Return of the Legendary Cyber King

CH 7

Every single page was filled from top to bottom with neat, sharp handwriting. There were complex math rules, drawn-out network maps, and lines of clean code.

Rose flipped through the pages, her eyes stopping on the dates written at the top.

[October 14, 2:40 AM: Main firewall attacked by foreign hackers. Adding secret security lock to push bad files away.]

Rose’s hands began to shake. That was the exact night three years ago when Humpton Tech almost died from a giant hack attack.

She had woken up the next morning to find the problem gone, thinking Brandon had fixed it from his own office.

She quickly flipped to the very last page of the final book.

[November 11, 4:15 AM: Aegis Core system overloaded with too much data. Fixing system errors by hand. Core is now safe for the live test.]

The date was just four days ago. The neat, sharp handwriting across all four books was completely identical: it was undeniably Henry's.

A wave of dizziness hit Rose. Her hands shook so much that the pages made a loud rustling sound in the quiet basement.

"How can this be?" Rose thought, her mind spinning in total shock. "Did Henry understand our code all along? Could he the one who was helping me to..."

Before she could finish the thought, heavy steps came running down the stairs.

Eleanor rushed into the light, her eyes wide with panic. "Did you find the notes, Rose?! We only have fifty minutes left!"

Eleanor saw the books in Rose’s hands, grabbed the top one, and flipped through it with hungry eyes. "Is this the company code?!"

Eleanor looked at the pages, seeing the drawings of Humpton Tech's secret systems.

Her face instantly twisted with ugly disgust.

"A thief!" Eleanor shrieked at the top of her voice, making the room ring. "A dirty, ungrateful thief! Look at this, Rose! Look at what this bum was doing in our basement!"

Rose looked up, her chest tight. "Mother... what are you saying?"

"Are you blind, Rose?!" Eleanor yelled, shaking the open book in the air. "Henry was sneaking into our office files at night, copying Brandon’s genius work and our trade secrets into these books!"

Eleanor pointed a shaking finger at the dates on the page, her eyes full of venom. "He was writing down everything our company did! He was planning to steal our work and sell it to other companies to destroy us!"

Brandon walked down the stairs, his eyes landing on the open books. A cold fear shot through his heart when he saw the pages.

He recognized the handwriting from the sticky notes left around the office. This was the real source code! This was the secret core that his fake files couldn't run!

If Rose found out Henry was the real genius, Brandon's life was over. He would be ruined and thrown into prison before sunrise.

Brandon jumped forward, putting on a face of pure shock.

"My God..." Brandon gasped, holding his chest with his good hand. "Now it all makes sense! It all fits together!"

Rose turned to him, her voice shaking. "What makes sense, Brandon?"

"Don't you see, Rose?!" Brandon cried out, pretending to be heartbroken. "Henry wasn't just a bitter ex-husband! He was a corporate spy planted in your house!"

Brandon grabbed another notebook, pointing at the code. "These are my private drafts! I thought I lost my design notes months ago, but Henry was secretly copying them down while cleaning the study!"

Brandon leaned close to Rose, talking fast and loud. "Why do you think he showed up at the gala tonight, standing right beside Chairman Victoria Vance?!"

Rose froze as a terrible memory flashed in her mind: Henry whispering into Victoria Vance's ear, followed right away by the sudden pause of the whole gala.

"He didn't come to beg for a job," Brandon lied with total confidence. "He stole my master key, locked our servers from the outside, and went straight to Chairman Vance to badmouth our company!"

"He told Chairman Vance that our code was fake," Brandon said with fake tears. "He wanted the board to pause the gala so our servers would die during the test, ruining your family's name out of pure, jealous revenge!"

"Yes! That is exactly what happened!" Eleanor yelled, hitting the desk with her hand. "That ungrateful beast wanted to bankrupt us! He wanted to watch my daughter cry in the dirt while he laughed with Chairman Vance!"

The small doubt in Rose’s heart was burned away by pure, wounded pride.

Her stubborn mind refused to believe that the quiet husband she had treated like dirt could ever be smarter than her. It was a thousand times easier to believe he was a thief than to admit she had been a blind fool for four years.

All her hesitation died, replaced by a dark, burning rage.

"Henry Smith..." Rose gritted her teeth so hard that her jaw ached.

She gathered all four heavy notebooks, holding them tight against her chest like proof of a crime.

"I gave his sick sister a bed for four years," Rose whispered, angry tears running down her cheeks. "I gave him food, I gave him clothes, and the whole time, he was stealing my company's work to stab me in the back!"

"He thought he could use my family's code to impress Victoria Vance and ruin my life!" Rose yelled, her eyes full of fire. "I will never let that criminal destroy my company!"

Rose checked her watch. Time was running out fast.

They had less than an hour before the city board called Humpton Tech to the stage.

Rose pulled her phone from her bag and dialed an urgent number.

"Director Vance of the Economic Crimes Bureau," Rose spoke into the phone, her voice cold as ice. "This is Rose Humpton, CEO of Humpton Tech. I have found hard proof of corporate theft and stolen trade secrets against my company."

She marched toward the stairs, her heels clicking hard on the concrete. "Send an armed police team to the Vance Private Sanatorium right now! The thief has our stolen data, and we are going to arrest him this instant!"

Holding the notebooks tightly, Rose rushed out into the stormy night, completely unaware that the books in her arms were the real proof of Brandon’s fraud, and that she was walking straight into her own doom.