Shadows Between Us (Stella and Sebastian) novel Chapter 314

Chapter 314

Landen’s medicine kicked in fast.

Carlos managed to steady his breathing, but his heart was still pending painfully.

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He recalled how he’d poured a fortune into helping Richard establish his authority in the Gray Group, only to take a massive hit when a tomb complex was discovered beneath one of their investment projects.

Then, after divorcing Annette, she walked away with half his asses. And finally, he had to buy out all the Gray Group shares from Sebastian and Annette at triple the market price.

“You knew all along? You set me up?” Carlos blurted out, his voice trembling with shock.

It was only at that moment that Carlos finally put the pieces together.

From the very start, Sebastian had been playing him. This was the most ruthless payback Carlos had ever tasted.

Sebastian’s eyes were rimmed with a chilling frost, his hauntingly beautiful, almost sickly face set off by the black shirt he

wore.

His presence was magnetic and dangerous, exuding a dark, menacing aura. “Whatever you care about, I’ll destroy it.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a team of uniformed police officers walked over to Richard, who was cowering in his wheelchair.

One of them flashed his badge. “Mr. Gray, I’m from the Economic Crimes Unit. You’re suspected of embezzlement, bribery, and illegal fundraising. Please come with us to the station for questioning.”

“Dad, help me.” Richard was bawling his eyes out, snot and tears everywhere, clinging to Carlos’s hand as his life depended

on it.

He was so pathetic, he almost peed himself in terror. “I don’t want to go to jail.”

But in the end, he was hauled off by the cops, no matter how hard he struggled.

Landen let out a whistle.

“That’s Mr. Gray for you, he thought. ‘Savage as ever. Brutal!‘

Carlos had bet everything he’d earned in his life on Conrad. Even if the money was gone, as long as the Gray Group was still standing, even a dying giant was bigger than a horse.

But if those charges stuck and the Gray Group entered a court–ordered asset freeze, it was game over.

The Gray Group was already nothing but a pile of mud. Save it or sink with it; either way, it was finished.

Carlos’s eyes were bloodshot, frantic with rage as he bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Sebastian!”

Sebastian stood between light and shadow, his features half–shrouded in darkness. He shot Carlos a cold, indifferent look. “Gray Group is done for.”

Carlos froze.

He was trembling from head to toe, but Landen’s meds were so potent that he couldn’t even black out if he tried.

“Carlos, you still have me. Ryan’s here.” Ryan’s voice shook with ear as he secretly pinched his leg, fat tears streaming down

his cheeks.

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His scared little face made all the women present soften with pi

Everyone’s heart went out to him.

They all glared at Sebastian, silently blaming him.

Stella was clearly not pleased by this turn of events.

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“Hey, kid, hold those tears,” Stella said, tilting her head with a devilish grin. Her voice was calm, but it sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

She said. “Just wait, you’ll really have something to cry about in minute.”

Everyone stood there, left speechless.

“How did you know?” Conrad spoke in a chilling tone.

Without his glasses and the air of respectability they gave him, his sharp, gaunt face looked downright vicious now. “And that question from the auditorium back then…”

Stella glanced at Conrad, her face unreadable. “Because I was the one who solved that question.” She paused, and seeing the shock on Conrad’s face, she added quietly, “Five years ago.”

On that forum back then. Eric, using his account Echo, hit her with an insanely tough math problem and set a timer, basically a timed challenge. Of course, they could guess how that ended.

She cracked it in under thirty seconds and shot back the answer like it was nothing.

“No way. Five years ago? How old could you have been?” Conrad was left speechless. He never saw that coming.

Stella just brushed past his shock and kept going, her voice cool and steady.

“The creator of that question? It was actually Eric, the youngest genetic whiz in all of Clusia,” Stella said.

Down in the crowd, everyone froze.

The guests were rooted to the spot, jaws dropping.

“The youngest genetic whiz?‘ everyone was thinking, totally floored.

After that bloody, tragic disaster that shattered the Gray family five years ago, everything was thrown into chaos.

Because of Carlos’s actions, everyone started suspecting that Sebastian’s ruthless style was what brought disaster upon them.

But it wasn’t until that moment that they finally uncovered the real truth, Eric’s true identity.

“Oh? And what proof do you have?” Conrad gave a cold laugh, still looking smug and not budging an inch.

Stella smiled, unhurried and unfazed. “That’s the line I’ve been waiting for.”

With a confident flick of her wrist, Stella snapped her fingers.

Instantly, the big screen behind her lit up, and that infamous math problem, the one that had stumped elite university math departments for years, was crystal clear.

Lucas, all soft and adorable, was being shielded by Allan.

Suddenly, Lucas’s big, round eyes went wide. Before Allan could even react, he dashed over to Stella and grabbed her hand.

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Stella looked down.

The two of them locked eyes.

With a loud, adorable smack, Lucas hugged her leg tight.

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Everyone was baffled by the scene. What is this kid even doing ght now, in the middle of all this?‘ they all wondered.

“Scrappy,” Stella called, cocking her head after thinking for a second.

“Master,” the robot responded..

As it spoke, it lifted its mechanical fingers. Allan couldn’t help blrting out, “What the hell?”

A red beam of light shot down onto the floor in front of Lucas, and there it was, a glowing infrared keyboard, right out of a sci–fi movie.

‘Whoa, that’s some cutting–edge tech,‘ everyone thought, totally blown away.

Lucas blinked, then plopped down cross–legged on the stage with a little grunt. His tiny hands started flying across the keyboard, typing so fast it was a blur.

Meanwhile, the math problem on the screen was getting torn apart and put back together in a dizzying display of speed.

