Chapter 48 You Owe Me an Explanation
“That’s a pipe dream, Karen answered.
“No way! Jake replied.
‘Go back and sleep, Charles responded.
No one in the group chat believed James’ words After all, they didn’t think anything could make Alison put her hacking skills to use once more. Even if there was, she would let the police handle the issue instead. When James noticed their disbelief, he sent another message to the group and told everyone else what happened not long ago.
Meanwhile, Alison was greeted with lines and lines of programming codes on the monitor screen when she started going through the information. As the fan’s high-speed rotation within the laptop echoed through the air, Conner was stunned by what he saw.
While he couldn’t take his eyes off the content he couldn’t comprehend, his heart was filled with amazement and awe for Alison’s impressive talent. I was right! Mrs. Cornell is indeed a super hacker!
“Boss…” Conner shared his excitement in agitation, and he whispered softly, “I told you she’s a hacker. You didn’t believe me.”
Brayden responded in silence, feeling as surprised as Conner. The longer he kept his eyes fixated on the lady, the more unfathomable his gaze became. After all, he couldn’t believe he didn’t discover Alison’s hacking talent despite having married her for a year and a half.
No wonder the hacker told me he couldn’t find anything when I approached him to investigate the matter. Turns out that Alison had all the information about herself covered up. Does she have an ulterior motive for getting so close to
me?
“Boss?” Conner called out to Brayden when the latter didn’t respond.
Brayden then made up his mind and instructed his a**istant, “Get your men to look into everyone Alison has gotten in touch with over the past two years. I want to know what she’s been talking to them about.”
Conner was confused. “What do you mean? Are you suspecting Mrs. Cornell?”
While Brayden only responded in silence without saying a single word, Alison didn’t bother listening to their conversation. As time pa**ed by, she managed to gather the help of the other hackers to speed up the search progress. Half an hour later, a progress bar appeared on the computer screen, whereupon the meter moved from left to right as the percentage increased.
As the data volume kept increasing, Alison took her hands off the keyboard due to the heat the laptop was generating out of the intense processing. In the meantime, Conner felt even more impressed by Alison, admiring a hacker like her more than any superhero he had ever looked up to. After all, hackers always – seemed cool to him.
“Mrs. Cornell…” Conner called out to Alison but quickly realized it wasn’t appropriate. Thus, he immediately changed his way of greeting her, asking, Miss Lambert, does this mean the search is complete?”
“Yeah.” Alison gazed at the screen. “Once it reaches 100 percent, all the information I need will pop up.”
While Conner stood behind Alison and watched with a gleam of excitement in his eyes, Brayden radiated a cold aura in silence. Just when he was about to question Alison about her mysterious motives, Conner suddenly took a pen and a sticky notepad out of his pocket before giving them to Alison.
Stunned by Conner’s unexpected actions, Alison and Brayden both looked at him in bewilderment as they tried to fathom what he was up to. “Miss Lambert, could you please sign your name on it?” Conner couldn’t care less about the unhappy look on his boss face, thinking he should take that step without fear. “I’m a fan.”
“Conner!” Brayden shouted at his a**istant.
Although Conner would have retracted his arms obediently if this had happened when he was younger, he decided to go against his better judgment and showed his idol some courage. She is cool! I must show her how
brave I am.
“May ?” he asked Alison.
Alison was stunned, not knowing how to react at that instant. Although it wasn’t her first time coming across someone who wanted her signature, James and the others were usually just pulling her leg. Therefore, she didn’t know whether she should take the situation seriously.
Shortly after, Conner took one more step forward and handed his notepad to her with a smile. While looking him in the eye, Alison replied affirmatively without hesitation, “Sure.”
She took his pen and notepad before signing her name directly on it, which seemed different from the one she had signed on her divorce agreement. While her signature seemed neat back then, her current one seemed more casual and cooler.
When Brayden saw that, he became even more suspicious of Alison’s motive, finding her credibility questionable since she changed her signature. “You owe me an explanation, don’t you?” he asked, giving off a nonchalant energy.
Alison checked the progress bar and realized it had only reached 30 percent. Thus, she asked, “What kind of explanation are you expecting?”
“Your hacking skills and your signature.” Brayden’s gaze had darkened, and he spoke coldly. “Why did you change your handwriting? Wouldn’t you find this strange if you were me?”
“I have nothing to explain.” Alison challenged the man calmly. “Do you dare say that you’ve shown me everything you know? Also, can you be sure that your handwriting looks the same all the time?”
Brayden stared at Alison in a hostile manner, finding it hard to deal with her comebacks. “Who sent you?” While Alison and Conner were puzzled, Brayden locked eyes with her, his face darkening completely. “Did you marry me because you were trying to steal some private and confidential information from my company?”
Conner took a step forward, realizing that he must stand up for his idol. “Boss, you were the one who approached Miss Lambert before you both got married. She didn’t come to you.”
“You heard him,” Alison answered in response.
Brayden looked at his a**istant unhappily, radiating a cold aura. “If you don’t keep your mouth shut, I’ll make sure you leave the company on Monday.”
“I’m just telling the truth,” Conner answered seriously, but Brayden looked at him with a piercing gaze. As such, Conner reckoned his boss would lay him off right away if he weren’t loyal to him.
“If you don’t believe me, go ahead and dig up everything you can about me,” Alison responded fearlessly. In fact, she had never entered Cornell Corporation or laid a finger on Brayden’s personal laptop before. Instead, the most she had ever done was to share his burden by asking and analyzing his issues for him.
“Do
you
think I can find anything on you with your hacking skills?” Brayden reacted with a serious look on his face as he spoke sarcastically.
Nevertheless, Alison decided to ignore Brayden, for she didn’t think she could make him understand her.
Conner, who couldn’t stand by and watch Brayden frame Alison, stood up for his idol. “If she wanted to steal information from your company, she didn’t have to get herself involved. With her skills, there’s no need for her to marry you since it would only make it harder for her. Don’t you think so?”
“Conner!” Brayden felt a strong urge to throw Conner out of the room.
“I’m giving you a kind word of advice. You’ve always been a rational man, but why are you getting so emotional with Miss Lambert? Conner expressed his confusion.
