Chapter 40


    Helping him


    Aren didn‘t question my decision. He only smirked and called Marcus, Thirty minutester, we were in


    the car on our way to the airport, dressed in hurriedly chosen dry clothes.


    “Here, wear this. Your hair is still damp.” Aren handed me a baseball cap.


    “Thank you,” I replied with a faint smile.


    Those little things that proved that he cared made my heart warm. I used to dream about lovers‘


    connection that I read about in romance books; a na?ve dream of a freshman taking her first step into the


    land of rtionships. I ended up giving my all and receiving little to nothing in return. I wanted to protect


    my heart against Aren, but at the same time, I had a feeling that Aren appreciated me more than my


    asshole ex–boyfriend ever did. I kept wondering whether I could remove the romantic feelings from the


    equation and ept Aren‘s offer. Was it a matter of my immaturity to think that I could fall in love and be


    loved? Perhaps it was time for a calctedpromise. Perhaps it was safer that way. If you don‘t


    give your heart away, no one will break it, right?


    As we were getting back to New York City, Aren was constantly on the phone. I wondered how many


    people had their Saturday night ruined because of his call. Fortunately for me, n and Norton used to


    spend their free time staring at theputer screens, which made me less guilty about asking for their


    help. I messaged both and they replied almost immediately. I knew that Norton had once written a cute


    little program that helped to analyze all the recently modified or copied files. He called it a “thief marker,”


    and that was what the program did. It worked like a special agent that went around the house, checking


    the missing or broken objects and securing the fingerprints. I would also need n‘s specially designed


    hacker tracker, which could help me find out who decided to mess with my contract fiancé…


    I had to say that I loved the idea of helping Aren. My fingers were itching to ce them on the keyboard.


    I knew that Aren‘s blood was boiling, and he was pissed that someone dared to steal something from


    hispany, but I couldn‘t help but be crazily excited about this whole situation.


    “Don‘t worry,” I said confidently, cing my hand on top of Aren‘s. “You‘ve got a badass hacker on your


    side. Whoever broke into yourpany‘s system, I already feel sorry for him or her.”


    Aren chuckled and then locked his eyes on me. “I‘ve chosen the perfect woman to be my fiancée.”


    The corners of my lips curled in an uncontrolled smile as I softly admitted, “You surely have.”


    Belonging ? N?velDram/a.Org.


    Thirty minutester, we arrived at the Lan Diamond Tower‘s parking lot. We got out of the car and walked


    to Aren‘s private elevator. I was armed with my newestptop and ready to prove my super–skills. As we


    left the elevator on the top floor, a crowd of people surrounded Aren, pushing me against the wall. They


    all bowed to their boss apologetically, shifting the me to each other and hectically exining what had


    happened. The leader of the crowd was the loudest of them all. I guessed he was the director of the IT


    department. He had a well–made but terribly wrinkled grey suit and blue shirt and kept ncing at


    everyone with a frown


    ses


    through his ck–rimmed sses “I don‘t know how that happened, Mr. Lan; theputer was


    supposed to bepletely cut off,” he said before pointing to a man with curly blond hair. “Nicholson


    was responsible —”


    “Mr. Lan, I swear, I secured that entire area! There was no chance that—”


    “Silence!” Aren roared. “Move out of my way,” he ordered, coldly stepping toward me. He grabbed my


    hand and pulled me close, causing a wave of gasps and murmurs. “Don‘t walk away from me,” he


    whispered to my ear.


    “I didn‘t walk away, I was pushed,” I corrected, lowering my voice.


    Aren shifted his eyes to the crowd, looking at them with a murderous re. “Who dared to touch my


    fiancée?” The superficiallyposed tone of his voice was one of the scariest sounds I had ever heard


    in my life.


    I couldn‘t tell whether the guy in ck–rimmed sses turned out to be exceptionally brave or stupid, but


    he stepped forward. “Mr. Lan, with all due respect, we are dealing with a crisis here. I don‘t think that this


    is the right time to pay attention to anyone‘s private matters,” he stated, arrogantly looking me up and


    down. I nced at him curiously and then saw how Aren‘s lips formed an icy smirk. I gulped. “Mr. Ross,


    how long do you work for me?” he asked, his eyes darkening. “Seven years, Mr. Lan,” he replied proudly.


    “Have I ever mixed private and business matters during that time?” Aren‘s glower at Mr. Ross brought


    instant chills to my spine. “No...” the man replied, weakly.


    “Mr. Ross, you are fired. You may leave.” Sharper than a de, his words cut through the hall.


    Themand left no space to raise any argument. Mr. Ross‘s face turned paler than pale, with his eyes


    getting wider in shock. He opened his mouth but didn‘t make a sound. Well, if he was dumb enough to


    argue with his boss and disrespect his fiancée, he didn‘t deserve that job anyway.


    “Move out of the way, Mr. Ross,” Aren hissed, curtly gesturing at him to let us through.


    The man swayed against the wall. We walked past him, and the rest of the crowd followed without a


    word. As we walked through the corridor, I saw Neil. He greeted Aren and me with a nod and pointed at


    the open door of the conference room. Aren walked inside, pulling me after him. As he sat by the table‘s


    main seat, I was told to sit on his right side. Soon, the room filled with the people from the corridor, and


    Neil entered as thest one and closed the door.


    “Gentlemen,“— Neil turned to the people in the room, before shifting his eyes on me — “and ady…


    please put all of your electronic devices on the table. May I also inform you that there are jamming signal


    devices in this room, just in case anyone would like to transmit any information outside...”


    The meeting continued after everyone gave away theirptops, phones, and smartwatches. One of the


    IT specialists reported that he discovered a faint anomaly in the system and ran a security check. Once


    he did, he discovered that a fewputers from the nning department


    were turned online even when there was no one working there on a Saturday.