Stella glanced over at Sebastian, arching an eyebrow at him.

Down in the crowd, everyone froze. “What the hell is this?” Landen couldn’t help blurting out, speaking for everyone.

‘Can’t make heads or tails of it, everyone was thinking, totally baffled.

But then, Levi, sitting next to them, smacked his thigh in excitement. “That’s insane.”

Everyone stood there, left speechless.

Everyone instinctively turned to look at him.

Levi looked like he could’ve leapt three feet in the air, his face sored from excitement it looked like it might burst.

Levi shouted, “He’s doing base conversion.”

Everyone else just stared blankly at him as he practically shouted his head off, spittle flying, totally over their heads. Not a single soul got it.

Up on stage, the instant Lucas started hammering away at the keyboard, tearing the problem to pieces, Conrad froze. His injured arm dangled uselessly, sweat beading on his pale face.

Everyone else was totally lost, but the moment that kid’s fingers it the keys, Conrad freaked out.

“What is that?” Murray was gobsmacked, staring at the numbersumping across the screen. The soldiers behind him looked awestruck, even if they didn’t understand a thing.

‘Wow, that’s awesome, everyone thought, totally blown away.

Sebastian said, “It’s FD25.”

“W–What the hell is that?” Murray scratched his head, totally lost

Sebastian glanced up at him. “It’s a world–class covert encryption protocol.”

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This was something Sebastian and Eric had been doing together since they were little, a game only the two of them understood.

Murray just stood there, not saying a word.

Mr. Gray, could you at least throw my poor brain a bone here? Murray thought, utterly bewildered.

After four cycles of calculations, the FD25–encrypted data gets decoded and turns from numbers into words. And the

answer is-

As Stella’s lazy voice drifted out. Lucas hit the space bar with a loud smack.

On the screen, the jumbled numbers and letters started rearranging themselves into words.

People in the audience finally realized what was happening, and as the sentence appeared, everyone’s eyes went wide in disbelief.

Conrad was left speechless.

Clutching his useless arm, he realized, with a shock that hit him after five whole years, that he finally understood the code Eric had left for him.

It read: [Eric from Capley Lab throws down a challenge to Spade A.]

Right below, a string of numbers showed the exact timestamp.

Stella shot him a cold. amber–eyed look. “Got anything else to say?”

Conrad’s face went deathly pale.

Back then, after getting pulled in by his higher–ups in Monterra, he joined Capley Lab as Spade A.

Both the CoreOne Project and the Gene Project were being plotted at the same time, and he ended up as the top pick for the CoreOne Project.

That same year, Monterra secretly nabbed Yakov, Estravia’s top genetics expert. Conrad took his elite team back to his homeland and founded Conrad Lab.

But the academic world is a small place. Colleagues who’d met him and knew he was Spade A were like ticking time bombs, especially Eric.

Eric was hands down the smartest person Conrad had ever met.

He was so brilliant, it made Conrad jealous, seriously jealous.

It was that twisted mix of admiration and envy that kept Conrad in contact with Eric, even after he got back to his own country. That was exactly why Murray and his crew started eyeing him with suspicion.

Things stayed tense and complicated until Eric uncovered the Gene Project, a scheme to release a virus designed to attack Clusian DNA.

No one ever imagined he was brilliant enough to actually create the cure.

No way the higher–ups would ever let that slide.

Honestly, it didn’t matter if Eric found out about the Gene Project or not.

Everyone at Capley Lab was marked for elimination to protect Conrad’s mission as Spade A. Eric just sped things up, that’s

all.

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Conrad’s lips trembled. “The victor takes it all; the defeated have no say. I’ve got nothing left to say. But…”

He gave a cold, mocking laugh and looked up at Sebastian. “Are you curious who betrayed your brother and leaked his whereabouts?”

Sebastian fixed him with a glare so icy it felt like it could freeze the blood in your veins.

Conrad said, “You really locked things down tight. We paid a heavy price, lost a ton of people.”

There were times he thought it was game over, that the whole mission was about to crash and burn.

He was so stressed out that he couldn’t sleep a wink, day or night

If Eric ever made it back to Clusia alive, his cover would be blown for sure. It was only a matter of time.

If Eric lived, he would be as good as dead.

Both the Core One Project and the Gene Project would crash and burn together.

Conrad said, “But we managed to get in touch with someone who leaked your whereabouts. That’s how we were able to send mercenaries to ambush you. Just let me live, and I’ll tell you everything!”

‘Fair deal, Conrad told himself, forcing himself to sound calm.

The whole place went dead silent.

Out of nowhere, a streak of fire shot through the air.

Conrad’s eyes went wide in shock.

He knew exactly where that fire was headed, straight for him.

‘Shit, I’m a goner, Conrad thought, terror slamming into him.

But before he could even finish that thought, someone seized his arm with brutal force and yanked him back.

Conrad let out a blood–curdling scream, his voice echoing through the hall.

The shot hit the stage, leaving a bullet hole right where Conrad had just been.

Once the guests realized what was happening, they totally freaked out. Some scrambled for the exits, while others dropped to the floor and clapped their hands over their ears.

But the old–timers just sat there, completely unfazed, not even flinching.

Especially Bernard, who walked through the crossfire like it was nothing. His expression was all business, not a hint of fear, practically glowing with righteous energy.

Blake froze for a moment.

Blake, who’d almost ducked for cover, fought the urge and squared his shoulders, standing tall.

“Sebastian!” Stella shoved Conrad toward Murray with one hand and, in the same motion, swiped the gun right off Murray’s waist.

Murray just stood there, not saying a word.

He blinked, totally stunned. He hadn’t even caught how fast her hands moved.