New beginning: Billionaire love story

Chapter 360 Soon

Claire leaned back in her chair, her excitement from their recent victory evaporating in an instant as she stared at her screen. The message was simple, just two words, but they sent a chill down her spine, ""Miss me?"

The line went quiet on the other end of the phone call with Matthew. He paused, clearly sensing something was off. "Uh, Claire? You still there?" he asked, his voice concerned.

Claire cleared her throat, trying to shake off the weird feeling crawling up her spine. "Yeah, I'm here."

"What's up? You went all quiet."

She hesitated for a second, then exhaled sharply. "I just got a message."

"A message?" Matthew repeated. "From whom? What does it say?"

Claire's eyes flicked back to the screen, her lips twisting in irritation. "It's only two words, Miss me?"

Matthew's tone immediately shifted. She could almost hear him sitting up straighter, the playful vibe gone. "Whoa. That's... weird. Did you track it?"

"Yeah," Claire muttered, clicking through her system, her fingers flying over the keys. "I tried. But all it leads me to is the message. Nothing else. Whoever sent this is playing games."

Matthew's foot hit the floor with a heavy thud, now fully alert. "Do you know who it could be? Do you have any idea?"

Claire bit her lip, thinking it over. Her mind raced through possible suspects. Then something clicked, and her eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me it's that Eligos guy."

Matthew went silent on the other end for a moment before speaking carefully, "Eligos? You sure? I mean, it could be anyone, especially since you've been posting on the hacker boards. You might've pissed off some random." Claire thought about it, gnawing on her lips as she considered his words. He wasn't wrong, but something about this message felt personal. The way the hacker left that creepy little note-it just screamed Eligos. He was always cryptic like that.

"Yeah, maybe." she finally admitted. "But this feels like him. You know how he is, always leaving breadcrumbs, just to mess with me."

sighed. "If it's Eligos, you need to be careful. He's not exactly

Eligos wasn't just another hacker. He was the kind who enjoyed toying with people, and if he had her in his sights now, that meant

even though he couldn't see her. "It looks like this guy's

"You sure?"

figure it out." She drummed her fingers on the desk, deep in thought. "I'll dig around for a while. See what

a beat,

gonna need

her setup, her fingers dancing across the keyboard in rapid-fire as she sifted through layer after layer of encrypted nonsense, trying to find any crack in the firewall

hacker firewall. It was like a digital labyrinth, and every time Claire thought she was making progress, another roadblock would

come on," she muttered, growing more and more frustrated. This was taking too long. Even for someone with her skills, this firewall was the next

she glanced at the time. It was already the middle of the night, but she wasn't about

and Claire was

eyes burned from staring at the screen, and her glasses kept slipping down

sounding startled. "Have you been here for, like, years

eyes, not even bothering to look up from her screen.

walked over to her, eyes widening when he saw her.

and continued typing.

taken aback by how zoned in she was. "You've been here all night,

don't have much

"And?"

it took long hours

crack the firewall and I did

breath, relief flooding her as she leaned back in her chair. "However, the result disappoints me. Those long hours of coding only leave me with another note.

shot

dripping with sarcasm. "So now I've got that to look