My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 207

Chapter 207

She nodded quickly, shaking off the heavy mood, “You should probably go change and check in. He’s already gone through two espressos. He’s in a mood.”

Nodding, I headed straight for the executive restroom. I moved fast, my heart racing. I scrambled into a stall, my heart racing as I pulled off my jeans and crop top. I shook out my work clothes.

The black pencil skirt was tight, hugging my hips and hitting just above the knees. I tucked in a white silk blouse, making sure the lines were straight before stepping out to the mirrors. My hands were shaking a little as I swiped on a layer of light, neutral lipstick and a bit of mascara. I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard, just like I belonged. Finally, I grabbed a hair tie and twisted my messy hair into a tight, sleek bun at the nape of my neck.

I stepped out of the bathroom and rounded the corner toward my desk, but I didn’t even make it to my desk before

I heard the noise.

‘Are you kidding me?”

It was Raphael and he sounded like thunder hitting a sheet of metal. I stopped in my tracks.

He was standing in the middle of the open office area, surrounded by three guys in suits who looked like they wanted to melt into the floor. Raphael was holding a tablet in one hand, shaking it at them.

“The beta launch for the security encryption is in six hours!” he roared, “I told you the back-end code had a leak. I told you specifically to patch the firewall before the server sync. And what do I find? You didn’t just miss the leak, you deleted the entire recovery log. If the system crashes during the live demo, our clients’ data is out in the wind. We lose the contract, and I lose my patience. Do you know what happens when I lose my patience?”

The employees looked terrified. One of them opened his mouth to speak, but Raphael cut him off with a glare.

“Don’t. Just get back to the lab and fix it. If that code isn’t solid in an hour, don’t bother coming back for your stuff.

I walked over to my new desk Raphael had pointed out. It sat right in the corner, giving me a perfect view of the entire executive floor, especially a perfect view of his closed office door.

I sat down, the tight fabric of my black pencil skirt riding up just a few inches. I smoothed it out with a sigh. I logged into the system. Immediately, the screen filled with thousands of lines of data logs. My job was to look at the patterns, find where the AI was hallucinating, and catch the errors before they broke the security encryption.

I leaned in, my eyes scanning the white text against the dark background.

For the first three minutes, I was doing great. I was in the zone. But then, the familiar fog started to roll in. It started with a single line of code. The letters looked like they were shivering. I blinked, trying to clear my head, but it only made it worse.