For the last four years, Naomi worked on gathering information on "the man" and the people beside him along with the special team that was assembled. Although the team was composed of only six people, including Naomi, they were all experts in their line of work.
The earliest member to join the team was Naomi. As Kaia's second in command and loyal best friend, she contacted the team whenever she needed their help. Before contacting them, she would organize the tasks and give detailed and thorough summaries and plans for what she wanted them to do. After the work was done, she would summarize and report to Kaia with whatever information was found.
Another member assembled to the team after Naomi was Todd. He was the hacker that had helped Naomi and Kaia dig up information on Alex. He was a prodigy like Kaia and knew coding and computers like the back of his hand. His special skill that set him apart was being able to hide his "signature," which was a habit or pattern that coders used when they wrote computer codes. If his signature was obvious and easily identified, it would make it easier for other coders to trace and find him.
Todd was somewhat mysterious and kept himself on the "down-low" most of the time. Sometimes he completely went off the grid and it was almost impossible to track him down with his cash payments and many aliases. In fact, the team was unsure if "Todd" was even his real name. He had once jokingly said that Todd was a suitable name for him because it had the word "odd" in it.
Although he was knee deep in illegal activities, he wasn't necessarily "bad." He was trustworthy whenever he needed to be, and always managed to complete the task given to him on time, even if it was merely a second before being late. He followed the rule that if someone was up to something they shouldn't be up to, then they shouldn't make it a challenge for him to find out. He loved challenges the most and prying into other people's business was his specialty. But he was also aware of certain boundaries and wouldn't dig any further if someone was deemed "innocent."
The third member was Steven. He currently worked in the main branch of Northern Star Hospital, which the Crestfall's were a main shareholder of. Steven grew up with Kaia and she was like a little sister to Steven, especially because she was 7 years younger than him. They knew each other because they were both in and out of the hospital at a young age. Steven had heart issues that kept him there.
After he had a successful open heart surgery, he had to stay in the hospital for a few months to recuperate. Kaia always visited him and kept him company during this time. After he fully recovered, he still came by every now and then just to play with Kaia or teach her new things that he learned from school. Since Kaia was still young then, she hadn't been to school yet so Steven had to break down a lot of things and teach her patiently. But Kaia had always been smart and easily grasped seemingly complicated topics.
After Kaia was "cured" and left the hospital, it was time for her to start school. She was already able to skip from pre-K to kindergarten because she learned most of the things from Steven and practically mastered quite a few reading and math skills already. After going through a few months of kindergarten, the teachers realized that she was more suited for first grade.
All throughout this, she would often visit the hospital to check if Steven was there. She often did her homework with him and received a lot of helpful strategies that helped her master what she needed to learn. After summer vacation and two months of second grade, she was able to skip to third grade because she spent most of her time at the hospital with Steven learning new things.
Around high school, Kaia came to the hospital less and less to visit because they were both extremely busy. But they continued to stay in touch. Steven soon decided that he want to become a surgeon and became on track for medical school. He interned at Northern Star Hospital during his junior and senior year of high school through the fact that his mom was a well-respected nurse there. He worked extremely hard and completed his bachelor's degree and completed his surgical residency at a top hospital in a different city.
After his residency, he decided to he take the job at Northern Star Hospital as a cardiothoracic surgeon. He was a hard-working surgeon and rarely made mistakes if any at all, so he was unanimously voted in as the youngest Chief of Surgery at Northern Star.
When Kaia assembled the team together, Steven didn't hesitate to join. Especially after he found out what happened. Even when he found out she was pregnant he would often use his vacation days to take trips out to the country hospital to visit her. He was the first to know about her pregnancy, mostly because Kaia needed her records and she needed it to be secret. When he asked about her situation, she didn't hide anything from him. He was just the big brother taking care of his longtime little sister. Although he did have another reason for taking care of her…
Jak joined the team around the same time as Steven. Jake had majored in statistics, accounting, business, as well as finance and economics. He also knew some stuff regarding contracts because he was a thorough and detail-oriented man. He was also considered a prodigy, especially in the financial world. He was a high-level employee of one of the top stockbroker companies in the UK, CSC. Although he was a very busy man, he always made time to give advice to Kaia, who was his grad school business major colleague. She held a special place in his heart, but he never planned on confessing because he knew she had someone else in her heart
The fifth member was Karin, who was the most eccentric of the group. She was a beautiful, petite and big breasted blonde. Her looks and fashion sense rivaled some of the trending starlets out there. But she never broke into the entertainment world despite having the necessary skills and "weapons." Age was a factor in this, as well as her motto and conduct, which would send paparazzi and the media into a frenzy. Her motto was to live life to the fullest, which was why she immersed herself in sensual pleasures. She was known for seducing the men in her workplaces even if she didn't even try or do anything special on purpose. She was seen as the number one enemy of many women, but was practically untouchable due to the various men she managed to turn into her slave.
