?Chapter 504:

    At first, Ste thought he was trying to rope her into another coboration. She was already rehearsing a polite way to turn him down.

    Then it clicked—he wasn’t talking about a partnership. He meant an actual tech issue.

    “I can take a look,” she said. “But no promises I’ll figure it out.”

    She didn’t have any major ns that day aside from helping with the gallery’s opening, so a quick consult wouldn’t hurt. She agreed.

    As she headed toward her own car, Shaun had already unlocked his sleek sedan and called out, “Syl, just ride with me.” She paused, then nodded and got in.

    The drive to the Smith Group was quiet and smooth.

    Meanwhile, William arrived at the gallery. Since the project belonged to the Neb Group and he was a shareholder, his presence was expected. He walked through the venue, scanning the room—but Ste was nowhere to be seen.

    He gged down a staff member, his expression darkening. “Have you seen Ms. Sylvia Gilbert?”

    The staffer blinked, a little surprised. “She was just here a moment ago.”

    “She was?” William repeated, frowning. “Who was she with?”

    “Probably Mr. Shaun Smith,” the staffer replied without hesitation.

    Ste had been spending a lot of time with Shauntely—that much was obvious.

    William’s expression hardened the moment he heard that name. Another wave of unease rolled through him.

    He didn’t say another word. He turned and left the gallery.

    Since the staff couldn’t tell him where she’d gone, William pulled out his phone and called Luca. “Find out where Ste is.”

    Luca didn’t miss a beat. “Mr. Briggs, Ms. Russell’s car is still parked at the gallery. It hasn’t moved.”

    William’s jaw tightened. “Track Shaun’s car.”

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    The urgency in his tone told Luca this wasn’t just about logistics. Something was wrong—and he needed answers fast.

    At the Smith Group, Shaun led Ste straight to the tech department.

    The setup was different from what she was used to, but something about the code felt familiar. She sat down at a nearbyputer, scanning the screen, fingers flying across the keyboard to test a few things.

    After a quick run-through, she nced at one of the engineers beside her. “So, what exactly’s the issue?”

    “The code’s clean,” the tech replied. “We ran endless tests beforeunch—everything was running perfectly. But now, it just won’t function, and we don’t know why.”

    Stebed through the lines of code again, this time with the entire team. Just like they said, nothing obvious stood out.

    But if the system wasn’t working, something had to be wrong. Maybe it was subtle. Maybe it was buried deeper. Either way, she wasn’t ready to walk away just yet.

    Shaun didn’t rush her. He simply told the tech team to keep going through it with her, step by step.

    Still—no luck.

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