CEO loves me with all his soul.-Chapter 110. Luri’s intelligence.

In the living room, the air felt a bit lighter. The food Jesper sent was neatly packed and stored. Yuin had left a note beside it:

"Eat when you can. Cry when you must. We’re here."

That evening, as dusk rolled in and the sky turned to a velvet grey, Isaac sat beside the window. He was wrapped in one of Lucas’s sweaters, the scent still faintly lingering. In his lap was a photo album—one Yuin had discreetly found in Lucas’s old drawer.

It was filled with polaroids. Their first date. The first time they cooked together. Lucas scowling in one picture while Isaac grinned beside him. Their visit to the hospital garden. The day Isaac confessed.

And one of them just sleeping side by side.

Adrian came to sit beside him, silent and gentle.

Isaac whispered, "I’ll never stop loving him."

Adrian thought that for Isaac getting out of this heartache might not be easy but he needs to get a grip and get back on his feet so that he can take revenge.

Ethan glanced at Adrian and assured him to rest easy.

--

A month after Lucas’s death.

Luri stood in front of the Sebanil household, her expression calm but alert. Her long, straight black hair framed her intelligent eyes, and she wore a tailored grey jacket over a black turtleneck. The early morning breeze played gently with the folds of her clothes as she pressed the doorbell.

Moments later, the door opened, revealing a tall, composed young woman with piercing silver eyes. Diana Sebanil, Isaac’s younger sister and the first daughter of the Sebanil family, looked at Luri with a small smile.

"You ready?" she asked, adjusting the black leather bag on her shoulder.

Luri nodded, her lips curving ever so slightly in response. "Of course."

The two women walked toward the car parked a few feet from the gate. Diana clicked the unlock button on the key fob, and the vehicle beeped obediently. Luri reached out to open the passenger-side door when she paused.

"Don’t start the engine," Luri said suddenly, her tone sharper than usual.

Diana frowned. "What?"

Luri crouched slightly and walked around the vehicle, her sharp eyes scanning everything—the tires, the underside, the seams between the panels. Her fingers traced the lower curve of the vehicle’s chassis as she leaned in under the bumper. Then she stopped.

"There," she muttered. "Right front wheel arch."

Diana stepped closer and followed Luri’s gaze. Something small and metallic had been fastened just out of sight—a compact device with a faint, blinking red light.

A bomb.

Luri pulled out a small pocket flashlight and carefully inspected the device. "It’s not time-triggered," she said, calm despite the danger. "Pressure-sensitive. It would’ve gone off when you turned the ignition or moved the car."

Diana took a step back, her throat tightening with the realization. "This... this is targeted."

"Definitely," Luri replied, pulling out her phone and calling emergency services. She quickly explained the situation in precise, clipped words. "Sebanil Residence. Attempted car bombing. Not time-based, located near front wheel arch. Send bomb squad. High-priority."

Diana glanced at her sister-in-law with deep respect. "You saved both our lives."

Luri shook her head, her mind already racing. "I had a gut feeling. The shadows were off... and the ground near the tire had too-clean prints. Like someone crouched here with gloves. I cross-checked satellite data from last night—there was a vehicle parked here for exactly four minutes at 2:37 AM."

Diana blinked. "You accessed satellite data?"

"I have my ways."

Once the call ended and they were a safe distance away, Luri sat on the footpath beside Diana. The cold concrete didn’t bother her. She opened her slim black laptop and tapped a few keys with practiced speed. Her screen lit up with cascading lines of encrypted data.

A 3D model of a building appeared.

Diana leaned closer. "What’s that?"

"Our little spy just sent us a gift," Luri said with a proud grin. "Remember the target we embedded last month? I finally got a ping. Our ’cleaning service’ managed to trace encrypted conversations back to a dummy company with branches all over Liso. But the real base? It’s here."

She pointed at the structure—a plain, rectangular building on the outskirts of the city labeled as a water filtration plant.

"That’s the secret organization’s hideout?" Diana asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Not just a hideout. It’s a nerve center," Luri confirmed. "They’ve been building artificial humans, manipulating DNA, creating chaos... and now they’re targeting our family."

Diana ran a hand through her hair, trying to ground herself. "So they tried to blow us up today, and probably wanted it to look like an accident."

"Exactly. But now we have a trail."

Luri opened another file—this one filled with surveillance captures, intercepted messages, and chemical schematics. "They’ve evolved from just experiments. They’re preparing to activate something. Something tied to a sequence called Project Orphos."

Diana stared. "You cracked the encryption?"

"I cracked part of it. The rest is coming along."

A ping echoed from Luri’s laptop, and her eyes gleamed. She zoomed in on a live feed from the inside of the filtration plant.

A man walked by the camera. He had a sharp jawline, clean-cut hair, and wore a scientist’s lab coat. Around his neck hung a black pendant with an odd blue glow.

"Who is he?" Diana asked, voice low.

"Director Halem," Luri said grimly. "Former government researcher. Disappeared three years ago with a whole team of experts. Now he’s working for them."

Diana clenched her fists. "They took Jael. They took Adrian. Now they tried to take us."

Luri met her gaze. "And we’re going to take them down."

Just then, the faint sound of police sirens began to wail in the distance. Diana stood up as a patrol car approached, followed by a bomb disposal unit.

Luri shut her laptop and stood beside Diana. "I’ll send this data to Argo and Dr. Siwen. Let them know that Sorchia Island was just the tip of the iceberg."

