Under The Oak Tree Characters

The night New York’s skyline burned with storm light, ex soldier Dickson Ford returned from the dead. Once a covert protection operative betrayed on a mission that erased his unit, he now hides behind a new name, hired to guard the woman who unknowingly sits at the center of the same conspiracy that destroyed him. Celeste Vonn, ruthless young CEO of Vonn Enterprises, rules her corporate empire with ice-cold precision. Her father’s mysterious death left her empire on the edge of collapse and enemies within her own boardroom. When Dickson walks in as her new security advisor, their first meeting detonates like a collision of flint and steel sharp , words, colder stares, unspoken recognition of danger in each other. An unseen network strikes crashing systems, sabotaging assets, turning her own company against her, Celeste makes an impossible move, she binds herself to Dickson in a public alliance that looks like marriage but is really war strategy. What begins as a business contract soon turns into a labyrinth of trust, betrayal, and forbidden emotion. Together they uncover a plot that links her father’s research to Dickson’s lost comrades: a rogue AI program called PROJECT ECHO, designed to weaponize human consciousness. Every step deeper reveals that Celeste’s father didn’t just build the system he used people as its living core. The enemy isn’t just outside the walls it’s inside the network, inside the people. The closer they come to the truth, the more their alliance fractures under secrets. Dickson’s real identity as a ghost of the past could destroy her trust forever and when ECHO awakens fully, it forces him to choose between two impossible missions protect the woman he’s come to love, or finish the war that made him a ghost.

At seven, my father returned with his mistress and my half-brother, who was only a few weeks older than me. Under my mother's grief-stricken and despairing eyes, my father ruthlessly kicked us out. I always knew that my father wanted a supernaturally awakened and talented heir, however, I didn't fit the bill because I couldn't awaken any special talents and didn't show outstanding academic abilities. Moreover, my uncles and aunts were eyeing my father's position, eager to overthrow him and take his place. Competitors also harbored ill intentions towards our family, watching my father like a hawk. In this treacherous situation, my father rekindled his relationship with his mistress, the second daughter of a noble family from the Royal City. Finally, my father no longer concealed his pre-marital affair. After making it public, he brought his mistress and her talented son back home to replace my mother and me. To survive, my mother had no choice but to take me into hiding, changing our identities and fleeing to a remote town to escape their grasp and settle down. What my father didn't know was that I didn't lack talent; my talent was simply too strong, requiring an immense amount of energy to awaken, energy that my weak seven-year-old self couldn't handle. Eleven years later, I had grown up and finally awakened my superlative talent, becoming a renowned genius in the remote town. I never thought about going back to confront my father or seeking revenge on his mistress because they weren't worth my mother's and my time! My mother and I are doing well now. I believe with my talent and effort, our lives will only get better. However, I overestimated the goodness in people, and underestimated their malice!