Chapter 178: Chapter 179: The Hack
ARIA’S POV
Aria sat in her small office at the hospital, the glow of her laptop screen reflecting in her dark eyes. The hospital had quieted to the hushed rhythm beeping monitors.
She’d told herself she’d give it 24 hours. Twenty-four hours to handle Harold Ashford herself before involving Damien. Not because she didn’t trust him to protect her, but because she needed to prove....to herself more than anyone....that she could fight her own battles.
Harold had made a critical mistake. He’d underestimated her. Seen her as nothing more than Damien’s girlfriend, a pretty distraction who’d gotten lucky securing a position at Metropolitan General. He’d tried to use Morrison, tried to manipulate the board, tried to sabotage her career before it even began.
He had no idea who he was dealing with.
Aria’s fingers flew across the keyboard, lines of code streaming across her screen in rapid succession. She’d been at this for three hours, methodically working her way through Ashford Industries’ security protocols. For a company of their size and wealth, their cybersecurity was surprisingly outdated....certainly no match for someone with her skills.
She’d already bypassed their firewall, navigated past their intrusion detection system, and was now deep in their internal network. Email servers. Financial records. Private communications between Harold and his associates.
And what she was finding was damning.
Tax evasion schemes dating back fifteen years. Bribes paid to city officials for construction permits. Unsafe working conditions at their factories that had been deliberately concealed from inspectors. Environmental violations that had been covered up with falsified reports. Even connections to organized crime figures who’d helped Harold eliminate business competitors.
The man was dirty. Thoroughly, comprehensively corrupt.
Aria’s jaw tightened as she read through email after email. Harold Ashford presented himself as a pillar of the business community, a respected philanthropist, a man of integrity. But the reality was he was a criminal who’d simply never been caught.
Until now.
She created a new folder and began copying files. Financial statements showing the offshore accounts. Emails discussing the bribes. Internal memos about the factory safety violations. Photographs of meetings with known criminals. Contract records showing bid-rigging schemes.
Everything.
The download took nearly forty minutes. Aria watched the progress bar creep forward, her heart pounding with a mixture of adrenaline and satisfaction. This was what she did best.....not the corporate PA work, not even the medicine, though she loved both. This was her true skill. Digital warfare.
When the download completed, she had over 50 gigabytes of incriminating evidence.
But she wasn’t done yet.
Aria opened a new window and began writing code. A virus—nothing that would cause permanent damage, but enough to throw Ashford Industries’ IT department into chaos. Enough to keep them busy while she executed the next phase of her plan.
She embedded the virus deep in their system, setting it to activate in exactly two hours. That would give her time to get clear, to be somewhere public and visible when everything went to hell.
Then she created an anonymous account on one of the major document-sharing platforms. Used a VPN to mask her location, routed through seven different countries to make tracing impossible. Uploaded every single file she’d copied.
And made the entire collection public.
She titled the folder simply: "The Real Harold Ashford: A Comprehensive Record of Corporate Crime."
Her finger hovered over the publish button for just a moment. Once she did this, there was no going back. This would destroy Harold Ashford. Would likely result in criminal charges, would definitely end his business empire, would ruin his reputation forever.
But he’d tried to destroy her first. Had threatened her career, her dreams, her future. Had tried to use his power and influence to crush her simply because she was with Damien. Had tried to sabotage her return to medicine....the thing she loved most in the world after Damien himself.
And more than that....far more important than her personal vendetta....he’d hurt innocent people for years. Workers injured in unsafe factories. Communities poisoned by illegal dumping. Competitors destroyed through criminal means. All while presenting himself as a pillar of society.
Someone needed to stop him. And that someone was her.
Aria clicked publish.
The upload took another twenty-three minutes. She watched the progress bar with cold satisfaction, feeling absolutely no guilt, no remorse, no second thoughts. Only a deep, bone-deep sense that justice....real justice, not the kind that could be bought or influenced....was finally being served.
When the upload completed, she sat back in her chair and took a deep breath. It was done. The evidence was out there now, beyond anyone’s ability to suppress or hide or make disappear. Even if Harold somehow managed to get it taken down from this platform, it would already be downloaded thousands of times, shared across social media, picked up by news organizations.
There was no putting this genie back in the bottle.
She glanced at the clock on her computer: 10:47 PM. In exactly two hours, the virus would activate. By morning, Harold Ashford’s carefully constructed world would be burning to the ground.
Aria closed her laptop and began packing her things. Her medical journals. The patient files she’d been reviewing. Her tablet and chargers. She moved with calm efficiency, feeling no guilt, no fear, no anxiety about what she’d just done.
She’d tell Damien eventually. Maybe tomorrow, after she’d had time to see how the situation developed. Maybe after Harold’s empire had fully collapsed and the criminal investigations had begun. But for now, this was her secret. Her victory. Her way of proving that she could protect herself and fight her own battles.
Her phone buzzed with an incoming call. Damien’s name lit up the screen, and she smiled as she answered.
"Hey, baby!"
"Hey. Are you still at work?" His voice was warm, concerned.
"Just finishing up. I’m packing my things now."
"Want me to send Marcus to pick you up? It’s late."
She considered it for a moment, then shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. "No, that’s okay. Actually, why don’t I come to the company instead? I could use the opportunity to see Emma because I’ve missed her."
There was a brief pause, and she could almost hear him smiling. "Alright. But drive carefully."
"I always do. See you soon, baby."
"See you soon."
She ended the call and grabbed her bag, taking one last look around her office. Everything was normal, professional, exactly as it should be. No evidence that she’d just committed what Harold Ashford would probably consider an act of cyber warfare.
Aria turned off the lights and locked her office door behind her, completely unaware that as she made her way through the quiet hospital corridors toward the parking garage, she was being watched. Seb, the bodyguard Damien had assigned to her protection detail, followed at a discreet distance, just as he did every day.
She’d never noticed him. Damien had made sure of that.
