My Husband Traded Me For Money

CHAPTER 7: THE CEBU CASE

Two weeks after the MedPharm trial, Elena was on a plane to Cebu, Marcus sitting beside her with a duffel bag full of equipment. The tech company—NovaTech Solutions—had been hacked three times in as many months, with sensitive customer data and proprietary software stolen each time. The police had hit a dead end, and the company’s CEO was desperate.

“Everything we need is in the files,” Marcus said, passing her a tablet. “NovaTech specializes in developing security software for banks and hospitals—if their data gets sold on the black market, thousands of people could be at risk.”

Elena scrolled through the information. The CEO, a woman named Ana Torres, was in her early thirties—young, driven, and clearly stressed by what was happening to her company. The hacks had already cost them millions in lost contracts and damage control.

When they landed, Ana was waiting for them at the airport. She was tall and sharply dressed, but the dark circles under her eyes told the story of sleepless nights.

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” she said as they drove to the company’s office in Mandaue City. “We’ve tightened our security every time, but they still get in. It’s like they know exactly what we’re going to do before we do it.”

“That means they have someone on the inside,” Elena said. “Or they’ve found a weakness in your system that no one else has noticed.”

NovaTech’s office was modern and open-plan, with rows of computers and glass-walled meeting rooms. Ana led them to a conference room where the company’s IT team was waiting.

“These are our best people,” Ana said, introducing them. “They’ve checked every line of code, every server, every employee’s device. They can’t find how the hackers are getting in.”

Elena looked around the room, her eyes taking in every detail. One of the IT technicians—Javier, a young man in his twenties—kept fidgeting with his phone, avoiding eye contact whenever someone looked at him. Another, Lia, was taking detailed notes, but her hands were shaking slightly. The third, Ben, was leaning back in his chair, looking bored—but Elena noticed he was watching everyone else closely.

“Can we see the servers?” she asked.

They were taken to a secure room in the basement, lined with rows of machines humming quietly. Elena walked slowly through the room, running her hand along the racks as she looked for anything out of place. Then she saw it—a small device tucked behind one of the servers, barely visible in the dim light.

“What’s this?” she asked, pointing to it.

The IT team gathered around, their faces pale. “We’ve never seen that before,” Javier said. “It wasn’t here last time we checked.”

Marcus pulled out a tool kit and carefully removed the device. “It’s a hardware keylogger,” he said. “It records every keystroke made on the server—usernames, passwords, everything. But it only transmits data when someone connects a specific device to the network.”

Elena looked at the team. “Who has access to this room?”

“Only the three of us, plus Ana,” Lia said quickly. “We all have key cards and passcodes.”

“Which means one of you is either working with the hackers, or someone stole your access information,” Elena said. “When was the last time any of you lost your key card or had your password changed?”

Javier shifted uncomfortably. “I… I lost my key card last month. But I reported it right away, and they deactivated it.”

“Did you change your password too?”

“Y-yes.”

Elena exchanged a look with Marcus. “We’ll need to check all your devices, your personal accounts—everything. And we’ll be setting up surveillance in this room and around the office.”

Over the next two days, Elena and Marcus worked with the IT team to track the keylogger’s signal. It led them to a small apartment in Cebu City, but when they raided it, the place was empty—except for a laptop with files that had been deleted just hours before.

“They knew we were coming,” Marcus said, kicking at an empty coffee cup on the floor. “Someone tipped them off.”

That evening, Elena was going through security footage from the server room when she noticed something. On the night the keylogger was installed, Lia came into the room at 2 AM—she said she was checking on a system update, but the footage showed her staying for only 10 minutes, and she never touched any of the servers. What she did do was place her phone on a shelf near the door for a few seconds before putting it back in her pocket.

Elena pulled up the footage from the hallway outside the server room. A few minutes after Lia left, a man in a hoodie had walked past—but he was using a key card to open the door, and he moved like he knew exactly where he was going.

“Marcus,” she said quickly. “Come look at this.”

They ran the man’s image through facial recognition software. His name was Diego Santos—he had a record of cybercrime and was known to work with a group that sold stolen data on the black market. And when they checked Lia’s phone records, they found dozens of calls and messages between her and Diego.

“Lia’s the leak,” Elena said. “But why? She seems dedicated to the company.”