Her special skill was ironically acting. She had been hired to go undercover in Crestfall Industries as a spy. She played the part of a clumsy and cliche "dumb blonde" and "accidentally" bumped into Caine. She had her resume and a cup of iced coffee, as well as an above the knee pencil skirt and loose blouse that accentuated her generous "melons." The straps on her high heel suddenly snapped and she "stumbled" on her 5-inch stilettos right when Caine turned the corner. Her coffee spilled all over his pristine Armani suit. Her resume scattered in a messy heap on the floor.
Caine's brows furrowed in annoyance and he was about to push her when she said, "I'm so sorry! I...I...I didn't mean to! I'll wipe it up for you right away and get it dry cleaned!" Hearing her melodious voice and his darkening expression eased up. He smiled upon seeing her generous cleavage when she worriedly tried to wipe up the coffee with teary eyes and a pitiful expression. 'It seems like another little sheep has somehow wandered into my wolf's den…' he thought as he admired her "melons." Merely a few seconds later, he clutched her wrist gently and bent down to collect the messy heap of documents scattered on the floor. He noticed her resume with her name "Karin Smith" neatly typed in bold at the very top with her contact information on the side. His smile deepened further.
"Are you applying here?" he asked with a dangerous twinkle in his eye. Karin flinched slightly and looked up. She stopped for a minute, as if to admire his face before getting back to her senses and dumbly nodding in response. Caine paused before continuing, "Which position are you applying for?" Karin gave him a confused look before hesitantly replying, "I want to be secretary of the new CEO of Crestfall Industries."
"Why do you want to be his secretary?" Caine inquired with an uncontainable glee in his heart. "Well...I know my way around an office and I can organize documents, schedule appointments and do anything else that needs to be done. Plus...I especially admire his family's fashion line and brand, Linora…" Karin confessed sheepishly with a slight blush, as if she was embarrassed.
With the documents held in his hand, he looked at her with desires hidden in his eyes before saying, "You're hired." He gave her a wide grin and leaned down, whispering, "My dear secretary, Karin Smith~" Karin looked up at him with shock and stuttered, "W—what? I—I'm hired…??? You're...oh my god! You're Caine Martsching?!?!" Caine smiled charmingly and winked, "The one and only. Come, let's go to my office and so we can discuss your contract and what you need to do." He let go of her wrist and placed his hand on the small of her back before leading her into the elevator.
And that was how she managed to snag the position of secretary. She was pretty capable at her job. Obviously, she charmed a few male employees into doing her bidding, which was so that she did the bare minimum and wouldn't attract any suspicious and unwanted attention.
After Karin was Albert, who was Naomi's distant relative. He was overseas most of the time handling foreign affairs because he was proficient in handling tough contract deals and reading body language. He was also a major shareholder of one of Crestfall Industries' major overseas branches. He also had somewhat of a presence and sense of respect from the board of trustees. This gave him more leeway and power with certain important decisions.
Overall, over the four years after Kaia's "death," the team worked hard to try and locate a weakness or secret. But "the man" was too good. In fact, it was due to the fact that there was too much information known about "the man." He had a prominent standing in social circles and that made him known to the media and public. But the man was two-faced at the very least so it was hard to tell when he was being genuine about things. He obviously had quite a few connections and money to boot, so it was hard to find anything even after four years. The people near him were less of a challenge but it was still hard to differentiate the useless ones from the useful ones. But finally, they latched onto a useful person, which was why Karin and Todd were able to discover something big...