Kelsie stopped walking and glanced towards her children's room.
Inside, Daniel Adler flinched in fear before he slipped his phone out of his pocket and ended the phone call with shaky hands.
Outside, Kelsie frowned slightly when the phone stopped ringing and began walking towards the room, but Zade suddenly blocked her path and blinked his eyes at her innocently.
"Where are you going, mommy?"
Before she could respond, he turned to Jesse and mocked nervously.
"Jesse, weren't you looking for your phone just now? Silly you, it was in the room. I told you to search for it there."
Jesse stared at him in confusion before he understood what he was trying to do quickly nodded in agreement.
"Didn't I tell you to call my number? You made me waste my time looking around the house for it." He scoffed lightly and turned around to walk towards their room.
He strutted out a few seconds later holding a phone Keira found unfamiliar.
She gazed at it for several seconds before cluelessly stating the obvious.
"That's your phone? It doesn't look familiar. And when did you change your ringtone? Didn't your hate this song?"
Zade almost burst into tears hearing her.
They had just managed to fool their mother, how could she suddenly say soenthing like this? Didn't she read the room? Or did she suddenly forget they'd be punished if their mother found out they let the man from yesterday into their house again.
"W-what are you saying, Keira? Can't people's taste in music change?" He laughed nervously, trying to hint her with his eyes.
However, Keira wasn't looking at him and cluelessly continued speaking, "It's not about that. Jesse once said if there was no one in the world who hates this rock band."
"That there would be something wrong with his brain if we ever found him enjoying some of their…"
She was still talking when Jesse nervously cut her off. "I said that? I don't remember saying something like that, Keira."
Before Keira could say anything in reply, he spread his arms wide and embraced her tightly to himself.
"What are you doing? You're hugging me so tightly I can't breathe!" She was caught off-guard and quickly cried out in pain.
Jesse released his grip on her, glanced back at Kelsie to see if she had caught on.
When he saw the confusion in her eyes, he smiled faintly and quickly apologized to Keira.
"Sorry. I just suddenly missed you so much and felt like hugging you."
Having successfully been distracted, Keira temporarily forgot what she was about to say.
Zade heaved a silent sigh of relief and flashed Kelsie a charming smile.
"Don't you have somewhere to be, mommy? Hurry up before you'll be late. We can take care of ourself until you get back. Remember we did that yesterday."
Successfully convinced, Kelsie nodded.
"Yeah. Right. I'll be back soon."
Then she was gone. Jesse and Zade waited for more than ten seconds before they exhaled in relief.
Keira stared at them in confusion.
"What is is? Do you miss mommy already?"
Jesse turned to her and sighed softly.
"Keira, when that mentally unstable uncle is hiding in our house, just go with the whatever Zade and I say, okay?"
Although still confused, she nodded and slumped on the couch behind her.
"Yeah. Whatever."
She held up her phone and logged onto her game while Daniel walked out from the room.
He glanced around to see Zade had put on his lab coat and scurried off to a corner of the room while Jesse had returned back to his laptop.
He glanced at Keira and quickly sat beside her when he saw the display of the game on her phone.
"Keira, is that Free Fire you're playing?"
"Yes, why?"
"I play too."
"You do?"
"Mhm. What's your username? I'll add you to my team and carry you along whenever we play."
"Lethal_K."
"Lethal_K? K as in Lethal_Kiera, isn't it?"
Keira nodded without stopping to look at him and the man gasped in disbelief.
"My niece isn't just pretty, she's extremely brilliant. Lethal_K? It's so unique not anyone can think of it."
However, it seemed his praises fell on deaf ears as Keira's expression remained the same. Her bright eyes remained pinned on her screen as she played the game.
Daniel didn't mind and proceeded to add her as a friend, but suddenly shot up from his seat when he saw her rank.
"G-grandmaster?! How are you already a grandmaster when I'm merely struggling to maintain my rank as a platinum?"
Jesse raised his head to answer.
"Keira has been obsessed with it ever since she knew what it was. She started playing free fire when she was four."
Daniel huffed again in disbelief, stuttering, "F-four? Four years old? But I've been playing free fire since I was in middle school and I've never gotten past diamond rank. Is there some cheat code I don't know?"
