"Secondly, I am your mentor, but this isn't a simple mistake at work," I said. "You were reckless and stupid, and I have no obligation to clean up the mess you made."

Suddenly, the colleagues who had been quietly blaming me seemed to wake up.

"You've caused enough chaos and relied on Ms. Griffin to cover for you on other days. Now that you've stirred up a disaster, you pinned it on Mr. Jameson instead? How shameless can you be?"

A tide of angry accusations crashed down on Elijah. His face went deathly pale, his eyes filled with despair. At that moment, the control room door swung open.

Wallace Brown, the manager of the cryobank, and Maya walked in. Elijah scrambled forward, almost crawling to her feet, and whined, "Maya, I was just trying to help! I didn't expect to cause such trouble!"

The moment she entered, her gaze softened and locked on him. Tenderly, she wiped his tears.

"Don't cry. I know it was just a mistake. The samples got ruined, sure, but according to regulations, compensation is enough. This is nothing. No matter what mistakes you make, I'll cover it for you."

Wallace, fully aware of the situation, flew into a rage. He kicked over the chair beside him and pointed at Maya, shouting, "We just received the last vial from Mr. Quinlan! He's injured and infertile. That was his final sample, and now it's destroyed!

"We're done. We'll all pay the price for this, and you say you'll cover it? What can you even do about it, huh?"

Despair settled on every face. A flicker of panic crossed Maya's usually composed expression.

Elijah clung to her and burst into loud sobs. "Help me, Maya. Mr. Quinlan is ruthless! If I fall into his hands, I'll suffer worse than death!"

Maya looked at me, her tone firm and unquestionable. "Theo, as the chief person in charge of the security system, you failed to arrive in time to eliminate the virus. That is what caused this catastrophe, so this responsibility should fall on you."

The unfair decision sparked anger on everyone's faces. Before anyone could speak, she swept a sharp gaze across the room. "Anyone who disagrees can step forward and sign this liability determination statement."

I looked at her, my heart turning cold. Maya was my wife, the person supposedly closest to me. Yet from the moment she walked in, her eyes had never lingered on me. Now, she even wanted me to take the blame.

When we first founded the cybersecurity company together, our lack of experience had caused losses in the tens of millions.

I had thought I would be sued by the client and end up in prison, but she lowered her head and apologized repeatedly, even offering ten times the compensation to protect me.

She had said, "My man deserves my protection. If I don't care for you, who will? Go all out and chase your dreams. I'll always stand behind you."

Her vows to me were still fresh in my memory, yet somewhere along the way, we had drifted further apart.

A flicker of sorrow crossed my eyes, but my voice was resolute. "I won't sign the liability determination statement."

Maya came to my side, only to spit the most vicious words ever. "Your dad is still in the sanatorium. If you don't want me to pause his treatment, you'd better sign."

I stared at her in disbelief, roaring, "Maya, have you lost your conscience? My dad took ten blows to protect you and ended up paralyzed in the hospital! And now, for some pretty boy, you threaten to let him die?"

My outburst drew everyone's attention. They looked at Maya and Elijah with open contempt.

She wasn't the least bit affected, though. Instead, she waved her phone like a weapon. "Are you signing or not?"

"Wait! Let me talk to him first!"

Just as I was forced into succumbing, Wallace suddenly pulled me into the control room.

Wallace sounded urgent. "I know you don't want to deal with this because of your wife's affair, but the others are innocent. I just checked, and we're not finished yet.

"The cryobank is divided into five storage rooms. Four of them were already beyond saving, but the last room, which held Mr. Quinlan's sperm, hadn't yet reached the critical temperature. Please, Theo, help us out!"

I didn't want anyone else to suffer because of this either, so I nodded. "But I have two conditions. First, transfer my dad to another hospital. Second, send all the footage from last night until now to Mr. Quinlan."

My eyes were ice-cold. They wanted me to take the fall? Fine. I would expose everything.

"Not a problem!" Wallace said without hesitation. He pulled out his phone and, right before me, carried out both of my demands.

I took out my laptop and connected it to the central console with a data cable. My fingers flew across the keyboard, leaving only afterimages.

With the antivirus program I had written myself, it took less than five minutes to wipe out every invading virus and Trojan. The tampered commands were restored.

Immediately, I issued the cooling order—liquid nitrogen condensed, and the temperature in the final storage room plummeted. Harry's sample was saved.

My brain had been running at full speed. A wave of exhaustion hit me. I pinched the bridge of my nose, but the next second, my whole body was slammed hard to the ground.

I screamed out loud. In the chaos, my joints were dislocated one by one. My limbs went limp, useless, as I collapsed on the hard floor.

Cold sweat covered my face. Through blurred vision, I forced my eyes open and finally saw who had attacked me from behind. It was Maya. Meanwhile, Wallace was already unconscious nearby.

