A nervous thrill runs down my spine as my fingers fly over my keyboard, line after line of code slowly unraveling our security system. It’s bullshit that I have to hack into my own family’s firmware in the first place, and it’s even bigger bullshit that it’s taken me weeks to get remotely close to breaching it. Hundreds of hours went into finding the slightest weakness in our Head of Security’s systems, only to come up empty every single time.
Until now.
My heart begins to race as I write the last few lines that are sure to let me into my grandmother’s laptop. I flex my fingers, sucking in a breath before I press enter.
“Thank fuck,” I whisper as my monitor flashes for a split-second, before mirroring what must be my grandmother’s home screen. The background photo of my parents with my five siblings and I nearly makes me feel guilty enough to stop what I’m doing, but my need to be in control of my own life drowns the feeling out.
Nerves dance across my skin as I search my grandmother’s computer in the most methodical way I can think of given my time constraints, and with each second that passes, my frustration grows. “Where did you hide her, Grams?” I murmur, typing faster, more frantically.
My gaze drops to the heirloom Laurier watch I inherited from my grandfather, its second hand moving smoothly. Our Head of Security, Silas Sinclair, will realize what I’m up to and shut me out within a few minutes at most, giving me approximately three more minutes to find the information I’m after. “Fuck,” I groan when my internal monitors begin to flash.
I sit up when Pippy, my robot assistant, calls my name, her voice sounding from the speakers in my lab. “Lex, Sinclair Security identified a breach that they’re working on. It won’t take them long to shut you out,” she tells me. “By my estimates, you have two minutes left.”
“Damn it, Silas.”
I work faster, searching my grandmother’s systems for every single mention of my name, of which there are thousands. You could be the best coder, but without a strategy, your skills are useless — and I’m feeling pretty damn useless right about now.
“Come on,” I whisper, my agitation increasing as the seconds trickle by without result. “Where are you hiding?”
My screen flickers just as I open a promising document, and my heart nearly fucking stops. I only have a few seconds left at most, but as it turns out, that’s enough for me to find what I was after.
Raya Lewis.
I grin to myself just as my screen goes black, satisfaction spreading from my chest throughout my entire body. “Raya,” I whisper. It almost feels sinful to say her name out loud before I’m meant to know it. I lean back in my chair and stare up at the ceiling, my mind whirling. “Who are you, Raya Lewis?”
For as long as I can remember, my family has utilized arranged marriages as a way to grow our existing business and enter new industries. None of us get to choose who we marry, and I won’t be any different, but I’m not going into this blind. I won’t let my grandmother play me the way she did my brothers, slyly manipulating them into thinking their choices are their own, when she’s always held their strings.
My phone begins to buzz, snapping me out of my daze, and I smirk when I see the incoming video call. One beat passes, and then another, before I finally pick up.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Lex?” Silas says, fury written all over his face.
I merely shrug as I position my phone on my desk, ready for the lecture Silas no doubt prepared for me. “Merely keeping you on your toes, Si. How else am I supposed to be sure that you’re really doing your job?”
He throws me a withering look that makes it near impossible not to smile smugly, and my amusement only heightens his anger. “How the fuck am I supposed to explain this to your grandmother?”
Every hint of satisfaction melts away, and I straighten in my seat. “You won’t,” I warn him, unease evident in my voice, despite my firm tone. “The first time I meet the woman I’ll be forced to marry can’t be on my grandmother’s terms. I’ll do as is expected of me, but I’ll do it on my own terms. I need to know who my future wife is behind the facade she’ll no doubt craft the second we’re formally introduced to each other.”
His expression falls, understanding stealing away his anger, and he sighs. “I’ll feign ignorance if this ever comes to light,” he says reluctantly, something akin to pity crossing his eyes.
I lower my head, my heart wrenching painfully. He knows better than anyone else why I’m doing this. He’s the one who saved me, after all. Silas found me when no one else could, and my family and I have been in his debt ever since.
“What do you know about Raya Lewis? You shut me out before I could read my grandmother’s file on her.”
Silas shakes his head. “You know I can’t tell you anything. It’s bad enough that you learned her name.”
I tap my foot impatiently as I stare him down, knowing he won’t budge. The second I get off this call, he’s going to bury any and all information about her. “I just need to know what kind of person I’m going to marry, Silas. I need to know that I’m not about to make the same mistake twice.”
Silas runs a hand through his hair and sighs. “Fuck,” he groans, knowing he can’t deny me. “She’s a robotics major at Astor College,” he says hesitantly, like he’s certain he’ll regret telling me as much as he has, despite it being very little.
“Robotics,” I murmur, oddly surprised to find out her major is the same as mine was. Not only that, but she’s also attending the same college I attended — the college one of my best friends owns.
“Lex,” Silas says, his tone filled with caution. “You should know that the match isn’t confirmed yet. Raya’s father desperately needs the merger your grandmother offered him, but he’s refusing to make an arranged marriage part of the deal. As it stands, I’m not sure this engagement will happen.”
I stare out the window for a moment, an unfamiliar feeling lodging deep in my chest. “No,” I murmur. “I have a feeling she’s the one.”
