Chapter 131 #131
Chapter 131
~Shailyn's POV~
I wanted to stay at the hospital.
Every fiber of my being screamed to stay beside Dwayne, to make sure he was okay, to not leave his side.
But I couldn't.
Not without raising Dante's suspicions.
So when Dante said, "I should meet him in the car," I nodded.
Dwayne's eyes met mine.
"I'll be fine," he said. “Go home. Get some sleep."
"Call me if you need anything."
"I will."
I squeezed his hand once more, then went out to meet Dante.
\---
The car ride home was torture.
Dante drove, hands tight on the wheel.
"I can't believe this happened," he said.
"I know."
"My own brother. Someone tried to kill him."
"It's terrible."
"And on our streets. In our city. This is unacceptable."
I said nothing. Just stared out the window.
"Even if Dwayne and I aren't on the best terms right now," Dante continued, "it's not like I want him dead. He's still my brother."
Lies.
All lies.
Like father, like son.
They'd do anything to get what they wanted. Murder. Theft. Betrayal.
Nothing was off limits.
"Of course not," I said quietly. "No one thinks you'd want that."
"Good. Because I need to make sure everyone knows I had nothing to do with this."
"I'm sure the police will figure it out."
"They better. Whoever did this needs to pay."
We pulled into the estate.
The house loomed ahead, dark and imposing.
Home. What a joke.
This place had never been home.
"I'm exhausted," I said as we walked inside. "I think I'll take a bath and go to bed."
"Okay. I have some calls to make anyway."
"At this hour?"
"Damage control. The board will want updates about Dwayne's accident."
"Of course they will."
I headed upstairs to the bedroom.
The moment I closed the bathroom door, I leaned against it and let out a breath.
My hands were shaking.
Dwayne could've died.
Could've been taken from me before we even had a chance.
Before the babies were born. Before any of this was resolved.
I pressed my hands to my stomach.
"Your daddy's okay," I whispered. "He's safe. He's strong. And he's going to be here for you. I promise."
They kicked in response.
Like they understood.
Like they knew.
I smiled through the tears. "We're going to be okay. All of us. We just have to be patient a little longer."
Another kick.
"I know. I'm tired of waiting too. But soon. Very soon. Your father and I are going to make sure you grow up safe. Protected. Loved."
I stayed there for a few more minutes, talking to them, feeling them move.
Then I washed my face, composed myself, and opened the door.
Dante was sitting on the bed.
"Oh. You're done with your calls?"
"Yeah. They were quick." He patted the bed beside him. "Can we talk?"
"About what?"
"The project. The ALP system Dwayne presented."
Of course. This is what he really cared about.
"What about it?" I asked, sitting down carefully.
"He went over my head. Completely blindsided me in front of the board."
"It was a separate project—"
"That should've been coordinated with me. I'm the CEO."
"Maybe he didn't think it needed coordination."
"Everything needs coordination, Shailyn. That's how companies work." He rubbed his face. "And now the board thinks he's more innovative than me."
"That's not true—"
"It is. You should've seen their faces. They were eating out of his hand."
I wanted to smile. To celebrate Dwayne's victory.
But I kept my expression neutral. Sympathetic.
"What can I do to help?" I asked.
"I need you to make my project better. Stronger. Something that'll blow his system out of the water."
"Dante, I'm already working on improvements—"
"I need more than improvements. I need revolutionary. I need something that makes the board forget Dwayne's presentation entirely."
"That's a lot of pressure."
"I know. But you're brilliant. If anyone can do it, you can."
There it was. The manipulation. The flattery designed to make me compliant.
"I'll do my best," I said softly.
"Thank you." He kissed my forehead. "I knew I could count on you."
"Dante?"
"Yeah?"
"I'll need access to your laptop. To cross-reference with the main servers."
He hesitated. "My laptop?"
"Just for verification. To make sure there are no conflicts in the code base."
"I don't know—"
"It's the only way to make sure everything integrates properly. Otherwise, I'm working blind."
He considered this. "You can't do it from your own device?"
"Not without admin access. Your credentials have higher clearance."
"I see."
"Unless you want to sit with me the whole time and input everything manually?"
"No. No, that would take forever." He sighed. "Fine. But just for this project. And don't look at anything else."
"Of course not. Just the project files."
"Okay." He stood and retrieved his laptop from his briefcase. "Here. Password is CynthiaTyler2019."
Of course it was.
Not our wedding date. Not my name.
His parents.
"Got it. Thank you."
"How long will you need it?"
"Tonight. Maybe tomorrow morning. I'll work while you sleep."
"You should rest. The babies—"
"I'll rest when it's done. This is important."
He smiled. "You're amazing. You know that?"
"I try."
He kissed me again, then headed to the bathroom to shower.
The moment I heard the water running, I opened the laptop.
Time to work.
\---
The laptop screen glowed in the darkness.
Dante was asleep beside me, snoring softly.
Perfect.
I pulled up the project files. The ones he thought I was improving.
But that's not what I was actually doing.
I opened a secure connection to my hidden cloud server. The one nobody knew about except Hannah and me.
Then I started copying.
Every file. Every log. Every blueprint. Every line of code.
The H-GPT system he'd stolen from me. All my original work. Complete with timestamps proving I'd created it months before he "presented" it.
Financial records showing payments made to offshore accounts. Suspicious transactions that Luke would love to dig into.
Email communications. Including ones to Frederick Moss. The man who'd just tried to kill Dwayne.
Security footage access codes. Meeting transcripts. Internal memos about covering up the assault incident.
Everything.
I packaged it all into encrypted files, tagged with metadata, backed up to three separate servers.
Then I did something else.
I left him a present.
A hidden subroutine in his precious H-GPT code. Nothing obvious. Nothing that would trigger immediately.
But when activated at the right moment say, during a critical board presentation it would cause catastrophic system failure.
Error messages. Data corruption. Complete meltdown.
And all of it would trace back to his credentials. His modifications. His oversight.
The beauty was in the simplicity.
One line of code. Buried deep in a subsystem he'd never think to check.
Dormant until triggered by a specific command sequence that only I knew.
I tested it once in a sandbox environment.
Perfect. Complete system crash. Unrecoverable without rolling back to the original code.
Dante thought he was so smart. Thought he could use me. Manipulate me. Control me.
He had no idea he'd just given me the keys to his entire kingdom.
I removed all traces of my access. Cleared the logs. Wiped the browser history.
Everything looked exactly as it had before.
Except now I had everything I needed.
I closed the laptop and set it on the nightstand.
Then I lay back and looked at Dante sleeping beside me.
So peaceful. So unaware.
"Oh, darling husband," I whispered. "I can't wait for you to get what's coming to you."
The babies kicked.
Like they agreed.
Like they knew their mother was finally taking back her power.
I smiled in the darkness.
Soon.
Very soon.
The Belmar family was about to learn a very important lesson.
You don't steal from Shailyn Henson.
And you definitely don't underestimate her.
Not anymore.