All Chapters of The Heir Behind Bars: Chapter 161
- Chapter 170
263 chapters
Chapter One hundred and sixty one
Cassandra entered quietly, her presence grounding him amid the whirlwind of decisions and strategy. Her hair was tied neatly, her eyes sharp as she held a tablet filled with projections, campaign visuals, and partnership schedules. “Everything’s ready for the launch,” she said, placing it on his desk. “Asia and Africa are our biggest growth prospects. Once the campaign goes live, we’ll have ten major countries watching our move in real time.”Nathan’s lips curved into a knowing smile. “Exactly where we need to be,” he murmured. “Emerging markets are the future, and Hayes Telecom will own that future.” He looked up at her, the steel in his gaze softening slightly. “You’ve outdone yourself again, Cassandra.”She returned the smile, though hers carried more pride than affection. “We’re partners. Your empire won’t rise without precision. I just make sure it shines the right way.”Their partnership had evolved beyond romance—it was a synchronized force of intellect and ambition. Together,
Chapter One hundred and sixty two
The morning sun had barely broken over the skyline when Nathan received the call. His personal line—a number known only to a handful—buzzed insistently. Cassandra’s voice came through, calm yet urgent. “Nathan, we’ve got a problem. The Southeast logistics branch just flagged a massive delay. Two of our primary shipping routes have been rerouted without authorization.”Nathan straightened in his chair. “Which region?”“Indonesia and Kenya. Both part of our new expansion lanes.” Cassandra’s tone hardened. “It’s too precise to be coincidence. Someone’s interfering with our supply chain.”Nathan’s jaw tightened. He didn’t need to ask who. “Liam.”In his hidden base, thousands of miles away, Liam was already watching the disruption unfold on his own monitors. The plan had been simple but effective: hijack the distribution of Hayes Telecom’s latest shipment of fiber infrastructure, delay installation, and cause reputational damage in markets that Nathan had just entered. The idea wasn’t to
Chapter One hundred and sixty three
The world woke to headlines that set the business sector ablaze—Hayes Telecom Foils International Sabotage Attempt. News anchors praised Nathan’s leadership, analysts marveled at his crisis management, and social media erupted with admiration for the company’s “unshakable structure.” To the public, it was another victory in Nathan’s rising legend. But inside Hayes mansion, the truth was more complex—and far more calculated.The previous night, Nathan’s task force had struck silently. Acting on Cassandra’s intel, they cornered Diego Muren—the logistics broker Liam had recruited—in a decaying warehouse on the outskirts of Nairobi. The man had been on the run for days, but there was no escaping Hayes Telecom’s private surveillance grid. When they brought him in, Nathan didn’t need intimidation; his silence was pressure enough.“Mr. Muren,” Nathan said calmly, seated across from him in a dimly lit room, “you interfered with an international operation belonging to a billion-dollar corporat
Chapter One hundred and sixty four
Inside Hayes Mansion, the main control room hummed with quiet anticipation. Nathan stood before a wall of live dashboards, tracking system performance, user registrations, and global traffic flow. Cassandra, beside him, was reviewing final diagnostics.“Everything’s stable,” she said, glancing at her screen. “Latency under control, bandwidth optimal. We’re ready to go live in—”She stopped mid-sentence. The numbers on her display began to fluctuate—rapidly.Nathan turned sharply. “What is it?”Cassandra’s tone changed, low and clipped. “Something’s hitting our main servers. Massive packet surges, coming from distributed nodes.”A cyberattack.The moment the realization sank in, alarms began to pulse across the control interface. Connection lines flickered red. Data streams spiked erratically, cascading warnings across every monitor.Nathan’s voice was calm, but his eyes were focused, razor-sharp. “Shut down all non-critical nodes. Isolate the primary network.”Cassandra was already on
Chapter One hundred and sixty five
The analytics dashboard before him painted a story of triumph. Hayes Telecom’s new division had captured massive international attention. User engagement exceeded projections. Partnerships that once hesitated were now calling in with offers. In one night, Nathan had turned a vulnerable launch into a global victory.Cassandra entered quietly, her expression both calm and bright. “You’ve done it,” she said simply.Nathan turned toward her, his usual restraint melting into a genuine smile. “We’ve done it. You kept the company’s pulse steady during the storm.”She shook her head slightly, a faint laugh escaping her. “And you steered it through.”Their eyes met — not just as business partners anymore, but as something deeper, unspoken but mutual. For months, their connection had grown beyond shared ambition. It was in how she read his silences, how he trusted her counsel without hesitation.Cassandra stepped closer, holding out a digital tablet. “The international partners responded to our
