Chapter 246 Chapter 246
She really couldn't handle that level of devotion. She was rapidly losing emotional control. A man who seemed so cold, cruel, and distant to the rest of the world... could be so absurdly lethal when he spoke of love.
“Miss Ford,” Nicholas reached out his large, warm hand, covering hers that was resting on his heart. “Please give this man who is trying to court you a chance. Send me the link now. I'll take care of this for you in a way that no one will ever dare to speak your name in vain again.”
Nicholas thought to himself: This was a direct attack on his wife. Why did she need her teenage sister-in-law to solve this when she had the most powerful man in the country sitting next to her?
He was going to prove with brutal and efficient actions that he was the most reliable, secure, and powerful person in her life. He wanted her to get used to running into her husband's arms whenever any problem arose. To no one else.
Nicholas felt that, although they still had a long way to go, it was the perfect time to start cultivating in her the wonderful habit of “turning to the CEO to destroy her enemies.”
In the end, Caroline couldn't resist his domineering gaze and gave in, sending the forum link to Nicholas's WhatsApp.
Taking into account Nicholas's discerning palate (and aversion to pepper), she changed her mind and chose an exquisite French restaurant not far from campus. The trip took just over ten minutes in the Lamborghini.
They got out of the car and were escorted to a reserved VIP table.
To Caroline's surprise, Nicholas brought his state-of-the-art laptop in a slim briefcase.
Seeing him place the device on the table, Caroline thought he was overworked and felt a pang of guilt. “With the insane schedule you have, you should use this time just to relax and eat. Are you that busy today? You shouldn't have come to lunch with me if you had emergencies at Wolf Corporation.”
She wasn't the kind of needy woman who needed a man's company all the time. If he had work to do, all he had to do was let her know. She would understand perfectly.
Besides, she valued her own space.
No matter how close they were becoming, she believed that the current arrangement was perfect: spending the weekdays focused on her studies and in her college dorm, and going to Wolf Manor only on the weekends. If they were glued together 24 hours a day, the spark of mystery could fade. Nicholas didn't respond to her concern right away.
He just pulled out a chair for her to sit down, adjusted the cuffs of his tailored shirt, and sat down across from her. “I'm not that busy. My time with you is non-negotiable.”
But then Caroline saw him open his laptop. She wanted to roll her eyes and ask, “If you're not busy, why are you already turning on your computer?”
But she chose to remain silent. She understood that being at the top of the corporate food chain was demanding. The CEO of a billion-dollar empire probably needed to put out fires even while drinking wine. Since he was already there, she didn't want to bother him. She just picked up her glass of sparkling water with lemon and watched him in silence.
The man's long, elegant fingers began typing on the keyboard.
They moved with frightening speed. It was so fast and rhythmic that Caroline couldn't even process the lines of code that frantically scrolled across the black screen of the monitor. Those nimble fingers danced across the keyboard with lethal precision, looking like a cybernetic war machine.
A few minutes later.
Clack.
The man suddenly stopped typing and closed the laptop with a sharp snap, pushing it aside.
Caroline blinked, completely confused. “Are you... done with your work emergency?”
Nicholas looked up, his dark eyes shining with predatory triumph. “Hmm.”
He took a sip of water with the utmost naturalness and said casually, “I took a look at your post.”
Caroline froze, the glass inches from her lips. “Hm?”
“The person behind the defamatory text about you. I just tracked and broke through the network security to extract their original IP address.”
What?!
Caroline's eyes widened, almost choking. “So... you were busy hacking the forum to track that person's IP address, and not actually working?!”
“Exactly.” He smiled slightly.
Caroline's jaw almost dropped onto the table.
That was... absurdly fast. Less than five minutes had passed since he opened his laptop! And he already had the answer?
What Caroline didn't know was that, in those few minutes, Nicholas had not only discovered the original author's IP address. As an elite hacker, he had also scanned the IPs of the main commenters who were stirring up hatred and extracted a complete dossier on the location and identity of each of the virtual bots. To him, the university forum's security system was as fragile as paper.
“Who is it?” Caroline asked, her heart beating fast with shock and curiosity.
Nicholas folded his hands on the table and said with calculated coldness: “Based on the tracking and exact geolocation of the IP, the post was made using the restricted Wi-Fi network of the Ford family mansion.”
“Someone from the Ford family?” Caroline frowned, confused for a millisecond.
“Yes.”
Nicholas didn't make miscalculations. The signal came directly from inside the house where she grew up.
And inside that house, there was only one person who would benefit from destroying Caroline's image. The only person who breathed to hate her.
Caroline's expression darkened dramatically. The air around her grew heavy.
Claire.
She hadn't imagined Claire would be so stupid and quick. Caroline had initially assumed the author was Olivia or some random girl on campus who was jealous of her. After all, Claire was technically a student at the same college, but she had hardly ever attended classes since she was signed by StarColi to play celebrity.
Who would have thought that, even while away and dealing with her own assault scandal at the hotel, Claire would find time in the early hours of the morning to write an anonymous text defaming her own half-sister on the school forum?
Nicholas watched her silently, waiting for the realization to sink in, before asking in a low voice, “What do you intend to do about it?”
Caroline narrowed her eyes, feeling a wave of hot, relentless anger rise within her. She looked Nicholas straight in the eye. “Would you help me give her a taste of her own medicine?”
By this point, Caroline had exhausted all the patience, empathy, or blood ties that bound her to Claire.
Until then, she hadn't bothered to destroy the adulterous couple. She just wanted to get her things, cut ties with her toxic family, and live her life away from Edward and Claire.
But the reverse was not true. Claire never intended to let her escape peacefully.