Chapter 247 Chapter 247
She really couldn't handle this kind of devotion. She quickly lost emotional control. A man who seemed so cold, cruel, and distant to the rest of the world could be so absurdly deadly when he talked about love.
“Miss Ford,” Nicholas reached out his large, warm hand and placed it on hers, which was resting on his heart. “Please give this man who is courting you a chance. Send me the link now. I'll take care of it for you so that no one will ever dare mention your name again.”
Nicholas thought to himself: That was a direct attack on his wife. Why did she need her young sister-in-law to take care of it when she had the most powerful man in the country sitting next to her?
He would prove with brutal and efficient measures that he was the most trustworthy, secure, and powerful person in her life. He wanted her to get used to running into her husband's arms whenever she had a problem. No one else.
Nicholas felt that, even though they had plenty of time ahead of them, it was the perfect moment to cultivate in her the wonderful habit of “turning to the CEO to destroy her enemies.”
In the end, Caroline couldn't resist his dominant gaze and finally gave in, sending the link to the forum to Nicholas' WhatsApp.
Given Nicholas' sophisticated taste (and aversion to chili), she changed her mind and chose an exquisite French restaurant not far from campus. The drive 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 had brought his state-of-the-art laptop with him in an elegant briefcase.
When she saw him place the device on the table, Caroline thought he was overloaded with work and felt a twinge of guilt. "With your crazy schedule, you should just use this time to relax and eat. Do you have that much to do today? You shouldn't have had lunch with me if you had emergencies at Wolf Corporation.
She wasn't the kind of woman who constantly needed a man's company. If he had work to do, he should have just told her. She would have understood completely.
Besides, she valued her freedom. As close as they had become, she believed that their current arrangement was perfect: spending the weekdays focused on her studies and the dorm, and only going to the Wolf mansion on the weekends. If they were together 24 hours a day, the allure of mystery might be lost.
Nicholas didn't immediately address her concerns. He just pulled out her chair, 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 immediately afterwards, Caroline saw him open his laptop. She wanted to roll her eyes and ask, “If you're not busy, why are you turning on your computer?”
But she decided to remain silent. She understood that being at the top of the corporate hierarchy was demanding. The CEO of a billion-dollar empire probably had to put out fires even while drinking wine. Since he was there, she didn't want to disturb him. She simply picked up her glass of sparkling water and lemon and watched him silently.
The man's long, elegant fingers began tapping on the keyboard.
They moved at an alarming speed. It was so fast and rhythmic that Caroline couldn't even process the lines of code flying frantically across the black screen. Those nimble fingers danced across the keyboard with deadly precision, like a cybernetic war machine.
A few minutes later.
Clack.
The man suddenly stopped typing, slammed the laptop shut with a loud bang, and pushed it aside.
Caroline blinked, completely confused. “Are you... already done with your urgent work?”
Nicholas looked up, his dark eyes shining triumphantly. “Hmm.”
He took a sip of water as if it were the most natural thing in the world and said casually, “I looked at your post.”
Caroline froze, the glass just inches from her lips. “Hmm?”
“The person behind the defamatory text about you. I just traced and cracked the network security to extract their original IP address.”
What?!
Caroline's eyes widened and she almost choked. “So... you were busy hacking the forum to find that person's IP address and weren't actually working?!”
“Exactly.” He smiled slightly.
Caroline's jaw nearly dropped.
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 Nicholas hadn't just found the original author's IP address in those few minutes. As an elite hacker, he had also scanned the IP addresses of the most prominent commenters who were fueling the hate and compiled a complete dossier on the location and identity of each virtual bot. To him, the university forum's security system was more fragile than 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 tracing and precise geolocation of the IP address, the post was made from the restricted Wi-Fi network of the Ford family estate.”
“Someone from the Ford family?” Caroline frowned, confused for a split second.
“Yes.”
Nicholas made no mistake. The signal came directly from the house where she grew up.
And in that house, there was only one person who would benefit from destroying Caroline's image. The only person who lived to hate her.
Caroline's expression darkened dramatically. The air around her became heavy.
Claire.
She hadn't thought Claire would be so stupid and quick. Caroline had initially assumed that the perpetrator would be Olivia or some random girl from campus who was jealous of her. After all, Claire was technically a student at the same university, but since she had been signed by StarColi to play celebrity, she almost never attended lectures.
Who would have thought that Claire, despite being withdrawn and dealing with her own scandal over the hotel incident, 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 her to compose herself before asking quietly, “What are you going to do about it?”
Caroline narrowed her eyes and felt 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?”
At this point, Caroline had exhausted her entire supply of 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, break away from her toxic family, and live her life far away from Edward and Claire.
But the same was not true for Claire. Claire had never had any intention of letting her get away with it.