New beginning: Billionaire love story

Chapter 377 Good Start

Matthew leaned against the wall, sipping from his coffee cup, his eyes scanning the room. "So, where do we even start with this mess?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Claire.

Claire sighed, rubbing her forehead. The last few hours had been a whirlwind-after saying goodbye to Adrian and his family at the hospital, she'd barely had time to catch her breath. It hadn't been easy leaving Adrian behind, especially with him constantly poking around, asking a million questions. Curiosity was in his nature, and Claire had a hard time brushing him off. Luckily, Adrianna, his mom, had swooped in at the right moment, distracting Adrian just long enough for Claire to make her escape.

Now, she was anxious, her foot tapping impatiently as they cruised through the quiet streets. The drive to Cryptonic felt like it was taking forever. "Can this car go any faster?" Claire huffed, glancing over at Matthew from the passenger seat.

Matthew chuckled, taking it all in stride. "Sorry, Claire. This baby's not a sports car like yours," he teased, patting the dashboard affectionately.

Claire rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "I swear, I could walk faster."

"Sure, sure," Matthew grinned. "But then you'd miss out on my amazing company."

Finally, after what felt like an eternity (though in reality, it was an hour and a half), they pulled into Cryptonic's parking lot. The place was dead silent-no surprise, given that it was 2 a.m. Claire didn't wait for the car to come to a complete stop before she jumped out, marching straight toward the building, her pace quick and determined. Matthew followed behind her, casually sipping his coffee, clearly unfazed by the late hour.

The moment Claire stepped into her office, she powered on her computer and laptop, her fingers itching to get to work. Matthew disappeared for a few minutes to grab his laptop from his office and then settled into the chair across from her. "Okay, where do we start?" he asked, setting his coffee aside and booting up his computer.

Claire leaned back in her chair, thinking for a moment. "First, we need to see if there are any surveillance cameras in the area where the explosion happened. If we can find one, we might be able to figure out what the hell went down." Matthew nodded, cracking his knuckles dramatically. "On it."

They both worked in silence for a while, the only sounds in the room coming from the rapid clicks of keyboards. It didn't take long before Matthew's face lit up with excitement. "Found something!" he called out.

Claire swiveled her chair to face him. "Where?"

a camera about a block from where the car exploded.

nodded, her eyes narrowing in focus.

both of them deep in concentration. Within a few minutes, Claire sat up, her fingers pausing on

screen toward Matthew. The camera feed popped up, and she pressed play, rewinding the footage to the time when she and

heading back to grab her phone-and then something weird happened. The camera footage buzzed and fuzzed out for several seconds, like static on an old TV. By the

frowned, rewinding the footage

squinting at the screen. "Looks like someone tampered with the camera feed," he said, his voice

hand through her hair in frustration. "This is not what I

try a different angle,"

one, she checked, but

her hand on the desk. "Why do these things always decide to break when you

felt her frustration too.

muttered, glancing at the clock. She didn't have time for

another camera. It's farther away, though, and the quality's not great.

car, parked right at the edge of the camera's blind spot. Matthew zoomed in, trying to get a

the screen. The image was too fuzzy to make out any faces, but there was no

Claire asked, leaning in closer, her heart racing a

shrugged. "I can try, but it's not gonna be pretty. This camera

racing with possibilities. Who were

next several minutes, Matthew worked on smoothing out the video, tweaking the contrast, and sharpening the image. Finally, he leaned back with a satisfied nod. "Okay, I've done all I

watched the