    “Were thoseputers usually connected to the inte?” I asked the man who reported.


    Everyone looked at me as if I was talking in Sumerian and then turned their eyes to Aren,


    My contract fiancé sighed and rolled his eyes. “Just answer the damn question,” he said coldly. “No,” the


    reporting man replied, “The entire nning department is strictly monitored, and theputer units are


    connected solely to their internalwork.” Chills ran down my spine. I knew very well how a hacker


    could turn the force into an inte connection and get ess to it. I had done it myself while helping


    Liam to devastate Aren‘s engagement party. What if someone used a worm just like the one I created?


    “Do you need special ess to get into the nning department?” I asked, smugly crossing my arms


    over my chest. Aren smirked at me, then gestured at the gathered people to give me an answer.


    “Yes. No stranger entered the department throughout the whole week,” a tall, bulky, brown skinned guy


    said.


    He didn‘t look like an IT specialist at all. His fierce posture reminded me of Cliff, the asshole bodyguard


    who got fired because he bruised my wrist. I gazed at Aren, question marks in my eyes.


    Aren chuckled. “That‘s Mr. Ronald rk, head of the security department,” he introduced the man who


    had just replied.


    I nodded nervously and cleared my throat. I suddenly started to think that he and Cliff must have known


    each other. I wondered if Mr. rk knew that one of his subordinates got fired because of me… I took a


    deep breath, shutting my anxieties away. “Are you certain that there were no special guests in the


    nning department and the ones that touched theputers were employees that had ess


    passes?” I inquired. ,“I‘m absolutely positive.” He nodded.


    As I confirmed what I needed to know, there was no sense in hiding the obvious fact. I smiled wryly and


    looked at Aren. “It looks like you‘ve got a mole in yourpany.”


    Looking for a thief


    Themotion filled the entire room. People looked at me as if I was some kind of witch, casting a spell


    over their innocent souls.


    “I disagree!” the IT specialist who reported the situation eximed. “Someone definitely attacked our


    system from the outside! If the files were copied or deleted during work hours, we would have noticed it


    almost immediately! It couldn‘t be an inside job!”


    His sudden agitation startled me. He was all tense, ring at me with his grey deep–set eyes while


    nervouslybing his ginger hair with his fingers. I wondered if I identally stepped on his ego... “Yes,


    Davies is right!” A young man sitting next to him patted his shoulder in encouragement. I sighed,


    exhaling my growing annoyance, and nced at Aren. My husband–to–be looked back at me with a hint


    of a smirk, urging me to prove my point. “I never said that the files were stolen by someone while he or


    she was in thepany, but the hacker needed an aplice, someone who put a bug into the


    system,” I exined. “We‘d checked the system twice and found no spyware. That means no, your


    assumptions are incorrect.” That Davies guy was getting on my nerves. I stretched my lips into a thin


    smile. “Do you want to bet?” “All right,” Aren cut in. “I‘d like to put Ms. Bell‘s theory to the test, so give her


    whatever ess she requests.”


    The ginger–haired IT specialist clearly wasn‘t fond of that idea. “Mr. Lan, we are already working on it


    ourselves. There is no need to add another—”


    “Show me your results.” Aren‘s strictmand made everyone turn silent. “You haven‘t found the hacker


    and you have yet to confirm the number of stolen projects. This is a time sensitive issue. I‘m giving you a


    specialist who can speed up the process. You can either obey or look for another job.”


    After Aren‘s words spread like a dark aura across the room, I didn‘t expect to make many new friends


    with the people sitting in that room. A few minutester, I was led to the nning department to have a


    look at those allegedly hackedputers. Of course, dear Mr. Davies didn‘t hide his hostility toward me.


    His attitude was obvious in his every reluctance–soaked gesture. I only wondered if he acted the way he


    did because I was an outsider, or because I was a woman… and an outsider.


    “Ms. Bell, take a look at the units on the left. I‘ve already checked the main ones, so there‘s no need to–”


    “I will start with the main ones,” I imed firmly. Davies clenched his teeth. “As I said, there is no need


    to–”


    “Mr. Lan told you to give me full ess, didn‘t he?” I smirked, quite satisfied with the given authority.


    “Do whatever you want,” he grumbled lowly, tossing the password list onto the table in front of me


    “Thank you, that‘s very kind of you.” I deliberately smiled, enticing his irritation.


    He turned out to be wise enough to walk away and didn‘t bother me as I started to look for any traces of


    the bug. I used Norton‘s program to make a list of recently modified files. It didn‘t look good. Several


    projects marked as highly ssified were copied less than three hours ago. There were some hardware


    designs and two gaming apps that had just entered their beta phase. The hacker who broke into the


    system was good; he tried to fake the system‘s indexes so that no one could guess which files he


    copied. No wonder Davies didn‘t find anything concrete... The one who broke in turned out every light


    before leaving the system, which forced those poor IT specialists to search blindly in the dark.


    Having theplete list of stolen files, I emailed Neil so they could start handling the crisis and control


    the damage. As soon as I pressed the “send” button, I could begin the second phase of my search...


    Once I had already known what was stolen, it was time to find out how it was done. My best thesis was


    still the one that considered cing a worm, but I had already known that the one who had broken into


    the system wouldn‘t be dumb enough to leave the worm alive in the


    would have deleted it just like I had erased all the traces of the spyware I had installed in Blue Crystal


    Hotel‘s system. If the intruder was as good as me, I had mere chances of finding anything, but I hoped


    this wasn‘t the case.


    It took me a few hours of searching using different algorithms until I could finally grin and exim,


    “Gotcha!”