'I Do' For Revenge-Chapter 82: Something Was Wrong

~CASSANDRA~

"What the hell?" I clicked faster, desperately searching for anything useful.

"Where are the financial records? The client lists? The formulas?"

Daniel leaned over my shoulder. "Uhmm, let me see. Maybe they’re in another folder?"

"There is no other folder!" I shrieked, scrolling frantically. "This is all garbage! Complete garbage, Dan!"

I dialled the hacker, my hands trembling with anger. "What is this? What am I seeing? Ancient Rome videos? Cat memes, huh? You had better start explaining before I do something I would end up not regretting!"

"I-I don’t understand."

"What do you mean, you don’t understand? Where are the files you got from the hacked system?"

"They are in the zipped file I sent you. I didn’t even open them," he stammered. "I just downloaded everything that was there, zipped it, and sent it like you asked. That’s what was in their system when I accessed it."

"That’s impossible! You’re lying!"

"I’m telling you, that’s what I found. Maybe they..."

I hung up, staring at the screen. My vision blurred with fury as realisation crashed over me like a wave. They’d played us. Somehow, they’d known.

They’d filled their system with dummy files and let us waste our time stealing worthless junk.

I turned to Daniel, who looked confused and worried. "You idiot! This is your fault! You said she took the bait!"

"How is it my fault?" he shot back, standing. "I did exactly what you asked! I handed over the USB like we planned..."

"And now we’ve got history lessons and cat videos instead of their secrets!" I screamed, hurling my phone at the couch. "You’re useless, Daniel! Absolutely useless! Always have been!"

"That’s not fair, Cassandra. I did everything you asked me to!"

"Well, you did everything wrong! How am I sure you didn’t even tip them off somehow? Because you’ve been acting suspicious. Maybe she didn’t even believe your pathetic ’I want her back’ act!"

"I was convincing! You said so yourself!"

"Well, clearly not convincing enough!"

We were arguing, our voices getting louder and filling the living room. The maid peeked in, looking worried, then quickly backed out. My dad called out again, but I ignored him because I was too angry to talk.

Then something on the TV caught my eye. They were replaying footage of Axel’s statement, but this time the camera panned to Layla standing beside him.

Her expression was neutral, yes, but her eyes. God, her eyes. Even without a smile, I could see it the smugness, and satisfaction of having outsmarted me.

She knew. She’d known all along.

"LAYLA!" I screamed, grabbing the nearest throw pillow and hurling it at the TV. "You smug, conniving bitch!"

Daniel backed away, hands raised. "Cass, calm down. The baby..."

"Don’t tell me to calm down!" I whirled on him. "She’s making a fool of us! Of me! And you helped her do it by being too stupid to see through whatever trap she set!"

"Stop accusing me of betraying you on a plan that failed on its own and listen to me. I... didn’t... know..."

"Get out!"

"You’d better take it easy with yourself. If not for your sake, but for the baby’s sake."

"Get out of my sight, you foolish bastard!"

He left without another word, and I collapsed back onto the couch, my breath coming in ragged gasps. My hands moved protectively to my belly, feeling the baby kick in response to my elevated heart rate.

On the TV, they’d moved on to other news, but I kept seeing Layla’s face. That triumph in her eyes.

She’d won against me again. But this fight wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot.

Suddenly, something hit me.

Wait a minute...

I sat up straighter, my mind racing through the pieces. The dummy files, the news coverage, and Axel’s comment about looking into what was taken all flashed through my head.

"If all we got from the hack were fake files..." I murmured to myself, my anger temporarily replaced by confusion. "Then why go to the news? Why make it public? Why act like there was an actual data breach?"

Unless... Unless...

My stomach dropped. Unless they wanted everyone to think there was a security breach. Maybe this was all part of a larger scheme. But what? What could they possibly gain from pretending to have a data breach and letting the world think they’d been hacked?

I grabbed my laptop and pulled up every news site covering the story. Channel Seven, Business Insider, Tech News Daily and they were all running variations of the same story.

"Major Data Breach at O’Brien Group." "Security Failure Rocks O’Brien Empire." "O’Brien’s Eclipse Beauty Launch in Jeopardy."

But if nothing was actually stolen....

"What are you playing at, Layla?" I whispered, staring at her frozen image on my laptop screen.

My father called for the third time, and I finally answered.

"Did you see the news?" he demanded.

"Yes, I saw it."

"Good. This is our chance to capitalise on their weakness. Watson Holdings can swoop in, offer stability to their nervous clients."

"Dad, wait. Something’s not right."

"What do you mean?"

I hesitated, not wanting to admit we’d been played. "Just give me a few hours. I need to figure something out."

I hung up before he could argue and sat there in the dimming light of the living room, my mind working through possibilities.

They likely suspected that the USB was a Trojan, so they set a trap and gave us garbage. But even after that, they decided to go public, which made them appear vulnerable even though they weren’t actually compromised at all.

What was their endgame? Were they trying to flush me out? Make Watson Holdings reveal our hand?

What was I not seeing yet? Have I made a great mistake? Or was I overthinking it? No, something was off for sure.

"What’s your plan, Layla?" I asked the empty room, one hand absently rubbing my belly. "What are you really up to?"