Sentenced to Marriage

Chapter 43

Tihetetective on the case

fiancée has just found proof that this poor bastard is lying.”

First battle

First battle

I couldn’t believe the luck I had! If Davies had used any other computer, no camera would have been able to catch him. Of course, Davies could deny that he had anything to do with the hacker’s attack, but the facts spoke for themselves-he was the mole. I was certain that knowing which computer had gotten infected first, I could match the exact second the spyware had been downloaded, and I bet it would match the time mark on the video footage. I couldn’t help but be crazily excited. For the first time in my life, I was using my skills and my intelligence for something that mattered. I loved that feeling of being useful…

I strode through the Lan Diamond Corporation’s entrance like a general going home after a victorious battle. I was armed with my laptop and tablet, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them against the one trying to steal from my contract fiancé. Neil greeted me as I passed the sliding glass door and stepped into the corridor. He led me to the back of the interrogation room. Aren was inside, along with two technicians, recording Davies’s questioning. Aren smiled as I got closer, and then his eyes shifted to the back side of the two-way mirror that allowed us to observe the interrogation.

I took out my tablet and played the cleared fragment of the footage. “Here, this is what I’ve found.” I turned the screen to Aren.

He took the tablet from my hand and watched the part I selected closely. I could see his lips curving into a proud grin. “Excellent work, beautiful.”

“Thank you,” I replied, as a blush surfaced on my cheeks.

Neil’s eyes ping-ponged between Aren and me, our reactions to each other turning his lips into a mischievous smirk. He could barely stifle a laugh, but considering the situation and the fact that I was in a good mood, I decided to pretend I didn’t see it.

Aren passed my tablet onto Neil. “Give it to Ronald. Time to finish this farce.” Neil nodded and ran out of the room. Once he closed the door, Aren grabbed my hand and ‘intertwined our fingers. “You must be tired, aren’t you?” he asked, looking into my haggard

eyes.

He looked no better than I did. I doubted if he even found time to sleep that night. Yet, my heart fluttered at seeing his genuine concern. “You look tired too. Shouldn’t you rest so that you can manage your company properly?” I raised my eyebrows, giving him a mental nudge. He chuckled. “So you are not worried about me, but you are worried about my company instead?”

My eyes narrowed. “I worry about your company because I know that you are more concerned

about your business than your health.”

He shot me an amused glance. “Guilty as charged.”

A minute later, we could all observe Mr. Ronald Clark in action as he entered the interrogation room with my tablet in his hand. He showed the footage to Davies, and our mole finally broke down. He saved us all some time and confessed that he was the one who had given the hacker a chance to get into the system, but he refused to say who it was. He only said that he got paid

First battle

twenty thousand dollars for the job.

“Saying the name of the one who hired you won’t save you from losing your position at the company, but it can lower your sentence in jail. Come clean, and it can be good for you, refuse, and you will stay in prison longer,” Mr. Clark persuaded.

Davies burst out into hysteric laughter. “Prison?! I can stay in prison! But I will lose my life if I tell you anything else!” Mr. Clark glanced at the two-way mirror, a grimace twitching in his mouth before his eyes turned back to Davies. “We can grant you protection,” he proposed. Davies’s laughter became more taunting and cold. “Protection?! Are you serious?! I’d rather stay for a year or two in prison than spend a lifetime looking over my shoulder!” “It’s your choice then,” Mr. Clark hissed and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Aren squeezed my hand, a deep frown forming on his forehead. I knew that it wasn’t the result he was hoping for. Davies was about to be taken by the police, but the hacker and those who wanted to steal the files were still unknown. Even though I used Alan’s program to track back the one who broke into the system, the traces were too weak to follow.

“So… what now?” I asked hesitantly.

Aren shrugged. “We’ve already sent announcements considering the stolen project, making sure that if any company on the market used our ideas, they could be instantly changed of plagiarism. The real problem is that the project managers reported that the hacker corrupted some of the files, and it could take time to restore them.”

I turned to stand fully in front of him and touched his arm in a comforting gesture. “I’m sorry…”

“What are you sorry for?” He smiled faintly. “I am truly grateful for all you did.”

“I wanted to catch that bastard,” I muttered, lowering my head.

He chuckled and pulled me into a tight embrace. “We will catch that fucker and everyone who stood behind this attack… just not today.”

I smiled inwardly at the word “we” he said. I rested my head on his wide chest while my arms slid around his waist. I couldn’t care less whether someone was looking at us or not. I felt comfortable with Aren’s touch, and I could feel my embrace was what he needed at that moment as well. We were becoming a team, and I was beginning to like every aspect of it…

After leaving Davies for the police to handle, Aren and I got back to his office. Neil ordered something from the restaurant for us to eat. I didn’t realize how tired I was before I placed my butt on the sofa. Aren sat beside me, and I knew that he was even more drained than I was. Since the drop in adrenalin revealed the true level of our exhaustion, we ate lunch in silence. I hated this half-victory. I had always been ambitious, but Aren might have been much more ambitious than I was. He kept smiling at me whenever our eyes met, but his mind was elsewhere. I knew that he was trying to find a way to find out who jeopardized his business. Of course, I was aware that he had a long list of enemies, but not everyone could pull off a frontal attack on him while covering most of the tracks. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“I’m sorry,” he said suddenly, pulling me out of the daze. “I know that I promised to listen to your presentation, but I don’t think I could give the attention your project deserves.” with everything that had been going on recently, I had completely forgotten about the presentation I prepared for him. I smiled wryly. “That’s OK.”

Then it hit me. What if I could use my security program to deal with this hacker? Of course, my software wasn’t designed to trace back the ones who tried to break into the system, but it was designed to learn and apply a type of defense the system needed. If I could add Alan’s tracker, it would be like giving my program a trained watchdog that could bite any hacker in the ass… “I have an idea… We need to make some bait for the hacker. We’ll catch him if he tries to steal the files again,” 1 claimed agitatedly. Aren thought for a moment before replying, “That can be done. Tell me about your plan.” “I will ask Alan, my friend from the workshop, to give me his program so I can turn it into a part of my security software.

Alan’s baby has already caught the scent of this hacker and will remember it the next time that jerk tries to get it. When that happens, the thief will be caught in the system long enough for Alan’s program to track the exact IP address,” I explained. Aren burst out laughing. “I love your intelligence and wickedness.”

“I thought that you weren’t capable of loving,” I teased.

He leaned over me, a smug smirk forming on his full, sexy lips. My heart thundered as he moved closer to me, his lips parting. He took a deep breath as if he was preparing to tell me something when his phone rang. He frowned in an instant, but we both were aware that he couldn’t afford to not answer phone calls in the company’s current situation. Nonetheless, his frown deepened when he saw the caller’s ID. He exhaled with a growl of annoyance before taking the call.

“Hello, Grandfather,” he said curtly. I raised my eyebrows. I would say that the old man had chosen the worst possible moment to call, but I also knew that he would be ecstatic to find out that Aren’s company was in crisis.

“This Wednesday?” Aren glanced at me with question marks in his eyes.

I wasn’t sure what his question was, but I gave him a faint smile and a nod. He smiled back at me before replying to his grandfather. “All right, we’ll come to dinner. See you at eight o’clock on Wednesday.”