Chapter 36

"Deal." Nathaniel's piercing stare locked onto the flashing 'Execute' command on the monitor. "Proceed."

"Perfect!" Julian Blackthorn clicked the button without hesitation.

The room fell silent. Every pair of eyes was glued to the screen. Scarlet Phoenix's fans clutched their fists, pulses racing.

"Almost there!"

"The legendary hacker Scarlet Phoenix—her identity is about to be revealed!"

Fifteen minutes passed in a blink. The crowd began counting down.

"10... 9... 8... 7..."

Then, Isabella strolled back in, arms crossed.

"Still not done?" Her voice dripped with amusement as she eyed Julian's deepening scowl. "Are you sure your code works? Because I spotted a critical flaw. Imagine humiliating yourself in front of everyone—calling someone Daddy when you can't even debug properly."

"What would a cleaning lady know about coding?" Julian scoffed, not even bothering to glance at her. Women like her—spineless, talentless, clinging to cheating husbands—were beneath him.

The spectators rolled their eyes. Julian's code was flawless. What nonsense was she spouting?

"3... 2... 1!"

The screen flickered. The moment of truth had arrived.

Then—silence.

The image displayed was Julian's own face.

Chaos erupted.

"Told you," Isabella sang, grinning as she patted his shoulder. "Pride comes before a fall, kid."

"Impossible!" Julian's hands trembled over the keyboard. "I triple-checked every line! There’s no way—"

He frantically combed through the backend, but the code was perfect.

"Maybe next time," Isabella added sweetly, "don’t bet what you can’t afford to lose."

Each word was a needle to Julian’s pride, but he was too busy spiraling to retort.

Nathaniel’s sharp gaze lingered on Isabella. Why was she so smug? Even if the code had failed, her gloating was... suspicious.

"Pathetic," he muttered, checking his watch. "Waste of time."

He turned to leave.

The IT team exchanged disappointed glances. Legends were just that—myths. Reality always shattered them.

"Wait!" Julian suddenly straightened. "I found it."

Nathaniel arched a brow.

"The target reverse-engineered my code," Julian explained, voice tight. "They launched a counterattack, replacing the result with my own data."

Blank stares.

"Meaning," he ground out, "Scarlet Phoenix is in this room. Only someone here could’ve accessed my algorithm."

His eyes swept the crowd.

"And the only person who left mid-execution?"

A beat.

"Isabella Lockhart."