Page 50 of My Fake Billionaire Damaged Boyfriend

What if I’m wrong? What if they abandon me when this fails because they don’t think I can do it?

I don’t want to mess up. I don’t want to be the reason I’m left behind.

Dimitri squeezes my knee, his chair practically up against mine. Everyone else looks on with dismissal, like this archaic plan of code isn’t going to work, and I consider just clearing it from the screen and forgetting it was ever an option.

I can’t humiliate myself here, not with Dimitri’s father’s death in question. They need someone stronger, someone smarter, and I back away from the keyboard at once, knowing that I can’t go through with this.

“Hey, you got this,” Dimitri says, his voice soothing to me on so many levels. “You’re okay. You can do it. You’re just trying out everything that could work.”

“What if it doesn’t?”

He shakes his head, smiling gently. “You are just trying to avoid failure, and that’s not the woman I know. The Izzy that I met is bold and smart, and she knows what she’s doing. If you think this could work, then you need to try it. Don’t let doubt keep you from trying. You will do fine.”

I drop my head slightly, feeling like everyone is watching me with an edge of humiliating laughter. They don’t think I can do this, and I’m starting to think the same. They know this code is old, outdated, and it would never work with the new technology they have!

I’m wasting their time and they hate me for it.

I hate me for it.

“You’re the person for the job,” Dimitri says sternly. “Only you can do this, Izzy. Okay? You know what you’re doing. Keep doing it.”

I look up, a hint of mist in my eyelids. “I don’t want to fail.”

“I don’t think you will,” he says, his voice reaffirming that claim. “I think you’re going to do just fine, Kitten. You are already on your way to cracking this whole case. The FBI couldn’t do it without you. That means something. You might not see your value, but we do. I see your value every day.”

I sit up straighter, something about that affirmation making me run warm again. How could he say that and not mean it? He has to mean it! This has to mean something, and I can’t pretend that it doesn’t. Not anymore. I have to accept that Dimitri and the FBI all need me, and for the first time in my life, I can’t let down someone who needs me because I’m afraid of being left behind if I fail.

I have to let that go.

So, I release the tension with my parents, with my childhood, and with the fears I have of losing this loving man. It all means something to me, and I know that I’m safe here. I’m finally safe with someone and I won’t lose that to anything.

I nod, turn back to the monitor, and stifle a long inhale that fills my chest.

Finishing off the extra detailed line of code, the room gets tense, and I enter the equation right into the middle of the backdoor sheet that had been given to Dimitri when he bought my information off the auction. It’s like watching my life implode right before my eyes, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

The monitor rips into a flash of color and code, the sheet ripped from view while the screen flickers with light, coming to a new screen made up of red text, and black background. My heart is pumping out of my chest at this point, each line of words starting to make more and more sense as we all lean forward. It looks like chaos at first, the realization brushing through the room like a summer breeze.

“It’s—it’s all—” Dimitri says, cutting himself short in awe.

“It’s names of the people he’s stolen from,” I whisper, scrolling down to show a few green names mixed into the code, as if displaying who he has yet to steal from, and who he has already stolen from. “Look at all of those names… there’s… there’s millions.”

“This can’t be,” Mccoy gusts, moving in to point out names as he goes down, some of them bordered in gold lettering and sticking out from the others. “These names in gold are people with money, or people with governmental power. It’s like he’s selling their names for more profit than anyone else’s.”

“He’s going to sell profiles that have government ties,” I whisper. “This is… insane.”

“It’s amazing,” Dimitri blurs, looking to me. “You’re amazing, Izzy. I can’t believe you’ve done this. You’re better than you thought possible. It’s amazing.”

I smile wide, my entire body lighter than I’ve ever felt it. I leap forward, his arms catching me as I cheer in celebration of this new discovery. The agents all high-five and cheer with us, like it’s finally done. And it is done. We were fighting this fight for so long and now it’s over.

Alek is going to be taken down and we’re finally going to be done with his misuse of technology.

I wipe my eyes, feeling the tears that come out of relief and ecstasy. We’ve finally beaten him, and the work we’ve done up to this point hasn’t been in vain.

He spins me around once, wanting to kiss me, but before either of us can lean in and make that move, our voices collide like a train meets a large boulder.

“I love you.”

I hardly hear my voice, and I doubt he hears his, but I can hear his words clear as day. It brings light to the windowless room, and a coolness that is unmatched by this hot, stuffy space. It’s like we’re in an open field with nothing but the sun and the wildflowers surrounding us.

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