The room quietly froze. Several employees looked confused at first. Then realization slowly started settling across their faces.

Their boss. Sebastian Creed. The infamous ghost-level dark web hacker whispered about across underground tech circles.

The man is capable of hacking almost anything. Anywhere. Anytime. Suddenly, everything about him made sense. How he build the company so quickly.

How he stayed ahead of competitors. How he always escaped disasters that nobody else survived. Because Sebastian wasn’t just a businessman, he was a genius. A dangerous one. But tonight.

Someone else was proving even more dangerous. And for the first time since they had known him, they were watching Sebastian Creed lose control.

"Get out." Seb’s voice came low and deadly. Nobody moved fast enough.

"I SAID GET OUT!"

The room exploded into movement immediately. Employees rushed toward the exits without daring to look back.

Within seconds, only Seb and Damien remained. The large screens continued bleeding red numbers across the walls.

Seb leaned both hands against the desk, breathing hard, fury burning behind his eyes. At this point, there was almost nothing he could do except watch the collapse happen in real time.

Billions disappearing. Years of protection are crumbling. His safety net is being ripped away piece by piece.

"Damien." His voice turned cold again.

"I want you to find out who’s behind this." Damien nodded immediately.

"I want names." Then after a pause...

"And I want to know if this is Julian." Damien blinked.

"Julian?" He looked genuinely confused now.

"Why would Julian target you?" he asked carefully. "After all..." His brows furrowed slightly. "You have nothing to do with Amara anymore... right?"

The room went completely silent. Seb slowly lifted his eyes toward Damien.

And somehow. That silence answered the question better than words ever could.

"I want to know if it was Julian," Seb said coldly, his eyes never leaving the crashing numbers on the screen. "So get your men digging."

His voice lowered dangerously.

"And if it’s him..." Seb clenched his jaw hard. "I swear I’ll destroy him." Damien stared at him carefully.

In all the years they had worked together, he had rarely seen Seb this angry. Not controlled anger. Not calculated anger. This was personal. Dangerously personal.

Damien ran a frustrated hand through his hair before finally speaking again.

"Listen... you’re starting to scare me." Seb shot him an irritated look.

"You haven’t tried reaching Amara again, right?" Seb stayed silent. Damien’s eyes widened slowly.

"Wait."

He pointed toward him. "Wait, wait...when you said you were going to be a father..." His face twisted with disbelief. "You meant Amara?"

Seb still said nothing. And somehow that silence confirmed everything.

"Oh, my God." Damien turned away for a second in frustration before spinning back toward him again.

"I thought those rumors were nonsense," he snapped. "Seb, how could you do this again?"

Seb’s expression darkened instantly.

"I thought we were past this already," Damien continued angrily. "How could you drag yourself back into that hell again?"

His voice echoed through the office now. "Amara moved on!" he yelled. "She moved on, Seb!"

The words hit harder than Damien realized. "And she will never love you again."

Silence crashed heavily into the room after that, for one brief moment. Something painful flickered across Seb’s face.

Real pain. Then it disappeared beneath anger again.

"Come to your senses," Damien said more quietly now, exhaustion replacing some of the frustration. "Please."

Because, the thought of dealing with obsessed Sebastian again. The version of Seb who destroyed himself over Amara. Already gave him a headache.

Damien had watched that man nearly ruin his entire life once before. He did not want to watch it happen again.

"Shut up, Damien." Seb’s voice came low and sharp. "I know exactly what I’m doing."

"No, you don’t." Seb slammed his hand against the desk suddenly.

"JUST FIND OUT WHO’S BEHIND THIS!"

Damien snapped back immediately, his own patience finally breaking.

"You’re the hacking genius!" he shouted. "Why can’t you find the person who locked you out of your own damn system?"

The room fell silent again. Seb’s breathing remained uneven with rage. "If I could," he said through clenched teeth, "I would."

And then...His laptop screen suddenly glowed. Both men immediately turned toward it.

A message appeared slowly across the black screen. I guess the great Dark Web Wiz is finally down.

Another line appeared seconds later. Makes me wonder how you even earned that name.

Then...Your system sucks. Seb stared at the words silently.

The fury inside him deepened instantly. His hands clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. Meanwhile, Damien looked genuinely unsettled now.

"Who the hell is this guy?" he muttered. "And why is he targeting us?" Seb said nothing.

His eyes remained fixed on the screen like he was trying to burn through it. Damien suddenly remembered something.

"Wait."

He quickly grabbed his phone.

"I already contacted Franco earlier to investigate," he said while opening his emails. "He just sent me something."

Seb immediately snatched the phone from his hand. His eyes scanned the report quickly. Then narrowed. "Elav," he read quietly. Damien leaned closer.

"The guy’s a well-known hacker overseas," he explained. "Apparently, he’s never even been to Varenza." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Seb kept reading silently.

The report was surprisingly empty. No real identity. No clear location. Almost ghostlike. Which only made Seb more irritated.

"Well," Damien exhaled slowly, trying to calm the situation, "that means this probably isn’t personal."

Seb looked up slowly.

"He doesn’t know you personally," Damien continued carefully. "So maybe this is just some random hacker trying to prove he’s better than you."

Seb’s expression remained unreadable. But deep down. He knew one thing. Nobody dismantled his systems this perfectly by accident.

"Shut the fuck up." Seb’s voice exploded through the office.

"What random guy?" he snapped furiously. "That ’random guy’ just cost me billions!"

He pointed angrily toward the screen still drowning in red numbers.

"I want that bastard found."

His breathing had become uneven now, the calm businessman completely gone.

"Tell Franco and the team to dig up everything on him." His eyes darkened dangerously. "Because he messed with the wrong damn person."

Damien stayed quiet for a second before speaking carefully.

"What do we do now?" That question hit harder than expected.

Because normally, Seb always had an answer. Always a backup plan. Always a hidden move waiting.

But tonight? Even he was struggling to see a way out.