The Billionaire's Mistake

Chapter18

Kira’s eyes were bloodshot, her glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose. She stopped. Her heart skipped a beat as a string of red text flickered across her terminal. "Wait," she breathed, her voice barely a whisper. She traced the source. Her stomach did a slow, nauseating flip. This wasn't $800 million. That I saw earlier today. The deeper she went, the more the numbers bloated. $1 billion. Until it's got to $2.5 billion. "Mr. Blackwood," she called, her voice cracking slightly.

Adrian was suddenly behind her. He didn't touch her, but his heat radiated off him, thick and suffocating. He leaned over, one hand gripping the back of her chair, the other resting on the desk. He was so close she could smell the expensive sandalwood and the faint, bitter scent of espresso. "Report," he commanded. "It’s... it’s worse than we thought," Kira said, pointing at the scrolling data.

"The leak isn't just a leak. It’s a siphon. Someone tethered your primary offshore accounts to a ghost server that’s compounding the losses. If I don't stop this now, by tomorrow morning, you aren't losing just $2.5 billion. You’re looking at a total collapse of $5.2 billion." The silence that followed was terrifying. Kira expected him to swear, to panic, to show some shred of human emotion. Instead, Adrian just stood there, his gaze fixed on the screen. He looked like he was calculating the cost of a soul.

"Then fix it," he said finally. His voice was deathly quiet. "I've been here for six hours straight," Kira snapped, the stress finally bubbling over. "I need a minute to breathe. I'm a human being, not a processing robot." Adrian straightened up, looking down at her with pure, unadulterated ice in his eyes. "In this room, you are exactly what I paid for. If that money vanishes, so does your career. So does your life, not just your life but that of Mrs Colette, and everything that you've ever valued and loved."

He walked back to his desk, leaving her shivering in the wake of his coldness. Kira bit her lip so hard she tasted copper. She hated him. She hated his perfect suits, his perfect hair, and the way he treated her like a tool in his shed. She turned back to the screen, her fingers trembling. She had eighteen hours left. As

The sun set, turning the office into a cage of shadows and neon city lights. Adrian stayed back. He didn't speak, but he was just there watching.

Every time Kira looked up, he was there—a dark silhouette, a constant reminder of what was at stake.

By 11 PM, Kira felt like she was hallucinating. She reached into her bag for her water bottle, but her hand brushed against the silver ring Edie had given her. She’d taken it off to keep it safe while she worked. She picked it up, the cool metal a stark contrast to the burning heat of her laptop.

She looked at the ring, then at Adrian, who was staring out at the city, his back to her. He was the most powerful man she’d ever met, and the most hollow. He had billions, but he had nothing.

She thought of her mom, sleeping in that quiet, antiseptic room. She thought of the $2.5 billion hanging in the balance. "You really don't care, don't you?" Kira asked, her voice echoing in the hollow space. "If it all goes down? If people lose their jobs? If lives are ruined?"

Adrian turned slowly. The moonlight hit his face, making him look like a beautiful, carved demon. "Emotions are for people who can't afford the truth, Kira. The truth is that money is the only thing that keeps the world turning. Everything else is just... noise." He stepped toward her, his eyes locking onto the silver ring in her hand. A small, cruel smile touched his lips. As she quickly hides her hand under the desk, "Is that what you’re working for? That little piece of tin?"

Kira clutched the ring tight under her desk as her knuckles turned white. "It’s worth more than everything in this building, Mr Adrian." "We'll see," Adrian whispered, leaning into her light. "Tomorrow is the third day, Kira. Don't let the noise make you fail. Because if you do... there won't be enough silver in the world to save you."

He turned and walked out of the office, leaving the door open. The silence that rushed in was heavier than the noise. Kira sat there, alone in the dark, the green glow of the laptop, the only thing keeping her sane, the air in the office was tiny. She looked at the screen. $2.5 billion, and looked at the cheap ring smiling. The clock on the wall ticked. Day Three was coming. And Kira knew that by the time it was over, she wouldn't be the same girl who walked in anymore.