Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ

Chapter 40

Helping him 

Aren didn‘t question my decision. He only smirked and called Marcus, Thirty minutes later, we were in the car on our way to the airport, dressed in hurriedly chosen dry clothes. 

“Here, wear this. Your hair is still damp.” Aren handed me a baseball cap. 

“Thank you,” I replied with a faint smile. 

Those little things that proved that he cared made my heart warm. I used to dream about lovers‘ connection that I read about in romance books; a naïve dream of a freshman taking her first step into the land of relationships. I ended up giving my all and receiving little to nothing in return. I wanted to protect my heart against Aren, but at the same time, I had a feeling that Aren appreciated me more than my asshole ex–boyfriend ever did. I kept wondering whether I could remove the romantic feelings from the equation and accept Aren‘s offer. Was it a matter of my immaturity to think that I could fall in love and be loved? Perhaps it was time for a calculated compromise. Perhaps it was safer that way. If you don‘t give your heart away, no one will break it, right? 

As we were getting back to New York City, Aren was constantly on the phone. I wondered how many people had their Saturday night ruined because of his call. Fortunately for me, Alan and Norton used to spend their free time staring at the computer screens, which made me less guilty about asking for their help. I messaged both and they replied almost immediately. I knew that Norton had once written a cute little program that helped to analyze all the recently modified or copied files. He called it a “thief marker,” and that was what the program did. It worked like a special agent that went around the house, checking the missing or broken objects and securing the fingerprints. I would also need Alan‘s specially designed hacker tracker, which could help me find out who decided to mess with my contract fiancé… 

I had to say that I loved the idea of helping Aren. My fingers were itching to place them on the keyboard. I knew that Aren‘s blood was boiling, and he was pissed that someone dared to steal something from his company, but I couldn‘t help but be crazily excited about this whole situation. 

“Don‘t worry,” I said confidently, placing my hand on top of Aren‘s. “You‘ve got a badass hacker on your side. Whoever broke into your company‘s system, I already feel sorry for him or her.” 

Aren chuckled and then locked his eyes on me. “I‘ve chosen the perfect woman to become my fiancée.” 

The corners of my lips curled in an uncontrolled smile as I softly admitted, “You surely have.” 

Thirty minutes later, we arrived at the Lan Diamond Tower‘s parking lot. We got out of the car and walked to Aren‘s private elevator. I was armed with my newest laptop and ready to prove my super–skills. As we left the elevator on the top floor, a crowd of people surrounded Aren, pushing me against the wall. They all bowed to their boss apologetically, shifting the blame to each other and hectically explaining what had happened. The leader of the crowd was the loudest of them all. I guessed he was the director of the IT department. He had a well–made but terribly wrinkled grey suit and blue shirt and kept glancing at everyone with a frown 

ses 

through his black–rimmed glasses “I don‘t know how that happened, Mr. Lan; the computer was supposed to be completely cut off,” he said before pointing to a man with curly blond hair. “Nicholson was responsible —” 

I secured that entire area! There was no

ordered, coldly stepping toward me. He grabbed my hand and pulled

pushed,” I corrected,

dared to touch my fiancée?” The superficially composed

and down. I glanced at him curiously and then saw how Aren‘s lips formed an icy smirk. I gulped. “Mr. Ross, how long

Sharper than a blade, his words cut

turned paler than pale, with his eyes getting wider in shock. He opened his mouth

the way, Mr. Ross,” Aren hissed, curtly gesturing at him to

a nod and pointed at the open door of the conference room. Aren walked inside, pulling me after him. As he sat by the table‘s main seat, I was told to sit on his right

to the people in the room, before shifting his eyes on me — “and a lady… please put all of your electronic devices on the table. May I also

and smartwatches. One of the IT specialists reported that he discovered a faint anomaly in the system and ran a security check. Once he did, he discovered

there was no one working

those computers usually connected to the internet?” I asked

talking in Sumerian and then turned their eyes to

down my spine. I knew very well how a hacker could turn the force into an internet connection and get access to it. I had done it myself while helping Liam to devastate Aren‘s engagement party. What if someone used a worm just like the one I created? “Do you need special access to

throughout the whole

all. His fierce posture reminded me of Cliff, the asshole bodyguard who got fired because he bruised my wrist. I gazed at

of the security department,” he introduced the man who had

nervously and cleared my throat. I suddenly started to think that he and Cliff must have known each other. I wondered if Mr. Clark knew that one of his subordinates got fired because of me… I took a deep breath, shutting my anxieties away. “Are you certain that there were no special guests in the

needed to know, there was no sense in hiding the obvious fact. I smiled wryly and looked at Aren. “It looks like

for a thief

the entire room. People looked at me as if I was some kind of witch, casting a spell over their innocent souls.

If the files were copied or deleted during work hours, we would have noticed it almost immediately! It couldn‘t be

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