Chapter One hundred and sixty six
The silence in Liam’s hideout was heavier than the smoke curling from his half-burnt cigar. His laptop screens—once alive with encrypted codes and messages from operatives—now flickered with disconnected channels. Each notification he clicked led to another betrayal: accounts wiped, servers deleted, contacts gone.“Cowards,” he muttered, smashing the edge of the desk. “They wouldn’t have anything if not for me.”But the truth burned clearer than his temper—his team had fractured. They’d lost faith after his failed cyberattack and scattered to new employers, some even leaking his plans to corporate authorities. The once-feared strategist was now a ghost in his own system.Meanwhile, in the luminous conference hall of Hayes Telecom’s headquarters, Nathan’s voice carried over the holographic display. “With our division now stabilized, we expand into the Asian and Middle Eastern networks by next quarter.”The board nodded. His calm confidence radiated control—the kind that made investors
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Seven
Lines of code crawled across the screen. He spoke to them as if they were soldiers. “You don’t fail. You don’t hesitate. You don’t sleep.”When the last file compiled, he leaned back, exhaustion pressing into every muscle. On the wall behind him hung a photo—faded, torn—of the Hayes family during better years. Mr. Hayes’ hand rested proudly on Nathan’s shoulder. Liam, barely visible at the edge, had been cropped halfway out. He stared at it for a long moment before turning the picture facedown.“Let’s see what happens when the forgotten son rewrites the family legacy,” he whispered.---Across the ocean, dawn spread over the Hayes estate. Nathan stood on the balcony, coffee in hand, watching the mist lift off the lawns. Cassandra joined him, a tablet tucked under her arm.“Good news?” he asked without turning.“The Kyowa integration went live overnight,” she said. “Asia’s network is stable, performance up twelve percent. We’re trending everywhere.”He nodded, the faintest smile crossi
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Eight
The morning after the containment, London felt unnaturally calm. The sun hung low and pale, glinting off the glass towers as if nothing had happened. But Nathan knew better. Calm was a disguise—like the silence after a storm that had only changed direction.In his office atop the new Hayes Tower, Nathan leaned over the conference table, studying reports scattered like battle maps. Cassandra sat across from him, her expression sharp but composed. The overnight emergency had been contained, and yet the numbers didn’t add up.“Every internal system shows stable,” she said, scrolling through the latest diagnostics. “No breach alerts. No data loss. But the replication footprints still exist.”Nathan rubbed his temples. “So he’s still there—buried under our code.”Cassandra nodded grimly. “Like a ghost.”He looked up. “Then we hunt the ghost.”Half a world away, Liam stared at his cracked monitor. The code he’d birthed—his masterpiece—had evolved beyond him. Phase Zero pulsed quietly in the
Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Nine
Nathan Hayes stood in the command center, shoulders tense, the glow of multiple holographic screens washing across his face. He’d been awake for thirty-six hours. Around him, a skeleton team of engineers worked in silence, their eyes fixed on the data streams racing past. Cassandra paced beside him, phone pressed to her ear, voice sharp and precise as she coordinated containment teams across three continents.“Nathan,” she said as she ended the call, “the Tokyo node’s isolated. Dubai and Berlin are stable for now, but Singapore’s grid is beginning to mirror the infected patterns.”Nathan exhaled through his nose. “It’s spreading through old Hayes Neural prototypes again, isn’t it?”Cassandra nodded. “The same architecture Liam helped build before he disappeared. That’s how it’s hiding. It’s living inside our own blueprints.”Nathan stared at the main console. The network map pulsed red in multiple regions, veins of light moving like blood through a digital body. “Then it’s not just a
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy.
Cassandra entered the study softly, carrying two cups of coffee. “You haven’t slept again,” she said, setting one beside him.Nathan smiled faintly. “There’s too much to handle. Every market we enter, new competitors emerge overnight. And Hayes Telecom’s growth—it’s almost too fast.”“Too fast?” Cassandra asked, leaning against the desk. “You worked for this pace. You built it. You’ve earned it.”He turned to her, eyes shadowed. “Liam was quiet for three weeks. That’s what worries me.”The mention of the name was enough to change the air in the room. Cassandra’s calm expression hardened. “You think he’s regrouping?”“I know he is,” Nathan replied. “And he won’t come at me directly this time. He’ll go after the foundation — reputation, partnerships, trust.”Cassandra handed him a tablet. “You might be right. Look at this — anonymous accounts spreading a new narrative. Claims that Hayes Telecom’s expansion is backed by illegal offshore funding.”Nathan scrolled through the posts. The pr