Substitute Wife, Genius CEO novel Chapter 98

Silas glanced up from his screen, his dark, ink-black eyes betraying zero emotion.

The woman tapped the corner of her own mouth with a manicured finger, offering a playful smile. "I saw you smiling just now. We've been sitting here for an hour and you haven't cracked a single grin. I honestly assumed you just weren't the smiling type, but it turns out I just wasn't the right audience."

Silas didn't entertain the flirtation. He set his phone facedown on the linen tablecloth and looked at her directly. "I apologize, Ms. Grace, but I believe we're better suited as friends."

Ms. Grace took the rejection in stride, offering a graceful laugh. "A man of your caliber asking to be my friend is already a massive compliment. I'll smooth things over with my aunt so you won't be put in an awkward position."

Silas nodded. "Thank you."

***

Three days later, the swelling in Summer's fingers had gone down significantly, and she had regained most of her mobility.

Working in absolute silence, she bypassed Sterling Group's internal network without triggering a single firewall alarm. Yet, the specific files she was hunting for were nowhere to be found.

"Summer, have some fruit," Xavier said, approaching her bed with a small bowl. "Stop staring at your screen."

With a lightning-fast swipe of her thumb, Summer switched the interface to a mundane news app.

Xavier cast a dismissive glance at the screen before offering her a slice of fruit on a fork. Summer obstinately turned her face to the wall.

She refused to eat anything he tried to feed her.

Xavier let out an exhausted sigh. "Summer, can we please stop fighting? Let's just go back to the way things were. Wouldn't that be better for both of us?"

Refusing to even look at him, Summer kept her gaze fixed on the sterile white wall. "I'm not fighting with you, Xavier. I am dead serious about the divorce. And let me make this crystal clear: I don't want your pity, I don't want your care, and the mere sight of you makes me violently nauseous. Can you just vanish from my life?"

For the past few days, Xavier had practically moved into the hospital room. Paige had been hand-delivering all his corporate documents so he could work right beside her bed.

He was there for every medical evaluation.

He personally tried to spoon-feed her every meal.

He even tried to help her wash up.

But Summer had repaid his efforts with unrelenting hostility. She cursed him out constantly, smacked away the food he offered, and violently recoiled if he tried to touch her.

When Gavin had initially reported her missing, the police had tracked Xavier down to demand answers.

He had accompanied the authorities to that wretched academy.

When they finally dragged Summer out of that freezing, foul-smelling dungeon covered in blood and bruises, it had physically gutted him.

In that moment, he was drowning in heartbreak, guilt, and a crushing wave of regret.

She grabbed her phone, switched the interface back, and her fingers blurred into motion across the digital keyboard.

Within seconds, she located the 'deleted' files she was searching for.

One click to restore.

Absolutely undetectable.

Although she had secured the evidence she needed, Summer had zero intention of logging out peacefully. Since she was already inside the mainframe, it would be rude not to leave a parting gift.

Mere moments later, Sterling Group was trending globally.

The entire corporate network had been crippled by a phantom hacker known only as 'W'.

Lily reacted immediately, dragging the entire R&D department into a state of severe crisis protocol.

They frantically tried to isolate the infected servers and freeze their core business accounts.

Meanwhile, Lily personally spearheaded the hunt to trace the breach, desperate to unmask the attacker and prove her worth.

But she was wildly out of her depth. Summer was the brilliant architect who had built Sterling Group's cybersecurity from the ground up. No one on the planet understood its architecture better than her.