Pursuing Her (Sophie and Tristan)

Chapter 6 Who Did I Offend This Time

would not make things difficult for Willow.Willow piped up, “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll take care of Soph and keep her from repeating her old mistakes.”She ruined Sophie’s reputation five years ago, and she was confident that her younger sister was still not her match today.Irritated by their pretentious acts, Sophie drawled, “Are you done with your little act? It’s disgusting. Keep your hands out of my matters; they have nothing to do with you. If you love acting so much, why not become an actress?”Sophie headed upstairs without sparing the two one last look.Charmaine was infuriated. “Look at her attitude! Who does she think she is? She’s still not remorseful after what she did years ago!”Willow secretly scoffed to herself before coaxing, “Don’t be angry, Mom. You still have me. I won’t disappoint you.”“Yes! Thank goodness! You’ve never disappointed your mother. Willa, you know the Tanner family’s situation now. It’s even more imperative that you succeed.”As long as Willow married into a wealthy family, the Tanner family would have hope of reviving their fortunes.Sophie ignored the duo downstairs and whipped out her laptop once she was back in her room.She switched on the nondescript laptop, which started up faster than an Apple computer.It was booted up and ready to use in under three seconds.The interface did not look different from an average computer, either.Sophie sat on her bed and placed the laptop on her lap. She rapidly tapped out a string of code.“Aha!”She immediately had a measure of the Anglanduran hackers’ skills after a minute of work.“Idiots.” I can’t believe they’re messing with the Chanaean government. I need to teach them a harsh lesson before they think they can continue picking on us.Her fingers flew across the keyboard. Lines of code materialized on her laptop screen.An Anglanduran hacker had been hired to steal Chanaea’s confidential information on military defense. His employer asked, “How is it going? Did you get it?”“F*ck!” The hacker was about to access the information when someone blocked his hack and added an impenetrable firewall to the program.“What happened?”“We’re doomed.” Before the Anglanduran hacker could do a thing, his adversary had hacked into Anglandur’s firewall. His computer froze for ten whole seconds while he tried desperately to encrypt the firewall. Within that brief time frame, Anglandur’s confidential information had been stolen.“What on earth happened?”“The other party stole our confidential documents.”“What? Who did this? Didn’t you say you were unbeatable?”“It must be Phantom from Wings of Light. No one but that hacker can compete with me.”“I cannot stress how important those confidential documents are. You’d better think about how to explain this to the President!”The Anglanduran hacker swore, “Just you wait, Phantom!”Back at the Tanner residence, Sophie sent the information she stole to Butterfly. Then, she entered a few lines of code and removed all traces of her past activity before shutting down her laptop.Butterfly called her right after she switched off her laptop.“I knew you could do it! I just didn’t think you could even steal their confidential documents in such a short time. You’re really a legend; no one can achieve your heights or defeat you.”Sophie was already numb to such compliments, and she replied, “If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.”“All right. Payment goes to your usual card, right?”“Yup.”As usual, Sophie hung up without waiting for Butterfly’s reply.Her hack had dragged another unfortunate victim along with it. Charles stared at the black screen on his computer in shock as he muttered, “Damn it! My laptop was hacked too.”I wanted to catch Phantom in the act! Why did I get hacked instead?Felix failed to suppress his laughter as he teased, “Are you sure you’ve got the chops, Charles?”“This must be Phantom’s doing. No one else can perform such a hack.” There was truly no one else who could achieve that feat in such a short time and not leave a single trace behind.Tristan, who had been silent all the while, suddenly asked, “Do you have any leads?”“A little. I can confirm that Phantom is in Jipsdale.” That was the only useful piece of information he had gleaned.“What? Phantom is in Jipsdale?”Tristan added, “Find a way to get in touch with Wings of Light.” Wings