New beginning: Billionaire love story (Claire and Alex) novel Chapter 377

Matthew leaned against the wall, sipping from his coffee cup, his eyes scanning the room. “So, where do we even start with this mess?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at Claire.

Claire sighed, rubbing her forehead. The last few hours had been a whirlwind—after saying goodbye to Adrian and his family at the hospital, she’d barely had time to catch her breath. It hadn’t been easy leaving Adrian behind, especially with him constantly poking around, asking a million questions. Curiosity was in his nature, and Claire had a hard time brushing him off.

Luckily, Adrianna, his mom, had swooped in at the right moment, distracting Adrian just long enough for Claire to make her escape.

Now, she was anxious, her foot tapping impatiently as they cruised through the quiet streets. The drive to Cryptonic felt like it was taking forever. “Can this car go any faster?” Claire huffed, glancing over at Matthew from the passenger seat.

Matthew chuckled, taking it all in stride. “Sorry, Claire. This baby’s not a sports car like yours,” he teased, patting the dashboard affectionately.

Claire rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “I swear, I could walk faster.”

“Sure, sure,” Matthew grinned. “But then you’d miss out on my amazing company.”

Finally, after what felt like an eternity (though in reality, it was an hour and a half), they pulled into Cryptonic’s parking lot. The place was dead silent—no surprise, given that it was 2 a.m. Claire didn’t wait for the car to come to a complete stop before she jumped out, marching straight toward the building, her pace quick and determined. Matthew followed behind her, casually sipping his coffee, clearly unfazed by the late hour.

The moment Claire stepped into her office, she powered on her computer and laptop, her fingers itching to get to work. Matthew disappeared for a few minutes to grab his laptop from his office and then settled into the chair across from her.

“Okay, where do we start?” he asked, setting his coffee aside and booting up his computer.

Claire leaned back in her chair, thinking for a moment. “First, we need to see if there are any surveillance cameras in the area where the explosion happened. If we can find one, we might be able to figure out what the hell went down.”

Matthew nodded, cracking his knuckles dramatically. “On it.”

They both worked in silence for a while, the only sounds in the room coming from the rapid clicks of keyboards. It didn’t take long before Matthew’s face lit up with excitement. “Found something!” he called out.

Claire swiveled her chair to face him. “Where?”

Matthew pointed at his screen. “There’s a camera about a block from where the car exploded. It’s not right on top of it, but it might still give us a decent angle.

Claire nodded, her eyes narrowing in focus. “Perfect. Try hacking into it. I’ll help.”

Together, they worked their magic, both of them deep in concentration. Within a few minutes, Claire sat up, her fingers pausing on the keyboard.

“Got it!” she said triumphantly, turning her screen toward Matthew. The camera feed popped up, and she pressed play, rewinding the footage to the time when she and Adrian had arrived at the scene.

They fast-forwarded through the boring parts—Claire and Adrian getting out of the car, Claire heading back to grab her phone—and then something weird happened. The camera footage buzzed and fuzzed out for several seconds, like static on an old TV. By the time the picture cleared up, the car was already on fire, and Claire was standing there, staring at the flames.

Claire frowned, rewinding the footage again. “What the hell?”

Matthew leaned forward, squinting at the screen. “Looks like someone tampered with the camera feed,” he said, his voice serious now.

“Ugh, seriously?” Claire groaned, running a hand through her hair in frustration. “This is not what I expected.”