?Chapter 154:


    Cole sat motionless in front of his monitor long after Quinn logged off. Something felt off—he couldn’t exin the sudden heaviness pressing down on him. Elliana had made it perfectly clear she didn’t want him around. Every word, every look from her screamed distance. He hadn’t set foot in the Evans estate for days.


    Before, he had taken refuge in his office instead. The silence, onceforting, now felt like it was swallowing him whole.


    That brief exchange with Quinn earlier had been a rare flicker of interest in an otherwise empty night. But now that the screen had gone dark, boredom crept back in, followed quickly by the familiar sting of loneliness.


    He stared at the blinking cursor before finally reaching for his phone.


    Maybe there was a message waiting. But there wasn’t. No missed calls. No texts. Nothing from Elliana. Not even a single emoji.


    Paulina had mentioned Elliana was fine—too fine, in fact. Eating without issue. Sleeping like a baby. Not the slightest trace of emotional turmoil. Meanwhile, he was drowning in the silence she’d left behind.


    The more he thought about it, the more it stung. His grip tightened around the phone before he hurled it onto the desk in frustration. “Heartless woman,” he muttered under his breath. Would she ever think of him on her own? Would she even notice if he disappeared for good?


    Pushing away from his desk, he stood up, ready to copse in the lounge and sleep off the ache.


    Then, something blinked on the screen. Quinn had resurfaced. The moment felt surreal—he blinked and then leaned in. She was back in the Evans Group system. His interest immediately piqued. With quick fingers, he typed, “Didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”


    Quinn’s reply was direct. “I have a question.”


    Cole responded almost instantly, “Ask away.”


    “When did you start working for Cole Evans?”


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    There was a short pause before Cole answered, “We’ve known each other since childhood.”


    The message hit Elliana like a bolt out of nowhere. Since childhood? That narrowed things down dramatically. Jody had to be someone deeply embedded in Cole’s life. Her mind raced through every possibility. Could Jody be someone from the Evans family?


    Family? Could Jody be one of the Fletcher family? Maybe An, possibly Merlin, or even Manley.


    While Elliana ran through the names in her head, a new message from Jody appeared on her screen. “Got anything else you want to ask?”


    She didn’t hesitate. “Let’s swap some personal details. I’ll go first—to show I’m serious. I’m a man.”


    His reply came quickly. “Same here.”


    Her fingers flew across the keyboard. “Goodbye.”


    Without a second thought, Elliana logged out.


    Back in his office, Cole stared at the nk screen, one brow twitching upward.


    Quinn imed to be a man? Something was off. Something about Quinn’s texts struck him as feminine, and he couldn’t shake that feeling. Was Quinn lying?


    With Quinn’s sudden reappearance after they’d first crossed paths online five years ago, he had this weird idea that Quinn might actually be Elliana. If Quinn was actually Elliana, what was she digging for? What exactly did she hope to uncover in his private files?


    Across town, Elliana sat back in her chair, head tilted in thought. Jody imed to be a man, but how much of that could be taken at face value? There was no telling where the truth ended and the lies began. Was it possible he’d been feeding her a lie all along?


    Her instincts red, but after reviewing every message they’d ever exchanged, she leaned toward believing him. He spoke with a directness that felt unmistakably male—concise, no-nonsense, not the kind of subtlety she usually encountered from women in the hacking scene.


    Assuming he was telling the truth, that gave her a clearer field to work with. An, Merlin, and Manley were easy to cross off. Each one of them was tied up with their own high-profile family legacies. None of them would waste their time moonlighting in the Evans Group’s cybersecurity. Aron and Hugh? Definitely not. Neither of them could crack a firewall if their lives depended on it.


    Myles, on the other hand, was still on the table. A top-tier graduate from a globally elite university, he had both the brainpower and the digital dexterity.


    But if Myles didn’t check out, then she was down to two possibilities. Either Jody was someone nted deep within the Evans family, or he was a key yer in the Evans Group’s cybersecurity department.


    If she could figure out who Jody really was—and if she could find a way to put him to sleep, even briefly—it might give her the opening she needed to slip into the…


    Evans Groupwork undetected and retrieve Cole’s files. Rather than diving in recklessly, she nned to start by probing Myles first.


    With her strategy mapped out, Elliana sank into bed, but rest didn’te easily. Her mind refused to quiet down. One question kept resurfacing. Jody had guarded the Evans Group’s system for years. So then—who on earth had the ability to slip past Jody and pull Cole’s private data?


    The thought refused to fade, circling her brain like a storm until exhaustion finally pulled her under.


    The following week passed in a blur of nonstop motion. Each morning, Elliana visited the Henderson estate to continue Charles’ treatment. By midday, she’d be at the top floor of the Ublento Hotel, digging into books and records that chronicled the Delta’s rise over hundreds of years. Her evenings were spent at the Evans family’s estate, but only long enough to rest. Her days allowed no room for anything beyond that.


    Throughout those seven days, Cole had never set foot in the Evans family’s estate. Not a word from him. No calls. No texts. To Elliana, he seemed to have erased her from his orbit entirely.


    When the eighth day arrived, two things aligned. Charles’ initial treatment cycle wrapped up sessfully, and Elliana finally reached thest page of the Delta’s historical archives.


    But Elliana hadn’t forgotten Hailee. Now that her schedule had cleared a little, she picked up the phone and dialed Hailee. She’d assumed Hailee was doing fine. No news usually meant no trouble.


    But the voice that came through the receiver shattered that illusion. It trembled with exhaustion, drenched in quiet despair. “Elliana… I don’t understand. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to escape this life. I feel like I’m suffocating. Like the world is closing in, and I’m too weak to push back.”


    rm surged through Elliana as she immediately asked, “Hailee, what happened?”


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