chapter309

Lydia slipped back into the hospital room, borrowed a power bank, and curled up on the little sofa, her phone in hand as she dove into the Exclair system.

Exclair had decent tech staff. They had already wiped out a ton of chat logs, making sure they were gone for good. But for L, the legend of the hacking world, it was barely even a warmup.

She easily restored the deleted chats between Howard and Alfredo. That's when she noticed something interesting: Howard's phone had been talking a lot with someone using an IP address from the Capital. The user's account was brand new, just a gray icon for a profile picture, no name except for a single dot. No info at all. Total throwaway account. Clearly set up to keep their real identity under wraps.

There was nothing in the messages that gave away who the person was. Not even a hint of a last name. But there was a money transfer between them. Lydia traced the deleted transaction to an account name... Frank White?

That name sounded familiar. She frowned, thinking it over, then suddenly let out a cold little laugh.

Of course. Frank was Lucinda's biological dad. Sandy's adoptive dad.

"Hey, siwhat's wrong? Did something upset you?" Lucinda piped up, her attention caught by Lydia's snort.

Ever since Lydia had come back into the room, she'd just been glued to her phone, barely even glancing at Grandpa. And yet Grandpa had already forgiven her. If Mom, Dad, and Garrett weren't here, Lucinda would've given Grandpa a piece of her mind, made him see what Lydia was really like.

Kylie looked over, concern in her eyes. "Lydia, is everything okay?"

Lydia gave Lucinda a long, thoughtful look, then smiled at Kylie. "It's nothing. Just bumped into a total rookie in a game."

Now Lucinda scoffed. "Sis, weren't you here to see Grandpa? Why are you playing games?"

Garrett just laughed. "Games are good for your brain."

Mr. Norwood joined in, smiling. "Garrett's right. Lydia, when I'm out of the hospital, you'll have to teach me how to play too. I could use a little brain exercise."

Lydia nodded. "Sure thing."

Cameron and Kylie both jumped in, excited. "Me too! Lydia, you have to teach us, promise!"

Lydia's lips curled into a smile. "Alright, you're on."

Lucinda could barely believe what

she was seeing. Was everyone siding with Lydia now? Were they treating her like she didn't belong? What was so great about playing games anyway? Only slackers wasted their time on their phones. And yet, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, even Garrett, were all encouraging Lydia.

Lucinda finally saw it for what it was. Lydia must have cheated to get those perfect grades. No way she was that smart. Just wait. Once

Grace got back from Lakevienet

Town

and found out the truth, Lydia's secrets would be out in the open.

Lydia didn't care what Lucinda thought. She stayed focused on the data, digging deeper, and uncovered a recent call log. She smirked, slipped her Bluetooth earbuds from her pocket connected them and hit play.

Two minutes later, she put the earbuds away and stood up, her expression cool and

sharp. I'm heading out for a bit, she said, her voice casual.

Cameron called after her as she moved toward the door. Lydia, if you've got things

to do, go ahead. We've got things covered here."

Lydia nodded, then turned to Garrett. "Garrett, I'll take you to the airport this afternoon."

Garrett grinned. "Awesome."

Leaving the room behind, Lydia made her way down the hall to another part of the same floor. The whole level was VIP rooms, split into standard, mid-range, and premium. Mr. Norwood was in the premium section.

She rounded a corner to the mid-range rooms, found 2153, and pushed the door open without even knocking.