About

Elizabeth Taylor was a ghost in the system at least, that's what the agency used to call her before she disappeared. A gifted hacker with a photographic memory and a rebellious streak, she had once been the pride of an elite cyber-intelligence unit. That was before the botched operation in Prague, the files that went missing, and the betrayal that almost cost her life. Now, she lives under a fake identity in the grimy outskirts of New York City, posing as a freelance tech consultant named "Eliza Trent." Quiet, unassuming, and invisible until she makes a single misstep that shatters the delicate illusion of her new life. Back when Elizabeth was still Elizabeth, they were more than just lovers they were soulmates. Bound by a mutual love of code and danger, their relationship burned fast and bright in a time when Elizabeth was still working as an undercover cyber-agent. But she left him behind after the Prague incident, disappearing without a word. She assumed he'd moved on, that he hated her for vanishing. But now, by some twist of fate, he's in New York. And he recognizes her immediately. He's not in intelligence anymore. After she disappeared, he quit everything government, freelancing, even his AI startup. Now he runs a bookstore and vintage café in Brooklyn, a kind of sanctuary for the broken. When he sees her on the street same eyes, new name his world tilts. He follows her. Carefully. Elizabeth knows someone is tracking her, and when she finally corners him, a wave of guilt and nostalgia knocks the air out of both. But rekindling old feelings only complicates her already dangerous reality. Elizabeth thought she covered her tracks. She used proxies. Burned SIMs. Masked every IP address that so much as touched her servers. But the photos say otherwise. They arrive in a plain white envelope, dropped at her door. Her real name is on the back. So are the photos some from years ago in Prague, others disturbingly recent. And then, there's the note: "Tell him. Or I will." He or they know everything. They know about Philip. About her hacking history. About a list she stole once called "Protocol Red," which contained the names of compromised agents worldwide names she hid to protect herself. But whoever this is, they want more than exposure. They want her back in the game. She receives a burner phone the next day. A robotic voice gives her her first task: "Extract and erase security footage of a certain address. Send it through a Russian relay server. Do it within 24 hours." By day, she's "Eliza," a private consultant with a quiet reputation for fixing encryption issues. She's even got a nosy landlord, Nathan Duplin, a balding former librarian who reads conspiracy theories and complains about suspicious noises at night. Nathan tries to meddle into her business too often, and Elizabeth suspects he might be more than he seems especially when she finds a wiretap device behind her radiator. Then there's Gilbert Lines, a slick-talking tech support contractor who regularly invites himself into her world under the guise of "work gigs" and shared industry. He's smart, loyal to a fault, and helpful too helpful. Elizabeth notices inconsistencies in his timelines. Why does he always show up when she's being watched? Meanwhile, her relationship with Philip intensifies. He believes she's in danger, but she won't tell him the full truth. Not yet. He invites her to stay with him temporarily when her apartment is vandalized (nothing stolen, just a warning). The intimacy of their new-old relationship is both comforting and devastating. She still loves him, but her secret is a chasm too wide to cross. Brian Woodward is an NYPD officer working undercover for an inter-agency cybercrime task force. His current case? Track the source of a string of sophisticated breaches that seem linked to the infamous "ghost" hacker who vanished years ago. When Elizabeth unknowingly hacks a police database to complete one of the blackmailer's tasks, it triggers a red flag and Woodward is assigned to follow her. He pretends to be a fellow tenant in the building, charming and friendly, using Nathan's suspicions as a cover to spend time in her orbit. He starts to fall for her complexity, not realizing she's the very target he's hunting. When he finds a photo of her with Philip from years ago, he begins to suspect that the rabbit hole is deeper than a simple identity fraud case. Now they want Elizabeth to break into a federal agency's secure server and retrieve a list codenamed "Frost Thread" a cache of blackmail material used by an old European intelligence cell. She realizes the list is tied to the same Protocol Red she stole before. The blackmailer has intimate knowledge of the operation in Prague, which means only one of three people could be behind this. She traces digital fingerprints back to Gilbert Lines. His work history doesn't hold up under scrutiny. When she finally confronts hi

Chapter 1 Hidden Identity

Chapter 1

Encrypted Shadows

The screen glowed in the dimly lit apartment, lines of code scrolling fast across Elizabeth Taylor's monitor. She wasn't born Elizabeth; the name was one of many she'd used over the years. Beneath it lay a labyrinth of secrets her real past, her real face, her real crimes.

A sip from her bitter coffee, eyes scanning data feeds, tracking a political figure she'd been paid to spy on. She hated this life this synthetic identity she wore like a disguise but the money kept her breathing and the danger kept her sharp.

