Chapter 51 - Help

"What the— " Madness. Sera couldn't help but cursed inwardly as she opened the images on his laptop. "Can we take back the deposit?" she asked, as she leaned closer at the screen and examined the details of the wedding. "How come you prepared this much without even consulting me? You're not even sure that I would agree. Can you move a bit?" He was sitting on his chair while she was standing next to him, trying to check out the details about the wedding.

He complied, giving her the space to access the laptop. "You can sit in my lap if you want."

"That— no thanks." She ignored the memories in the bathroom just a few hours ago. "How did you know I would like this theme?" The theme of the wedding was actually black and red.

"Your clothes… are mostly plain. I figured you wouldn't want something colorful."

She heard the swivel chair squeaked as he leaned back.

"And you paid in full for the venue and everything else?" she continued asking.

"Of course."

"Who does that?" she mumbled inwardly. She checked the date and notice that he actually did it after that bar escapade. At that time, she wasn't even aware of him. Just how confident is he that she would agree to marry him? "You're crazy."

He chuckled. "I would ask Lan Xing to just keep the reservation and rescheduled the date. About the wedding dress… you can try it on."

Sera scoffed and straightened her back, her eyes never left the screen. "I'm not paying you back." In the first place, why was he showing her this stuff? Was he planning to sue her for making him spent hundreds of thousands on a wedding without even knowing if he had a bride?

The fact that he was so confident wasn't her fault!

The silence that followed made her froze. Without waiting for him to say anything, she dashed out of the room, trying to escape the consequence of saying the word, 'pay'. She thought she heard him laugh just as she closed the door of his office.

Sera felt like spending more time with this man is going to make her a maniac. She quickly went to her room and took a quick bath. Refreshed, she put on a new set of pajamas and went to her office to finish a few things.

"Hey, I was waiting for you ."

At this point, she wasn't really that surprised to see him inside. "What is it?"

"I had some emergencies in the company. I need help."

"Help?"

"I sent something in your email…" His serious expression kicked the suspicion that she had earlier. The moment she saw him, sitting in her comfortable gaming when she opened her door, some nasty thoughts immediately appeared inside her head— thoughts that made her breathtakingly aware of his opened shirt that showed a part of his sculpted chest. "I told you… I had to fire my cybersecurity team— thanks to you."

"Wasn't my fault," she approached him. "My seat."

"Oh!" He let her have the chair as he stood behind her.

Sera immediately opened her email and frowned. "A scandal?"

"Someone deliberately spread it. She is a well-known social media influencer who found success in acting. She signed under Quinn media. Lan Xing said the actress said her ex-boyfriend was the guy on the video."

Sera lifted an eyebrow as immediately tracked the IP address of the person who posted the video online. "Two hundred shares in fifteen minutes…" she muttered inwardly as a series of code appeared on one of her screens.

"Angie Ting, twenty-eight, been in the industry for four years now…" Sera continued mumbling. "You said, she claimed it was her boyfriend?" she asked.

"Yes. She dated the man when she was twenty-three, they broke up two years ago. Now, he wanted her to send him money for the video. But she refused to."

"Hmmm." Sera nodded. "This is an Internet cafe… in the outskirts of Pane City. If… I could just hack into the CCTV real quick… let me… "

Aside from their calm breathing, the continuous tapping of the keyboard echoed inside the room. The smell of tea made her smile. "You made a tea, huh." She didn't remember making one for herself. At least, Mr. Quinn can actually make a tea?

"I thought you would like it."

She nodded at his words. "There we go… this is the CCTV footage from the building across the internet cafe. See that CCTV right there? That was hacked… it's broke when the incident happened. But they didn't hack this security camera. My guess is… they didn't know this existed because it's actually hidden and was pointing at the parking. What they don't know is that you can actually see whoever will go in and out of the Internet cafe using this window right here."

"You're good!"

"I know," she shrugged then took a sip of her tea. "Let me check the history of her boyfriend." After quickly typing a few codes, an image of a man with a Mohawk haircut appeared on her screen. "Seems like he had a history of abuse both a victim and the abuser. Let me just…. Trace his location." Then she froze and lifted her head to look at him. "This is illegal." She gave an awkward smile.

"It is illegal." He nodded, confirming her words. Then he gave her a boyish grin. "But I didn't see anything at all."

That was the assurance that she needed. In a few seconds, a map appeared in front of her. Then, a blinking dot appeared. "This man… didn't leave his apartment building for the last eight hours. My guess is he was sleeping."

It didn't take too long for her to access the CCTV of the man's building. After a few minutes, she was able to confirm that the boyfriend didn't actually leave his apartment. She continued typing, absorbed in her own little world.

"Wait! Is that— "