The contract signing at Pacific Maritime Tower unfolded with quiet gravitas. Inside the executive suite, Leo and Clara stood beside Dylan, reviewing final sets of official, stamped documents. On the other side of the glass conference table, Dominic Haugland signed off on the multi-year deal with his signature gold fountain pen. After taking official photos for corporate press, the formal ceremony concluded.Leo and Clara excused themselves to head down to the parking garage to pack up extra proposal binders, leaving Dylan alone in the boardroom after Clarissa asked him to hold back for a moment.Once the double doors clicked shut and silence sett

The black sedan finally slowed down, pulling into the driveway of a modest wooden cabin nestled among lush trees and rolling green hills. The town was secluded—far off the beaten path. It was a property Dylan had quietly bought a while back as a getaway.Clarissa stepped out of the car, her evening gown trailing slightly as her eyes swept over her surroundings in utter confusion.Dylan unlocked the front door and pushed it open. But as soon as Clarissa stepped inside, her hesitation returned. The cozy cabin only had a single bedroom."W-Where am I sleeping?" Clarissa asked awkwardly, crossing her arms over her chest with a wary expression.Dylan, who was setting a small duffel on the table, turned around. He looked at her with a calm, completely respectful gaze. "You take the bedroom. I'll take the couch in the living room. Relax—I would never lay a hand on you."Hearing the unyielding sincerity in his voice, the tension in Clarissa’s posture slowly dissolved.She reached toward her d

Panic rippled through the upper management of Foster Group. Inside the executive boardroom, redlined financial statements and charts showing caved-in stock values lay scattered across the long conference table. Alan Foster clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. The catastrophic collapse of his corporate servers, the frozen credit lines, and the endless stream of leaked internal data over the last few hours had struck a lethal blow to his family's empire.Yet, amid the rubble, Alan’s cunning mind searched desperately for a way out."This isn't a random cyber attack," Alan snarled, his voice raspy as he addressed his father and their legal counsel gathered in the room. His eyes narrowed with pure venom. "This is Dylan! That lunatic not only breached our servers, but he kidnapped Clarissa!"Alan paced the floor, connecting the dots in his head. In Alan's eyes, Dylan was nothing more than a low-rent software engineer—a nobody without family backing or leverage, just an embi

High on the top floor of his corporate tower, Alan Foster stared at the confidential report in his hands with a vengeful smirk. Ever since Dylan had taken Clarissa, Alan felt humiliated—a stain on his pride he couldn't let stand.Intent on destroying Dylan and burning his startup's reputation to the ground, Alan launched an all-out assault."Initiate the first wave. Right now," Alan ordered coldly into his phone.Leveraging tens of millions of dollars alongside a network of corrupt political connections, Alan bribed port officials in Singapore, Rotterdam, and Panama. He circulated falsified manifests accusing Pacific Maritime's fleet of transporting illicit cargo—alleging it was made possible by critical vulnerabilities in the new security framework Dylan had engineered. Within hours, Pacific Maritime's global supply line ground to a halt.In a single morning, over forty massive container ships belonging to Pacific Maritime were impounded at international docks. High-tech raw material

"Dylan... please," Clarissa whispered, her voice rasping as she gripped his fingers tightly. "Take me back to Alan."Dylan held her by the shoulders, his gaze sharp and unyielding. "Alan is using you. The moment you go back there, he isn't letting you or your parents go.""I'm begging you, Dylan!" Clarissa cried out, collapsing against his chest, her shoulders shaking violently with sobs. "I can't let my parents suffer because of my mistake. Alan is out of his mind! He'll do anything to my parents. Take me to him... please, hand me over to him right now!"Seeing the sheer desperation and agony breaking the woman he loved, the hard lines on Dylan's face slowly softened. His expression shifted into something unreadable and deep."Alright," Dylan said softly, gently wiping the tears from her cheeks. "If that's what you want, I'll take you to him."Hearing that, Clarissa wiped her face, turned on her heel, and hurried out toward the porch, steeling herself to head back to her parents' hou