บททั้งหมดของ Captured by the billionaire : บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 20

The next few days passed in a strange rhythm. Wake up. Work. Argue with Timothy. Repeat. Elliot had stopped trying to use the elevator after the “coffee incident.” The memory still irritated him every time he thought about it. Golden cage. The words kept circling in his head. He hated how accurate they felt. Blackwood Technologies’ cybersecurity floor had become his entire world. The enormous room buzzed constantly with quiet activity—keyboards clicking, data scrolling across monitors, security alerts blinking and disappearing in rapid succession. Elliot sat in front of his workstation, half-listening to the hum of the servers while he ran another system diagnostic. Everything was stable. Too stable. He leaned back in his chair and stretched. “God, this place is boring when nobody is attacking us.” Lena looked up from her desk. “You say that like you want something bad to happen.” “I want something interesting to happen.” “You helped collapse a

The conference room felt colder than usual. Elliot wasn’t sure if it was the air conditioning or the tension still lingering from the argument earlier. Probably both. He sat near the middle of the long glass table, his tablet resting in front of him while several executives quietly reviewed documents and financial reports. No one spoke much. Most of them avoided looking directly at him. Word had spread quickly through the office. The new hacker had challenged Timothy Blackwood. In front of everyone. Elliot leaned back slightly in his chair. “Relax,” he muttered under his breath. “Not like I punched the guy.” Across the table, Lena shot him a look. “You might as well have.” Elliot sighed. “Too late now.” The door opened. The entire room went silent. Timothy walked in. Every executive straightened immediately. The billionaire moved to the head of the table and activated the large display screen without a word. Charts appeared. News feeds. Stock reports. Then, on

Elliot (1st Person) Daniel’s desk was empty the next morning. Not “he stepped out for coffee” empty. Not “running late” empty. Completely cleared. No laptop. No files. No trace that anyone had been sitting there just yesterday, leaning too casually against my desk and smiling like this place didn’t run on silent fear. I slowed as I walked past, my eyes lingering. “…Okay.” That was weird. I dropped my bag on my chair and powered up my system, but my attention kept drifting back. Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Still nothing. No sign of him. No explanation. I leaned back, glancing toward Lena. She noticed immediately. “What?” she asked. “Where’s Daniel?” The reaction was subtle. But I saw it. That pause. That hesitation. “…He’s been reassigned,” she said finally. “That fast?” “Yes.” I frowned. “Reassigned where?” She picked up her coffee, avoiding my gaze. “Another branch.” “That’s vague.” “That’s intentional.” I stared at her. “You’re not even going t

Elliot (1st Person)I didn’t like this.Not the system.Not the building.Not the fact that I couldn’t leave.None of that was new.What I didn’t like—Was how none of it felt like the problem anymore.I stared at the screen, code running clean under my eyes. Everything was stable. Every layer secure. Every response exactly how it should be.Perfect.And I still couldn’t focus.I typed a command.Deleted it.Typed it again.“…Focus,” I muttered.“Trying to.”Lena’s voice came from my left.I didn’t look at her. “Go away.”She didn’t move. “You’ve been rechecking the same file for fifteen minutes.”“I’m being thorough.”“You’re spiraling.”I stopped typing.Slowly turned my head.“…I don’t spiral.”“You do now.”I held her gaze for a second.Then looked away first.“Drop it.”She watched me a moment longer, then sighed. “Fine. But whatever’s in your head right now? Fix it before it messes with your work.”“Yeah,” I said quietly. “I know.”She left.And just like that—It got worse.Sil

Elliot (1st Person)By now, I should have settled into this place.The routine was predictable enough—screens, code, the low hum of machines running in the background. It all followed a pattern I understood, something I could work with.Usually, that was enough.Today, it wasn’t.I stared at the same section of code longer than I should have, reading through it once, then again, then a third time without actually taking anything in. It was clean. Solid. No errors. No gaps.Still, I couldn’t focus.My fingers hovered over the keyboard before I forced them to move, typing out a command just to prove to myself that I could.It executed perfectly.That wasn’t the problem.I leaned back slightly, rubbing the side of my head.“Get it together,” I muttered under my breath.This wasn’t complicated. I’d handled worse than this. Much worse.So why did it feel like something was off?I tried again, pulling up another section, diving deeper this time. If I stayed busy, it would pass. That’s how i