The Billionaire's Mistake

Chapter17

The sun hadn’t even thought about rising when Kira stood by her mother’s bed looking at her sicker face. The room was silent, save for the rhythmic, agonizingly slow sound of her mom’s breathing. In the dim light, her mother looked fragile, like a piece of fine china held together by sheer will.

Kira reached out, her fingers hovering over her mom’s hand before she gently squeezed. "I’m going to fix this," she whispered, the words feeling like a heavy weight in her chest. "I’m going to save your life, mom, I promise you. Just keep fighting."

She leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her mother’s forehead—a silent promise, a desperate and a goodbye for the day.

.

She stepped out into the crisp morning air, her thrifty blazer pulled tight against the chill. She didn't check her phone for texts from Edie. She couldn't afford the distraction of "love" or "safety." She needed to stay focused. By 8:50 AM, Kira was at her desk in the Blackwood Corp penthouse. She was ten minutes early, and she made sure that the click of her heels on the marble floor was loud enough to announce her arrival.

Adrian Blackwood was already there. He was standing by the window, a cup of black coffee in his hand, looking like a dark god surveying a kingdom he was bored with. He didn't turn around. He didn't say, "Good morning." "You're ten minutes early," he said, his voice low, smooth and the vibration that skipped across Kira’s nerves like a stone on water.

"Punctuality is a sign of someone who has everything to lose. Or someone who thinks time can be bought." "It's just efficiency, Mr. Blackwood," Kira countered, dropping her bag and popping open her laptop. "I don't like wasting my own time, and I certainly don't like wasting yours. Shall we?"

She didn't wait for an answer. As she dove.

Day Two was a brutal, digital marathon. The office was a vacuum of silence, broken only by the aggressive clack-clack-clack of Kira’s typing. She wasn't just looking for a leak anymore; she was hunting a predator. Every time she closed one loophole, two more appeared. It was a hydra of bad code that was eating up Adrian’s empire from the inside out. Around 3 PM, the air in the office felt like it had been sucked out.