Chapter 181
Chapter 181
Theodore watched her pale fingers and the faint shadows under her eyes. He pushed the glass of warm milk in front of him toward her.
Yasmin paused. Didn't look at him. Just picked it up and took a sip.
A tiny gesture, but the servants around the table quietly exhaled in relief.
After breakfast, Theodore didn't head straight to the office like usual.
He sat on the living room carpet with Noah, building Legos.
One large, one small—one silently passing pieces, one focused on construction. The scene was unexpectedly harmonious.
Yasmin sat on the nearby sofa with her laptop, handling work, but every few minutes her gaze drifted uncontrollably toward father and son.
Last night had been a nightmare.
Now the dream was over. Life had to continue.
But something had quietly changed.
Her phone buzzed. An encrypted email from Ryan.
Theodore handed Noah a blue block, stood, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. He opened the email.
Subject line: [Offshore Data Anomaly].
Content was simple—a few charts and one sentence: Starting at 3 a.m. last night, multiple offshore IPs attempted to access the group's core database through different ports. Frequency and intensity increasing.
Theodore's expression darkened.
Ben was just a small player pushed to the front. The real forces were only now entering the game.
Scarlett had spent years abroad—it couldn't have been just about school.
Her father's old connections plus the network she'd deliberately cultivated formed a significant undercurrent.
Now, because of Scarlett's heavy sentence, that undercurrent had been fully stirred.
He dialed Ryan's direct line.
"Boss."
"Security system to maximum level. Wake up our Silicon Valley tech team. I want them monitoring 24/7. Any abnormal access, wherever it's from—physical disconnect, then trace it back and drag them out."
His voice was low but carried unquestionable coldness.
"Yes. Also, our contact inside the Roberts Group reports they've recently engaged a new tech consulting firm. Background... not clean. Connected to a foundation Miss Baker was involved with in Europe."
The Roberts Group—the Prescott Group's biggest European competitor.
"Let them taste our legal department's coffee." Theodore hung up.
He turned to find Yasmin watching him, eyes searching.
He didn't explain. Just walked back and continued helping Noah build the unfinished castle.
He knew this wasn't the end. Just the beginning of another war.
This time, the battlefield had changed location. The enemy had changed faces.
---
That afternoon, Yasmin's studio.
Maria entered with a tablet, expression grave.
"Yasmin, look at this."
The tablet showed a niche European designer's social media page with recently posted design sketches.
At first glance—sharp style, distinctive.
But Yasmin frowned after one look.
One sketch showed an asymmetrical collar-cutting detail nearly identical to an unpublished design from her upcoming "Rebirth" collection.
This couldn't be coincidence.
"Who is this designer?" Yasmin asked.
"Just emerged. Capital backing him. Interestingly, the PR firm promoting him signed a strategic partnership with the Roberts Group last month." Maria added, "I checked—his résumé is vague. Like someone packaged him from nothing."
Yasmin's finger slid across the cold tablet screen.
Exhibition blackout. Noah's kidnapping. Now design theft.
Their intent couldn't be clearer.
Professionally, they wanted to gut her work, steal her creativity. Personally, they wanted to shatter her psychological defenses.
Two-pronged attack. Vicious to the extreme.
"I understand." Yasmin closed the tablet, composure restored.
"So we...?" Maria looked worried.
"Organize all design files for the 'Rebirth' collection, including discarded drafts. Contact our international copyright firm. Initiate highest-level copyright certification and filing. I want every page, every line legally protected."
"Got it!" Maria left immediately.
Yasmin stood, walked to the large window, watching traffic stream below.
She'd thought if she was strong enough, she could shield everything from the storm.
But the enemy had fewer scruples than she'd imagined.
They didn't attack her directly—they attacked everything she cherished.
Her career. Her child.
Evening wind lifted her hair. Her gaze gradually sharpened.
You want war? I'll give you war.
---
That evening, Prescott Villa.
Noah was asleep, sweet smile on his little face.
Yasmin tucked him in, sat by the bed for a long time, then tiptoed out.
The study door was ajar, light spilling through.
She walked over to find Theodore at his desk, two laptops in front of him, screens filled with dense data streams.
He seemed to sense something. Looked up.
Their eyes met. A moment of quiet.
"Still awake?" Theodore asked.
"Something happened at the studio." Yasmin leaned against the doorframe, tone flat. "One of my core designs for next quarter may have been leaked."
Theodore's typing fingers stopped.
"Europe?"
Yasmin looked at him with slight surprise. "How did you know?"
"Because the Prescott Group's core technology almost got 'visited' today too." Theodore turned one screen toward her. "They're professional. And... they know us well."
The screen displayed a complex relationship web.
Several overseas foundations, a shadowy consulting firm, a newly emerged designer, and the Prescott Group's old rival the Roberts Group.
These seemingly unrelated points were connected by red lines.
And all the red lines traced back to one name.
Scarlett.
Yasmin understood instantly.
These weren't two separate attacks—this was a coordinated siege.
Their target was them.
"They want to destroy everything we have." Yasmin said softly.
"No." Theodore stood, walked to her.
He was more than a head taller, his shadow completely enveloping her.
"They want to take everything we have." He corrected, voice low and clear. "But they can't."
The night outside was deep. The study light was bright.
Yasmin looked at him, at her own reflection in his deep eyes. Gone was the coldness and distance—replaced by something she'd never seen before. A stance of standing together in battle.
After a long moment, she nodded.
"Right. They can't."
Like an oath, echoing in the quiet study.
Yasmin looked at him, feeling for the first time that this man whose shadow engulfed her wasn't just oppressive—he'd also become a shield.
---
War began.
Without warning, at exactly 3 a.m., it swept in like a tidal wave.
In the Prescott Group headquarters' top-floor tech center, alarms suddenly tore through the deep night silence. The on-duty technician didn't even have time to set down his coffee cup before throwing himself at the main console.
"Director! DDoS attack! Traffic three hundred times normal!"
"Database under brute-force scan! They bypassed three firewall layers!"
"IP sources are virtual, bouncers all over the globe—can't trace them!"
The entire tech center erupted into chaos.
But Theodore's study was terrifyingly quiet.
His phone was on speaker. Ryan's urgent but controlled voice came through. "Boss, they're here. Same moment, thousands of IP addresses from dozens of countries flooding in like mad. Silicon Valley's taken over, redirecting traffic into the 'Hive' system."
The "Hive"—a data trap the Prescott Group had cultivated for three years. What went in wouldn't come out.
Theodore leaned back in his chair, fingers drumming the desk intermittently, listening to the dense keyboard clatter and various reports on the other end. His expression was blank.
"What about Yasmin's studio?" he asked.
"Same." Ryan's voice dropped. "Their target is clear—the encrypted folder for the 'Rebirth' collection. Maria just called, nearly in tears. I had tech build them a temporary wall."
Theodore looked at Yasmin.
She stood nearby, having heard the phone conversation.
Her face was pale, but she stood straight, gripping her phone. The screen glowed with a string of panicked voice messages from Maria.
She didn't listen to them. Just looked at him.