They found out the next morning when Ana called them into her office, her face white with shock. “Lia’s gone,” she said. “She left this on her desk.”

It was a letter. “I’m sorry. Diego has my sister—he’ll hurt her if I don’t do what he says. They made me install the keylogger and made me tell them when you were checking security. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Then she’s not working with them by choice,” Elena said. “We need to find her—and her sister—before Diego realizes she’s told us.”

Using the last location from Lia’s phone, they tracked her to an old warehouse near the port. Marcus called in local police backup, and they moved in just as the sun was setting.

The warehouse was dark and quiet when they arrived. Elena and Marcus crept inside, their weapons drawn. They could hear voices coming from the back—Lia crying, Diego shouting.

“…you think you can run?” Diego was saying. “You know too much now. Your sister’s already gone—she was leverage anyway.”

Elena’s blood boiled. She signaled to Marcus, and they moved forward together.

“Diego Santos! Police! Put your hands up!”

Diego spun around, pulling a gun and pointing it at Lia. “One step closer and she dies!”

Elena kept her weapon trained on him, her voice steady. “Let her go. We know you have her sister—she’s safe, we found her an hour ago.”

It was a lie, but it worked. Diego’s face flickered with doubt, and that was all Marcus needed. He moved quickly, disarming Diego before he could react. The police rushed in and arrested him, and Elena ran to Lia’s side.

“Are you okay?” she asked, cutting the ropes that bound her.

Lia nodded, tears streaming down her face. “He had her… he showed me pictures… I didn’t know what else to do.”

“It’s okay,” Elena said gently. “You’re safe now. And we’ll make sure he can’t hurt anyone else again.”

They found Lia’s sister, Maya, locked in a small room above a convenience store a few blocks away—she was scared but unharmed. Diego’s entire group was arrested within hours, and all the stolen data was recovered before it could be sold.

A week later, Elena and Marcus were packing to leave Cebu when Ana came to see them.

“Thank you,” she said, handing Elena a folder. “This is a copy of all the data we recovered—plus evidence that Diego was working with someone at one of our competitors. We’ll be able to sue them for damages now.”

“What about Lia?” Elena asked.

“Ana sighed. “She’ll be charged with accessory to theft, but her lawyer says the judge will be lenient once they hear why she did it. We’ve offered to keep her on staff once she’s done with her community service—she’s one of our best people, and she made a mistake because she was trying to protect someone she loved.”

Elena nodded. She understood what it was like to make choices you didn’t want to make, to be forced into corners by people who didn’t care about anything but their own gain.

On the plane back to Manila, Marcus handed Elena a bottle of water. “You handled that well,” he said. “The way you kept Diego talking, the way you knew exactly what to say to get him to hesitate—you’ve come a long way from the woman who first walked into Adrian’s study.”

Elena smiled, looking out the window at the clouds below. “I had good teachers,” she said.

When they landed, Adrian was waiting for them at the airport. He didn’t say anything at first—just looked at Elena and nodded slowly.

“I heard how it went,” he said as they drove back to the estate. “Ana called to say thank you. She also said she wants you to be NovaTech’s permanent security consultant.”

Elena felt a surge of pride. “Really?”

“Really. And there’s something else.” He pulled out a small box and handed it to her. Inside was a badge—LAURENT SECURITY SOLUTIONS, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE AGENT.

“Adrian, I don’t know what to say.”

“You’ve earned it,” he said firmly. “You’re one of our best agents now. And I have a feeling you’re only going to get better.”

That night, Elena stood in the garden, holding her new badge in her hand. The moon was bright in the sky, and the estate was quiet and peaceful. She thought of where she had been a year ago—broken, alone, with no idea what her future held. She thought of Marco, of the pain he had caused her, of how she had turned that pain into strength.

She thought of all the people she had helped—Maria, Ana, Lia—and knew that this was what she was meant to do. She had found her purpose, her place in the world.

Adrian came out and stood beside her, holding two glasses of wine.

“To new beginnings,” he said, raising his glass.

Elena clinked hers against his. “To new beginnings,” she repeated.

As they stood there under the stars, Elena knew that whatever challenges came next, she was ready. She had built a life for herself—one filled with purpose, respect, and people who cared about her.

She was no longer the woman who had been sold.

She was Elena Reyes—senior agent, protector, and finally, truly happy.