My Mommy’s Brave Heart

Chapter 13

it. Melody was reading a picture book on the carpet and did not notice that her brother had left. She was completely immersed in her own world. Alden turned on the computer. It was a little low, but it was still capable of doing what Alden needed it to do. He started typing away on the keyboard, and the screen turned blue. Rows of code appeared. His mother was an expert programmer, while he was an expert at deciphering already written code. In other words, he was a hacker. He easily hacked into Daugherty Corporation’s website. He copied all the information about the company’s clients he found on the website, then used a foreign IP address to upload that information on a certain website. Then, he changed some symbols in the Daugherty Corporation’s official website’s code, and it crashed! They lived in the age of the internet, and if the official website of a major corporation crashed, it dealt a severe blow to the company’s image. Before tech specialists of Daugherty Corporation could fix the website, they heard another piece of bad news from foreign news outlets. Their clients’ information had been leaked! In half an hour, Daugherty Corporation’s stocks fell by ten ticks. Alden calmly watched the news online with a cold sneer on his lips. This was just a small lesson. If they offended his mother again, he would make the Daugherty family pay an even greater price. Suddenly, someone drew closer to him. Alden turned around and saw that Melody had come over at some point in time. Her eyes were huge and watery, like a lake. At that moment, her gaze was fixed on the computer screen. But there was nothing interesting about financial news, so Alden decided to turn off the computer screen. However, Melody grabbed his hand and stopped him. She moved his hand away and drew closer to the computer screen. It was only at that moment that Alden noticed that the video had changed because of auto-play, and an aloof face was now on the screen. ‘Isn’t this man… the person we ran into on the road just now? ‘Mel seems to be really interested in him…’ “Mel, do you know him?” Alden asked slowly. But he received no reply. Melody just pawed at the computer screen, as if she wanted to pull the man out from it. Alden’s eyes fell partially shut as he pondered over her actions. He quickly took a screenshot of the man and uploaded in sauceNAO. Soon, all the information about him showed up. Duke Winters, 28 years old, the CEO of Winters Corporation. Alden was certain that Melody did not know this person. So, why would Melody want to get closer to a stranger? ‘Wait!’ In a flash, Alden remembered something the doctors once said. “Autistic children will reject all strangers except their own blood relatives…” ‘Could this man be our… ‘But that’s ridiculous!’ Alden had asked Adina about his father before, but she always changed the topic, so he stopped asking after a while. He had thought that her refusal meant that his father was dead. But… Alden scrutinized the man’s features and noticed that his sister had similar eyes and mouth. If things were really as he speculated, then he had to find a way to do a DNA paternity test. The Daugherty Corporation’s misfortune was snowballing into a major problem. Aaron was exhausted from doing damage control. “It’s clear that someone is attacking us from the shadows. You’re trash! How could you not have found them yet?! Did we hire you to sit here for fun?!” The people in the meeting shivered and did not dare to even breathe loudly. “Don’t be angry, Dad. We should focus on how to handle the situation right now…” Dew said. “Tech department, repair the website asap. Customer service department, contact our major clients to appease them. Public relations department…” She gave orders calmly, and the people in the meeting room began to carry them out. Dew then looked at her furious father and said calmly, “Dad, do you know why Daugherty Corporation suddenly faces this crisis?” “Why?” “Because Adina is back.” “What?!” Aaron stood up. “I thought that jinx died a long time ago?” “I went to Xavier Corporation today and saw Adina. She’s alive and kicking.” Dew bit her lip. “She also said that she’ll take back everything that belongs to her. There’s a possibility that she’s the one who leaked the information about our clients today… Dad, I’m really worried about her knowing that the twins are alive… She’s their mother, so they should return to her side…