She rarely left her Brooklyn loft except to meet her landlord, Nathan Duplin a peculiar man with eyes like a hawk's and a voice too calm for someone always calculating. Nathan watched her too closely; she knew he suspected something, but she also knew he'd stay silent as long as the rent was paid on time.

Tonight, something shifted. Her encrypted inbox chimed. An image popped open: a photograph, old but unmistakable Elizabeth laughing beside him.

She froze, heart stammering against her ribs. That was five years ago, when she was still Lena, a whistleblower running from a dark government project. Philip had been the brief light in that dark chapter. They shared a summer of stolen kisses and codebreaking nights in Prague. He had known nothing of her secrets then, only her warmth-and she, his laughter and fire. But she left him with a lie and disappeared.

Now, he was here in New York. And worse, he was investigating cyber frauds.

As the screen faded, another file came through. This one burned her fingers.

Photos. Dozens. Of her at a terminal in a secured facility, eyes dark, face stern, stealing secrets.

The sender: Unknown.

The caption: "We both know what happens when this goes public. Your move."

The walls she had built cracked. The double life was no longer tenable. Elizabeth's heart pounded. Her past wasn't just knocking. It was barging in, with blackmail, love, and lies all tangled in one electric storm.

Elizabeth Taylor

Born Lena Whitmore, she was a digital prodigy with a government record sealed under a cloud of corruption. After whistleblowing on a classified program involving surveillance AI, she disappeared into the underworld. With a new identity as Elizabeth Taylor, she reinvented herself as a freelance coder and hacker for hire. Emotionally detached but haunted by passion from her past, Elizabeth lives between firewalls and memories, never expecting to see Philip again-or to be blackmailed by someone from a reckless night she should've forgotten

Philip is an investigative agent with a European anti-cybercrime task force. Brilliant, charming, and persistent, he once met Lena (Elizabeth) on a shared mission in Prague. They fell hard and fast bound by purpose and passion. Philip has spent years trying to find her, still haunted by how she vanished. He recognizes her face even under her new alias and is torn between justice and the flicker of old desire.

An undercover police officer working as a tech consultant, Brian's assignment is to locate a shadow hacker known as "Chimera" Elizabeth's online alias. Unknown to him, he has already met her. Charming and quiet, he becomes a moral foil, slowly drawn into her orbit until the line between duty and desire begins to fade.

Nathan Duplin

Her landlord, but far from just a rent collector. Nathan is analytical, nosy, and calculating. He knows more than he lets on and often drops hints that unnerve Elizabeth. With a background in real estate tech startups, he maintains a façade of calm interest, but he has secrets of his own-especially about how he came into possession of Elizabeth's building.

Gilbert Lines

A streetwise, tireless worker, Gilbert is known for his errand services and uncanny ability to "find things." He's neither friend nor enemy, but he thrives in gray areas. Gilbert once helped Elizabeth disappear. Now he's back, dragging with him debts and favors Elizabeth must pay, which ties him to both her survival and downfall. He's trickish and greedy, but knows how to move between worlds unseen.

Elizabeth was always careful. She didn't drink in bars, didn't linger in camera zones, didn't form attachments.

But one drunken night, six months ago, she let her guard down. The man was charming, faceless in her memory except for the snake tattoo on his shoulder. She thought it was a one-night escape from her tight digital bubble. Now, he'd resurfaced. With proof.

Photos of her entering a government facility under a stolen ID. Screenshots of classified files on her drive. And, most damning video footage of her logging in as a high-level employee she'd never met in person.

He called himself Razor. His messages were brief but cutting. He knew what to leak, and who to sell it to.

"You want it gone?" he texted. "Pay. Or I ruin you."

The same day, she saw Philip at a cyber-security conference she'd hacked into. He stood near the podium, taller than memory, and when their eyes met just for a second everything stopped.

Two people, once lovers, now strangers across a minefield of truth and betrayal.

The next night, she found a USB drive slipped under her door.

Inside were more than files there was audio. A recording of her voice, planning a breach with someone unnamed. The implication: conspiracy.

Elizabeth clutched the drive with white knuckles. Razor was closing in, but so was Philip, now officially investigating the Chimera hack. Every move she made echoed louder.

Her phone buzzed again. A text from an unknown number:

"The past has teeth, darling. And they bite."

She turned to her laptop and started erasing tracks, encrypting backups, deleting old caches but it was too late.

Outside her window, a figure leaned against the lamppost.