Sentenced to Marriage by MadlainQ novel Chapter 70

A lie

I kept staring at Alan, blinking my eyes in disbelief. “Let me get this straight… You made a perfect clone of Callan’s phone, and then you erased all the nude pictures and the video from it?”

“That is correct,” Norton confirmed.

“And this phone is the one that the FBI agents have taken?”

“Yup.” Alan grinned wickedly. “And the original is still in our hands, and we can complete the retrieval of data that got erased by the burner app?” “Yes,” they replied simultaneously. I collapsed on the sofa and burst out into laughter, relieved and happy to have those two freaks by my side. Aren stood beside me, smiling and gesturing a thumbs-up to Alan and Norton. I smiled at my husband and shrugged. “I guess, we will notify Jack if we find something useful.” “Good idea.” Aren nodded before turning to the boys. “Good job, guys.” “It was the right thing to do,” Norton said, confidently raising his chin.

I knew I owed them a good dinner with high-quality alcohol, at least for what they did. As soon as Aren, Neil, and the lawyer left, I hugged both of them.

“Thank you, guys. I’ve no idea what I would do without you,” I said, on the verge of sobbing. “Chill babe!” Alan chuckled. “You are our boss’s wife. It is only natural that we’ll make sure that no fucker messes with you.” Norton nodded, approving Alan’s words before he sat back behind his desk. “We still have work to do,” he said, shifting his eyes to a computer screen. He was right. There was a chance that computer geeks working for the FBI would discover that what those agents took was a mere copy of Callan’s phone, and they would come back to search for the real one this time. We had to make sure that we retrieved all the files we could before that happened.

All three of us worked relentlessly for the next hours, correcting algorithms to get the best possible results. Finally, it all started to pay off… “I got one message!” Alan exclaimed. “It was sent two days before your kidnapping, and it was sent to an unidentified recipient, supposedly a burner phone.” “Let me see it,” I said, pushing myself to ride my office chair closer to his screen and then read the message aloud, “I’ve given the universal key to your man just like you wanted. Just remember that afterward, Cora is mine.”

Chills ran down my spine. I was glad that the message appeared to be one more piece of evidence of Callan’s involvement in my kidnapping and the whole attack, but it had little use

when Callan had already died. My excitement gave way to a wry smile. We needed to dig deeper, hoping to recover something with a name or a place at least. After another hour, I dug into an incoming message from two weeks ago. I read it to the boys, “I know you want him dead just as much as I do. He will pay for what he has done to my family. I’ll make sure he pays.” “Wow… this guy is serious!” Alan commented, widening his eyes. “You should show it to your husband. Maybe it will give him a clue.”

My lips stretched into a grimace. “I doubt it. It’s not too specific, and the thing about the family… Aren must have taken a lot of companies over the years. I bet there must be thousands of families who hate him for losing their jobs or their wealth.”

“Fuck, you’re right.” Alan lowered his head and turned his eyes back to the screen. Before midnight, we retrieved a few other text messages, but none of them brought anything new. I was starting to feel that we were running in circles. The mastermind behind the attack was wise enough not to use any specific names in the messages, giving us little to no information about who he was. If it weren’t for the fact that I had talked to him, I could have assumed that the perpetrator might have been a woman as well. I heaved a sound of frustration as I finished reading another nothing changing text. “Maybe we should call it a day?” Norton suggested.

“I’ll second that.” Alan raised his wobbly hand. “Fine…” I muttered, blinking at the screen with my exhausted eyes. I texted Aren. He asked me to wait a few more minutes so that we could go home together. I did as he asked me to. I went down to the parking lot and sat in the car. The fifteen minutes passed, and Aren didn’t come down. I shrugged, thinking that he must have answered a last minute phone call. I used that time to read a few articles on my phone, but when it was almost 1 AM and he wasn’t there, it got me slightly worried. I was about to call him when he showed up, walking out of his private elevator and heading toward the car. He looked pale and nervous. I could see that something was clearly off, but as he got inside the car, he gave me a warm smile as if nothing had happened. “Are you all right?” I asked, stroking his cheek. “Of course.” He chuckled, touching my hand on his cheek. “Why wouldn’t I be?” He lied. I knew him well enough to know that. Perhaps he didn’t want to worry me, but I hated not knowing what was going on. Besides, it scared the hell out of me to see him that nervous. I had never seen him in any other way but confident. What kind of news could have made him this anxious?