CHAPTER 205: CHAPTER 205 WILLD PATTERN

Isabella wasn’t the type to accept anything at face value, not when one million dollars was being casually offered. So the moment her conversation with "WWW" ended, she leaned forward, fingers flying across her keyboard as she began digging deeper into his identity.

Her search didn’t take long. The name attached to the account was William Warren Wilson. A name that practically every business newspaper and finance magazine had whispered about for decades. Isabella’s lips parted slightly as she clicked through articles, each one painting a sharper picture.

He wasn’t just any businessman. He was a legend.

Decades ago, he had been nothing more than a scholarship boy—poor, struggling, and nearly overlooked by society. But through sharp wit and relentless determination, he rose to build a business empire. Wilson Industries wasn’t only one of the oldest family holdings in the country, but also one of the most influential.

She found a recent photograph of him at a charity gala. For a man who was about to celebrate his 89th birthday, William didn’t look frail or weak. If anything, he looked... sharp. His posture was upright, his eyes still glinted with the kind of intelligence that could silence a room, and his presence carried the weight of someone in his late 60s rather than his late 80s.

Bella frowned, scrolling further.

And then she saw it—news columns, rumors, opinion pieces, all circling around one topic: his three grandsons.

The so-called "heirs" of the Wilson fortune, men known less for their achievements and more for their greed. It was no secret in high society that they were circling William’s empire like vultures, waiting for him to pass so they could tear his legacy apart. "Three cunning wolves in expensive suits," one gossip article had boldly written.

Bella’s heart gave a small, uneasy flutter. So this was the man who had reached out to her? A man not only powerful but also standing in the middle of a family battlefield.

She dug deeper, bypassing the surface-level reports until she slipped into hidden archives. Old contracts, sealed deals, encrypted communications—things the average hacker would never dare to touch. And then she froze.

Her eyes widened.

Her breath caught.

Her fingers hovered above the keyboard, trembling slightly as the words burned into her mind.

No way...

****

After getting rid of his brother and Jace, Leonardo finally felt a strange calm. The silence was heavy, but it wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, he relished it. For once, he didn’t have to hear Jay’s endless chatter or Jace’s sly remarks. Of course, a part of him almost missed it—but who told those idiots to be so annoying?

Knock. Knock.

"Enter," Leo said flatly, his voice clipped with authority.

The door opened to reveal Jeffery, the new hacker he had recruited as his personal digital shadow. A sharp-eyed young man, disciplined, and far less sloppy than the last team he had dismissed.

"Sir..." Jeffery greeted, his tone cautious as he stepped inside. Leo gave a small gesture toward the chair opposite his desk.

"Sit."

Jeffery obeyed, placing a slim laptop and his phone on the table. His fingers tapped nervously against the cover before he looked up.

"Sir, that hacker we tried to trace yesterday... He’s not like anyone I’ve encountered before. We weren’t able to locate him."

Leo’s dark brows lowered into a frown. His cold, sharp eyes pinned Jeffery down like a predator eyeing prey. "You mean to tell me your ability isn’t good enough to track one single hacker?" His voice was smooth, but there was an edge—a knife hidden under velvet.

Jeffery swallowed hard. "No, sir. That’s not what I meant. I can handle most hackers... but this one isn’t normal. His pattern isn’t like ours. I’ve studied hundreds of styles, thousands of signatures—but this hacker uses what I call a wild pattern."

Leo tilted his head, intrigued despite himself. "Wild pattern?" His voice dropped into that low, dangerous curiosity that made people sweat.

Jeffery’s expression hardened, his pride as a hacker sparking through. He picked up his phone, unlocked it, and opened his notes app. "Let me show you."

He typed quickly, then spun the device around, sliding it across the table toward Leo. "This, sir, is a normal code. The kind any professional hacker would use to solve breaches. Neat. Structured. Predictable."

Leo leaned forward slightly, scanning the screen. He didn’t understand much—coding wasn’t his world but he noticed it looked tidy, almost mathematical.

Jeffery then swiped the screen to reveal another set of lines. The symbols sprawled unevenly, chaotic yet purposeful, like graffiti that somehow formed a pattern.

"And this," Jeffery said, his voice lowering with something like respect, "is the wild pattern."

Leo stood up, circling around the desk to stand at Jeffery’s side. He looked down at the phone, watching the strange code scroll past his eyes. It wasn’t just different—it was... alive. Not neat, not polished, but pulsing with its own logic.

"It doesn’t follow textbook rules. It doesn’t use conventional encryption-breaking formulas. It’s not advanced in the sense of modern tools—it’s beyond them. This hacker writes as if they’ve created an entirely new language. No rehearsed templates. No system anyone else has seen before. Every line is unpredictable, almost improvisational, but still... perfect. That’s why I call it wild."

Leo narrowed his eyes. "So you’re saying this person just... makes up their own codes out of thin air?"

"Yes, sir," Jeffery said firmly. "And they work. Which means—whoever they are, they’re not following the same schools of hacking as the rest of us. No textbooks. No borrowed formulas. This is instinct. Experience. A hacker like that isn’t a kid behind a keyboard. He’s someone older. Someone who’s been in the game for decades. Possibly even someone who... built systems before others learned how to break them."

Leo’s lips curved in the faintest, coldest smile. "An old ghost, then."

Jeffery nodded. "Exactly. But don’t worry, sir. I’m studying this wild pattern. I’ll find him for you. It might take time, but no one is untraceable."

Leo straightened, satisfied with the determination in his subordinate’s voice. "Good. Find him as soon as possible."

Because if this hacker was as powerful as Jeffery claimed, Leo knew exactly what he would do the moment they located him.