Jesse shrugged.
"I don't know. I just know she's so good she's ranked the second best player in the world."
Dumbfounded, Daniel sat down beside her again, his eyes wide open in shock.
He stared at the space in front of him and said nothing for more than a minute. Then he sucked in a deep breath and patted Keira gently on the head.
"When your mother gets back, I'll ask her what she ate when she was pregnant with you three. At the age of six, you're all more intelligent than I've been my entire life."
"It's a little humiliating, but I can't help but feel proud to have you three as my niece and nephews."
He stopped talking and peeped into Keira's game again. He stared at the screen for several seconds before he raised his eyes and asked.
"I don't see your teammates. Have they all been eliminated so soon into the game? Those punks! How could they get eliminated and leave you with four opponents of heroic rank!"
"Next time you're playing, take me along with you. I may be a platinum ranked player, but I'll take at least two of them with me if I'm going to be killed off."
He didn't expect to get a response, but she suddenly spoke up.
"My teammates are offline because they are at work. At least that's what they tell me."
"What?" The man didn't know when he blurted out.
"I'm playing solo." She rephrased.
He chuckled and rested his head on the headrest as he naturally concluded.
"Really? Then you're as good as dead because there is no way you're going to win against four heroic ranked players."
"Don't worry. Once you've lost, I'll join you and we'll play against this team as a squad. I won't let them look down on my adorable niece."
The words had just rolled off his tongue when he looked at the screen again to suddenly see the words, 'You Won' displayed across her screen.
The man rested the his head on the headrest again and stared up at the ceiling in a daze.
"Winning against four players of heroic rank? It's not like I'm high or something, why do I keep hearing and seeing these impossible things."
As this was going on, in the conference room of Lumen Group.
Deborah Thompson and Laura Sutton sat by the right and left hand side of Jerry Sutton.
"What you're proposing is good, but Lumen Group has not taken in any job like this ever since the time of…" An elderly man was saying but suddenly stopped himself.
He cleared his throat noisily and continued, "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that we do not have the ability to compete with other tech and cybersecurity companies."
"We should continue focusing our attention on the kind of cybersecurity we can provide for other companies."
Deborah Thompson suddenly laughed curtly and spoke up after he was done.
"Don't be so simple-minded, Mr. Smith. If we get this deal from Jett Adler, all those other companies looking down on us will no longer do so. And who said we don't have the capacity to take them on?"
Jerry Sutton nodded in agreement and went on to continue from where she stopped in a proud tone.
"Did you suddenly forget I have a daughter who has been studying computer science ever since bae was a child?"
"Although, this isn't the only talent she has, but she was so obsessed with learning everything about it that she attended every lecture there was and every hacking contest ever held."
"And now that she's fully grown, it's safe to say she's a prodigy who is finally ready to show herself to the world the world."
Clinton Smith placed his hands on the table and rubbed them against each other as he flashed Jerry and Deborah a faint smile.
"I did heard she participated in the hacking contest that was held last year in the country. She came 7th place, didn't she? That's not something to boast about."
Deborah locked eyes with him and leaned towards the table, a smile tugging the corners of her lips.
"If I recall correctly, over seven hundred people participated in that contest. Yet, my brainy daughter came in 7th place in the entire country and came in 3rd in Silicone Valley. In what world do you think that's an easy feat?
Upon hearing her, the man no longer said anything knowing she was right. Hence, he just averted his eyes and kept mute.
There was no one else raising any complaint, hence, Jerry leaned back on his seat and proposed.
"That being said, let's take a vote. Even though I already know how this will end, we should still take a vote to decide to clarify that Laura Sutton is the best person for this."
"If the votes, isn't in her favor, then all those opposing will have to find someone better for the company."
"Now, all in favor of my daughter taking charge of Jett Adler's job, if we do get it, raise your hands."
Out of the 11 board members, five raised their hands, while Clinton Smith and those who sided with him didn't.
Seeing this, Jerry clenched his jaw tightly, but still forced on a small smile.
"Including me, they are six people voting for Laura Sutton. I will now calculate the shares of everyone who raised their hands. If the total shares exceeds 50 percent, then my daughter stays."
He had just finished speaking when the door suddenly flew open and a pair of long legs casually strolled in.