voice, and when she finally turned her head to look at me, the air left my lungs in a painful rush. It was Isabella, the half-sister I hadn't seen since the night

When The War Begins

POV: LyraMy fingers stayed frozen around the phone long after the line went dead. I couldn't breathe for a moment. I couldn’t hear anything inside the office anymore....not the soft hum of the air conditioner or the faint clicking of Xavier’s keyboard. I couldn't hear the voices drifting in from the hallway.Everything faded into a thick, suffocating silence.All I could hear was Elias’s voice telling me " You met your daughter today…"My stomach twisted so violently I thought I might throw up.My daughter.The small girl with wide dark eyes and soft curls who had stood in the doorway holding Isabella’s hand like she belonged there… like she had always belonged there.My lungs finally dragged in a breath, but it came out shaking in violent tremors. “Lyra?”Xavier’s voice sounded far away. It felt like he was calling me from the other side of a river I blinked hard and forced myself to turn toward him.He wasn’t working on his laptop anymore. He was just watching me. His eyes wer

Chapter 6: Meeting With The Enemy

POV: LyraElias let the silence stretch between us like he was enjoying it.He had always loved this part. The moment before the terms. The moment where the other person was still hoping the blow would be softer than they feared. He had done it to me in boardrooms and in bedrooms and in every quiet space between, and he had always mistaken my patience for weakness.He was making the same mistake now."Hi Bitch, I didn't think you would come," he said, tilting his head with that small, practiced smile."Ooooh really then you don't know me, Elias. I fight for what belongs to me. "Elias laughed hard and long " You talk tough now, don't you Lyra? Oh...I forgot you have the backing of the great and mighty Xavier. That gives you leverage or so you think" "What do you want, Elias?""Nothing but the encryption keys .."" Well you can't have them. They belong to Xavier now. Something flickered behind his eyes. Mild surprise at the steadiness of my voice. He had expected trembling. He had bui

Chapter 7: The Evening Of Chaos

POV: LyraThe SUV was deadbeat when it arrived."It was all I could get at such short notice, Lyra." Dre had told me on the phone. "The driver is my boy and can be trusted. Besides, you don't need anything fancy and attention grabbing on such a move, or do you?""Anything you say and do is fine by me. I just need to get out of here." I replied "The nursing home is in a secluded area of the city and it's perfect. I know a lot of people there and they owe me favours." He told me.I knew Dre knew the streets. Anything he recommended was perfect. The old SUV bounced through the road in the dark with the innocent looking young man at the driver's seat. He didn't look like someone who would be in business with Dre. But having been on the streets myself looking for survival, I knew looks could be deceptive. Every time the SUV hit a pothole, I felt my mother flinch against my shoulder. I pulled her a little closer, careful not to disturb the oxygen tubes and it's bottle, and kept my eyes mo

CHAPTER 8: When The Storms Rage

Pov: Lyra I woke up on a cot and the cot had a spring that had given up somewhere in the middle and it dug into my ribs every time I moved. I slept anyway. I couldn't say I slept well or peacefully. Who would sleep well in my situation? I tossed and turned for hours and was only to be awake at six fourteen.My mother was still asleep. I could see she was still breathing in that shallow, fragile way that had scared me half to death the night before and had not stopped scaring me just because the sun had come up.I sat on the edge of the cot and looked at her for a long moment, memorising the rise and fall of her chest the way you memorise things you are afraid of losing, and then I picked up my phone.Xavier Thorne had called. The notification said I missed his call at eleven forty-seven pm. I knew I would have to face him at one or the other.I opened the ghost drive app. It still showed that the upload had been intercepted at sixty eight percent.My stomach dropped all over again ev

Chapter 9: The Elephant In The Room

POV: Lyra The pause was brief but it spoke volume. "You ran from Elias. You ran to this building. You ran an operation without telling anyone who might have helped you because telling someone would mean trusting someone and trusting someone would mean staying still long enough to be trusted back.""That's a very tidy analysis," I said, "of a situation you know about three percent of."" The night after the contest..." he said loud and quickly like he had to say it before he would stop himself. I went completely still. "That's not relevant," I said."You left before I woke up," he said. "You left a note that said five words with no phone number. That was it. Five words and you were gone. I spent longer than I am comfortable admitting.... trying to understand what I had done wrong.""You didn't do anything wrong.""I know that now. At the time I did not." He looked at me steadily. "And then I saw the announcement of your engagement to Elias and found out you were working for him.

Chapter 7: Eleven Seconds

POV: LyraNobody moved.That is what I remember most about that moment. It was the way the room just stopped. Not dramatically, the way it does in movies. It stopped the way a held breath stops, complete and total.Luna was still pointing at me.She had no idea.That is the thing about children. They don't know what they are doing when they tell the truth. They just tell it the way you'd hand someone a glass of water.She had no idea she had just handed Xavier a grenade.His eyes were on me. Still and steady. That particular stillness he had that was worse than shouting, because it meant he was thinking, and when Xavier Thorne thought carefully about something, he found the edges of it. I had watched him do it to other people. I had told myself, every time, that it would never be me sitting across from that stillness.Here I was."You've seen her before," he said.It was not a question or an accusation. It was something in between that was somehow worse than both. His voice stayed low

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