Genevieve felt creeped out by how the brothers were staring at her and Irene. They had a look on their face that she couldn't quite pinpoint. Was it admiration or astonishment? She didn't know and she probably didn't want to know either.
"Speak," Irene sighed beside her, placing her phone in her clutch, "don't keep staring, it's creepy."
Thank God for successful telepathic communication.
Archer went first. Leaning, he asked, "Just how did you pull this off?"
Irene shrugged her shoulders. "Jamie asked me to be his female partner for the party just two hours after a not-so-accidental meeting. I got in, distracted him, then managed to hack into the system to play the video. Genevieve distracted the guards to let the reporters in. It was a pretty simple plan if you ask me."
"Still," Ezekiel said, choosing his words carefully, "why did you have to be his partner? I mean, you could've easily got into the party with us."
Irene chuckled. "That way, I wouldn't have been able to access the video. I knew playboys like Jamie kept such information on his phone so once I got my hands on it, things were pretty simple."
"That was smart," Archer let out a low whistle, "considering you had less than six hours to prepare for the entire thing."
"Thank you," Irene replied, the hint of a smirk on her face.
The limo stopped in front of Hotel Esquire, where the sisters were staying. Irene took out a business card, the one where only their names and contact numbers were printed in an elegant font and handed it to Ezekiel.
"Irene and Genevieve Pierce?" He said, frowning at the card, "I think I have heard that surname somewhere."
"Nothing much," Genevieve said quickly, "anyway, you know how to reach us if you find something."
"Wait," Archer suddenly said and Genevieve almost groaned, knowing what was about to come, "are you somehow related to Benjamin Pierce, the ex-CEO of Silver Inc.?"
"He was our uncle," Irene replied, her tone cool but Genevieve could easily detect a layer of annoyance, "anything else?"
Archer must have understood from their expression that they didn't want to speak any further so he shook his head.
They stepped out of the car, with Genevieve clutching Ezekiel's business card tightly in her hands as she watched the limo drive away.
She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Benjamin Pierce was their father in reality, not uncle. It was a touchy subject, speaking about him and it always managed to overwhelm her with emotions. He had died in a car accident when Genevieve was eight and Irene was eleven, causing a void that they were never able to fill. The sisters were close to their father, having made plenty of memories that they could never forget. They were raised by their grandmother, Rosalina Carson, in secret, away from the evil intentions of the people who wanted control over the business. This was why their real identities were never made public.
"Are you okay?" Irene asked softly, squeezing her shoulder gently.
"Yeah," She let out a breath, shaking herself out of her thoughts, "I'm okay."
---------------------
That night, Genevieve had hacked into Karl's computer, as instructed by Irene who had planted a bug the last time she was there. She scrolled through various files and folders, trying to spot anything unusual that could come of use. Irene was settled on her bed, reading her grandmother's letters to her.
"Genevieve," Irene called out suddenly, "look at this."
Genevieve stopped what she was doing, erasing the evidence of her snooping before walking over to Irene and sitting down next to her on the bed.
"These don't make sense," Irene said, "they're like regular letters."
She sounded disappointed. Genevieve was well aware of how Irene had been extremely close to their grandmother, having learnt everything she knew from her. Irene had hoped that the letters were some sort of clue to their quest but apparently, they were not.
"It's okay Irene," Genevieve tried to comfort her, "we'll find something--"
"You don't get it, Gina," She said, annoyance lacing her tone, "I know there is something. Grandmother wouldn't simply write letters to me for nothing."
Genevieve bit back a snarky reply. It was rare seeing Irene worked up so she didn't want to add to it.
"What if," She said slowly, "they were coded?"
It seemed unlikely but she felt like giving her inputs to show that she was interested. Irene shook her head.
"Grandmother hated codes. She wouldn't use them unless," Her eyes suddenly widened in an epiphany, "she was disclosing something so confidential that no one should know about, something beyond her control."
She went back to the letters, yellowing with time. Genevieve wondered when grandmother had written these letters and how she managed to stash them in the secret drawer in the office without anyone noticing.
They sorted the bunch of letters amongst themselves, trying to spot a pattern. Half an hour passed and Genevieve felt like giving up, they really seemed like regular letters. At that point, she felt bad for raising Irene's hopes up.
"Look at this," Irene said, picking out one letter from her pile. She picked up a pencil and coloured the bottom part of the letter and to Genevieve's surprise, a weird mix of letters, lines and dashes, and numbers became visible under the graphite.
"What do they mean anyway?" Genevieve asked.
"It's an ancient language Grandmother taught me," Irene frowned, trying to decode what was written on the letter.
"Wait," Genevieve interrupted, "If I know Grandmother correctly, she was extremely organised. You should start with the letters that have a serial number on them."
Irene nodded, looking through the pile to find the letters with numbers on them. Five minutes later, they found five letters in total that had numbers on them and Genevieve coloured them quickly to spot the secret message. They realised that some messages were long and also continued on the back part of the paper.
When they were done, Irene translated the seemingly random mix of characters and wrote them down neatly on another sheet of paper that she had pulled out of the drawer. Fifteen minutes later, she had decoded the first letter and handed it to Genevieve to read.
'If you're reading this,' it started, 'it means you understood what to do with the letters I wrote to you. Understand this carefully, Irene (and Genevieve, if you're reading this too). You must read all the coded messages in the numbered format, it is important. Each of these is a clue to what I assume you are currently looking for--the Crown of Fire. I can predict this because it was bound to happen one day because of a lot of things I haven't told you. I was worried for your safety so this was the only way I could tell you everything I know about the crown. For now, all you need to do is earn the trust of the Jiang family, the guardians. Once you have done that, proceed to the next letter. All the best.'
Irene pulled out the second letter, scooting closer to Genevieve as Irene translated the language while they read its contents.
'I have told you only one part of the story, Irene, and I will be giving you the other parts of it as you go ahead with this quest. I know you must have always wondered why I raised the two of you in secret. The truth, or at least half of it, is the fact that I was supposed to be dead. I had disappeared shortly after your mother, my daughter, died giving birth to Genevieve because of something that involved your grandfather. It was necessary to do so and no one knew about it but things changed when your father died in that car accident. It wasn't just an accident, it was staged. Karl, your grand-uncle and my half-brother wanted your father's position as the CEO and tried to kill the two of you too before you were rescued and since then, I took the two of you under my wing. He doesn't know that you have survived as Benjamin's daughters, but rather as his nieces so you would not have a legitimate claim to the position as long as he was there. There is more to my disappearance and the past that involved all of us, but for now, you should make sure to not alert Karl at any costs. He is aware of the existence of the crown and it will put your quest in danger if he interferes. As for what you need to do now, try to extract information from the Jiang family, as much as you can, especially the secret place where it was kept. This alone would give you clues to go forward.'
Genevieve let out a breath, trying to hold back her anger. She wanted to end Karl for taking away her father. She was already provoked by his memories that had plagued her earlier when Archer Jiang mentioned him and now she had learnt a huge truth about his death. She felt like screaming.
Irene must have sensed her anger because she pulled Genevieve in her arms, comforting her. Genevieve felt glad for having her sister with her, she wasn't sure if she could deal with it alone. She didn't cry, she was only motivated to make Karl pay for what he had done to their family.
"I didn't realize Karl was grandmother's half-brother." Irene mumbled, "I thought he was some relative of dad that grandmother had entrusted the company to. He is too young to even be her brother."
"I know," Genevieve replied, tightening her grip around her sister, "But I don't care now. I want to end him."
"Me too, Genevieve. Me too."