Diana nodded. "Let’s be careful."

As the officers began to carefully inspect the bomb, Luri turned to Diana one last time. "You realize... if we go through with this, we’ll be targets for real. Not just attempts. Full-blown war."

Diana’s silver eyes gleamed in the morning light.

"I’m a Sebanil," she said. "They picked the wrong family."

---

A month ago-

When Augustin guided Adrian and Ethan downstairs, they saw Diana who has not been seen for a few days now.

Diana Sebanil stood in the hallway of Adrian and Ethan’s home, dressed sharply in a navy-blue government blazer, her expression tight and strained. Her hair was tied up in a no-nonsense ponytail, but a few strands had escaped, softening her usually cold, commanding demeanor.

Adrian stood frozen for a moment before stepping forward.

"Diana..." he murmured, his voice breaking slightly.

She opened her arms, and without a second’s hesitation, Adrian walked into her embrace. The two siblings held each other for a long moment. Ethan quietly stood behind Adrian, his hand placed on his back in silent support.

"I’m sorry," Diana said finally, her voice low and ragged. "I should’ve been there. I should’ve protected you. When you were taken... I was summoned by the government. I wasn’t even in the country when it happened."

Adrian pulled back, searching her eyes. "You’re here now. That’s enough." His voice trembled, but his words were sincere.

Ethan nodded. "We don’t blame you."

They all sat down in the living room. The coffee table was already set with tea by Augustin, who, despite his usual clumsy attitude, had somehow read the atmosphere. He sat on the side, leaning back with a casual arm across the backrest.

Leclair Levistis, lounging beside him with his chin in his hand, raised a brow and gave Diana a skeptical look. "So, a top-ranking government officer, here in our living room? Must be urgent."

Diana’s expression turned serious. "It is. I didn’t just come to apologize. I came to warn you. You can’t trust the government anymore."

The room stilled.

Adrian exchanged a glance with Ethan.

"I suspected as much," Ethan said calmly. "The secret organization has already infiltrated them, haven’t they?"

Diana nodded slowly. "Not completely. But high-ranking officials... some of them are not who they seem to be. Orders are being countermanded. Surveillance erased. People silenced."

Leclair scoffed. "So the people supposed to protect us are the ones stabbing us in the back?"

"The government is split," Diana replied. "There are still loyal people inside who want to fight back. That’s why I’m here. There’s a special force being formed. Off-record. Their goal is to destroy the organization from the root. We need someone to go inside. A rat, essentially."

Augustin raised a brow. "Let me guess. You need someone who can’t be tracked."

Luri, who had been quiet till now, stretched and leaned forward with a sly smile. "That’s where we come in."

Her laptop whirred open on her knees, and with a few clicks, lines of code scrolled across her screen.

"I’ll cover your rat with my own hacking network," Luri said, her tone calm but confident. "No satellites, no tracking chips, not even facial recognition will follow them. I can erase them from the grid when needed."

Ethan narrowed his eyes. "Why tell us this? We’re not exactly military."

Diana looked straight at Adrian.

"Because I trust you," she said.

Adrian blinked.

"And," Diana continued, "because the organization seems to have a disturbing interest in you, Adrian. You’re a common link in many of their moves. If we’re planning something big, they’ll sniff it out. But if you give us the lead... they might not suspect."

Leclair hummed in amusement. "Smart. Using the bait to catch the fish."

Diana ignored his sarcasm. "We don’t expect you to agree. But we want you to understand the stakes."

Adrian frowned deeply, leaning against Ethan’s shoulder. "What kind of person would this ’rat’ be?"

"Someone skilled," Luri answered, her fingers dancing across the keyboard. "Smart enough to not break under pressure. Brave. And most importantly, invisible. No public history. No social media. Preferably someone with no birth registration."

Augustin clicked his tongue. "Not many people like that around."

Diana’s eyes gleamed. "There’s one."

Ethan sat up straighter. "Who?"

Luri smirked, but didn’t answer. She only tilted her screen towards Diana.

Diana read something on it and nodded.

"We’ll handle that part," she said. "I just need you all to know that we are moving. And once it begins, there’s no turning back."

Adrian’s hand tightened around Ethan’s.

"How do we know your special force isn’t compromised?"

"You don’t," Diana replied honestly. "That’s why it’s small. Three members, including me. No one else knows where we’re based. We’re operating independently. If I disappear, assume they’ve found us."

The heaviness of her words settled in the room like a cloud.

Augustin leaned forward. "So, what do you need from us right now?"

"For now, just stay alert," Diana said. "And protect Adrian. They’ve tried once. They’ll try again."

Adrian swallowed, his free hand brushing his stomach where he subconsciously remembered his past injuries.

Ethan nodded solemnly. "We won’t let our guard down."

Leclair tilted his head. "I’m in, by the way. Sounds fun."

"You’re not the rat," Diana snapped. "We need someone subtle."

"Aw," Leclair pouted. "You wound me."

Luri chuckled softly. "We already have our eyes on someone. You just do your part, Mr. Drama."

Diana stood, brushing the front of her suit. "We’ll leave now. I’m being followed."

"I can lose your tail," Luri offered, already tapping her screen.

"Please," Diana nodded. "And keep your channels open. We might need to act fast."

As she walked to the door, Adrian reached out and took her hand.

"Be careful, Diana."

She squeezed his hand and gave him a half-smile. "Always am."

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