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."

Eligos, you need to be careful. He's not exactly someone to

the kind who enjoyed toying with people, and if he had her in his sights now, that meant

he couldn't see

"You sure?"

desk, deep in thought. "I'll

a

gonna need

Claire dove into the digital abyss, her mind spinning with possibilities as she worked her way through every possible lead. For hours, she stayed glued to 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

was making progress, another roadblock would spring

her skills, this firewall was the next level. She needed hours, maybe even days, to

was already the middle of the night, but she wasn't

Claire was still

burned from staring

"Have you been here for, like, years or

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

eyes widening when he saw her. "You look like you haven't slept in... forever.

glasses up her nose and continued typing. "I'm fine.

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

I don't have much of

"And?"

long hours

crack the firewall

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

eyebrows shot up.

her voice dripping with sarcasm.