My voice trembled as I questioned, "Why?"

Maya roughly dragged me over and stuffed me into a large cabinet. Then, she gently wiped the sweat from my face with a handkerchief. Her eyes were soft, but her words were not.

"Did you hear? Mr. Quinlan will be here very soon," she said. "The other tycoons who got the news are coming as well. They want answers. Elijah is barely in his 20s. His life cannot be ruined like this!"

I clenched my jaw and roared, "He deserves it!"

She pressed hard against my injury and shook her head in disapproval as I let out the most gut-wrenching scream. "He's just young. He's inexperienced, just like you were back then."

She picked up the liability determination statement, grabbed my hand, and forced my fingerprint onto the paper. "You're his mentor. You're meant to take the blame for him."

Then, she leaned down and kissed me gently, speaking as if to herself. "I'll plead for you. And with your hacking skills, those tycoons won't kill you. You help Elijah this time, and I promise I won't abandon you in this life, no matter what you become."

My teeth ground together, rage surging in my chest.

"You think forcing my fingerprint means anything?" I snarled. "I built the entire system! The computers and surveillance all have records! Those tycoons aren't idiots—one look, and they'll know who the real culprit is!"

Unhurried, Maya stuffed a cleaning rag into my mouth. Her eyes gleamed with delight. "Thanks for the reminder. I'll destroy all that evidence, then. The virus is gone, so your system won't be needed anymore.

"And while I'm at it, I can even take credit for Elijah. This will definitely help his future."

She slowly closed the cabinet door. As it shut, the look she gave me carried the faintest trace of guilt.

"I can't let you meet those tycoons," Maya said calmly. "So, you'll have to stay here for now and suffer a little. Once Elijah is safe and sound, I'll have their people come take you away."

My mouth was gagged. I stared in despair as the light slowly vanished.

Her mind was full of Elijah. She had completely forgotten that I had claustrophobia. If I were locked in a dark, enclosed space, I would die.

Darkness blotted out my vision. My breathing suddenly quickened, and my whole body began trembling. I didn't know how long had passed, but my chest tightened so relentlessly that it felt suffocating.

Was I really going to die here?

…

Just as despair crushed me, the cabinet door flew open.

Maya yanked me out roughly. She snapped my joints back into place with a few brutal movements, then slammed me down in front of the central console. Fear covered her face. Even her voice was shaking.

"Why did the virus attack so fast after we removed the protection system? This time, it directly altered the data and issued a heating command! There's only a ten-minute window!"

She commanded, "Fix the system now! Elijah cannot get hurt—absolutely not!"

I looked weakly at her. My wife was still thinking only about that man. At that moment, the very last trace of love I had for her vanished into dust.

"Mr. Jameson, you're the only one who can save us now! Please!"

The colleagues who had rushed in all looked at me with pleading eyes. I shook my head and spoke softly, pointing at the computer on the floor, the one Maya had smashed into pieces earlier.

"The backup of the security system was stored in that computer. Now, it's nothing but shards. How do you expect me to do anything?"

Maya's face went deathly pale, and her body swayed. Just minutes ago, she had destroyed it herself to erase evidence. Despair spread through the room again.

One colleague spoke with a trembling, tearful voice. "Mr. Quinlan will be here in 20 minutes. When he arrives, we'll all be dead!"

Maya turned to me and begged me modestly. "Your hacking skills are incredible. You can fix it in ten minutes, right? I'm begging you—Elijah cannot be hurt!"

I looked at her and replied in a cold, vengeful tone, "Did you forget? You dislocated my joints earlier. Even if they were set back, I have no strength left. I can't even lift my hands, let alone type."

Hopelessness flooded her eyes. Then, it twisted into madness. "No. There's still a way… I'll go to the freezer and take out Mr. Quinlan's sample myself!"

She staggered toward the door, but other colleagues grabbed her and pinned her down. "Are you insane? The freezer uses liquid nitrogen! It's negative 315 degrees Fahrenheit inside! You won't last five minutes before you freeze to death!"

Her eyes were bloodshot, but her voice trembled with reckless desperation. "Let me go! I can go in wearing the protective suit and save it! Elijah is too young for anything to happen to him!"

A colleague immediately scrambled to fetch a protective suit. "This could actually work. I'll go with you!"

I looked at the surveillance screen and said softly, "It's too late."

The blaring alarm pierced the air.

I met Maya's dazed, desperate gaze and continued, "The sperm is stored using liquid nitrogen. When the temperature rises, it vaporizes. The pressure builds up inside the sealed containers, and the inevitable result is… ka-boom."

No sooner had I finished speaking than the monitors showed it all. One by one, the storage vials exploded. Not a single sample survived.