The Billionaire Who Hired Me To Destroy Him

Chapter 11: The Security Footage

Mara barely slept. Every time she closed her eyes she saw the broken door, the masked figure, the message: I TOLD YOU TO STOP. And Adrian standing in her apartment like he'd expected the whole thing.

By morning, they were in a private security room at Cross Group. One wall was covered in monitors. Mara stood with her arms crossed while Ethan Cole worked the system. Adrian stood behind them, quiet.

"I want the footage from my apartment," Mara said.

Ethan looked at Adrian, who nodded. "Pull everything from midnight until I got there."

Ethan typed fast. Screens flickered on. The footage appeared.

Mara leaned in. "There." The timestamp read 2:11 a.m. A figure entered the building—black clothes, black gloves, a mask covering the whole face.

"Can you zoom in?"

Ethan enlarged it. The mask was clearer, but the face was still impossible to identify.

"Nothing," Ethan said. "The mask covers everything."

"Keep watching."

The intruder moved through the hallway with unsettling confidence—no hesitation, no searching for the right door. They already knew where Mara lived.

"Stop," she said. Ethan paused it. The intruder had reached the security panel by the elevator and entered a code. The doors opened.

"What code did they use?" Mara asked.

Ethan checked the records. His face changed. "That's not possible."

"What?" Adrian stepped forward.

Ethan pulled up the log. "It belongs to a Cross Group executive."

Silence.

"Which executive?" Mara asked.

Ethan hesitated, then said, "Senior Vice President-level access."

Her pulse spiked. "So someone inside Cross Group gave them the code?"

"Not necessarily," Ethan said. "It could've been stolen."

She looked back at the screen. The intruder stepped into the elevator, but before the doors shut, they turned slightly and for one second, Mara spotted a small silver emblem on the sleeve.

"What is that?"

Ethan zoomed in. Adrian's face hardened. Mara caught it immediately.

"You recognize it."

He didn't answer.

"Adrian."

His eyes stayed on the screen. "That emblem isn't supposed to exist anymore."

Her heart raced. "What does that mean?"

He finally looked at her. "It belonged to an old Cross Group security division."

"Old?"

"Shut down seven years ago."

She stared at him. Seven years—the same year her father was destroyed. She turned back to the footage. This wasn't just someone who broke into her apartment. They had Cross Group access, an old Cross security emblem, and they knew exactly what she was investigating.

"Someone from seven years ago is still inside your company," she said quietly.

His face turned cold. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Ethan spoke up. "There's something else." He pulled up another screen showing several executive codes used over the past month, from different executives and locations but always the same masked figure.

"They've been moving through Cross Group undetected," Mara said.

Ethan nodded. "Which means they don't just have access." He looked at Adrian. "They have master access."

She turned to Adrian. "You said someone inside Cross Group was trying to destroy you."

"Yes."

"And now that same person is following me."

His jaw tightened. "Apparently."

She stepped closer. "How long have you known?"

He said nothing. Her suspicion flared. "You knew."

"Mara"

"You knew someone was watching me before the break-in."

His silence confirmed it. Her anger rose. "You hired me to find whoever's trying to destroy you, but you never told me they were already watching me."

"I was trying to keep you alive."

"You don't get to decide what I deserve to know."

He stepped closer. "I knew they were dangerous."

"And you brought me into this anyway."

His eyes darkened. "Because you're already part of it."

She froze. "What did you say?"

He looked at the frozen image of the intruder, then at her. "Your father wasn't the only one connected to Project Vesper."

Before she could ask anything else, every monitor went black. Ethan's face drained of color. "What the hell?"

A red line appeared across the main screen, followed by a message:

YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED LOOKING.

Then a second line:

NOW SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.

Mara looked at Adrian. The room fell silent.

Then Ethan's phone rang. He answered, and his face changed. "Adrian…"

"What?"

He swallowed. "Someone just accessed the executive security system."

"From where?"

Ethan looked at Mara.

"From inside this building. And the access code belongs to you."