Not One, But Two!

The men who worked for Emma began to spread out all over the city in hopes of locating Abigail, but

little did they know that she was already tucked away inside a smuggling ship, crying over a lab report

she was holding in her hand.

I'm pregnant! If it hadn't been for the fact that the smuggling ship had strict requirements for

passengers to produce a full health report, she would never have learned of her pregnancy. She

thought back to the month when she was locked away in the basement, feeling all weak and nauseous

then. Those were symptoms of pregnancy, but she had dismissed them as signs of malnutrition.

But I'm only nineteen! How can I be a mother now? I don't even know who the father is.

The frustration and helplessness followed her all the way out to sea.

Five years later, a little girl of about four or five years old marched down Sanchez Street in

Newsbourne. She had delicate features and alabaster skin, looking like a walking porcelain doll who

made everyone take a second glance. She was wearing a baseball cap and she had a lollipop in her

mouth, but there was mud on her pretty dungarees. Presently, she walked haughtily into a villa.

"Hey there, Money!" The little girl whistled once, and when the mastiff in the villa heard the familiar

sound, it quickly gave a soft whimper before it trembled and scurried into its cage. There was no

mistaking the fear in its eyes.

She scoffed. "Stupid dog." She cast the dog a contemptuous look and flipped it off before pushing open

the door into the living room. "Aria, I'm home!"

She kicked off her shoes habitually, only for them to land on Arianna, the little girl sitting in front of the

computer.

"Alissa!" Arianna stood up huffily and turned to glower at the other girl.

They both shared the same face, though the only thing that set them apart was that Arianna had a pair

of spectacles perched on her little nose bridge. When she saw the mud stains on Alissa's clothes, she

frowned. "Did you get into a fight again, Allie?"

Alissa was cavalier as she walked over to her twin sister while barefooted. Then, she reached out to

flick the latter on the forehead and snapped nonchalantly, "Those punks were asking for it! They knew

they couldn't beat me in a fight, but they went on to call me a mongrel and made fun of me for not

having a daddy like them. If I don't teach them a lesson and beat them up, I will never forgive myself!"

Arianna rubbed the spot where she had been flicked. She was about to say something when she heard

the line about Alissa being a fatherless mongrel, which would by extension apply to her as well. She

paused before sighing and pointed out in resignation, "You'll get an earful from Mommy when she gets

back."

"In that case, go and fetch me some new clothes. Now!" Alissa impatiently shoved her sister away from

the computer.

With an exasperated shake of her head, Arianna rose and headed into the bedroom.

Alissa stared at the computer Arianna had been using, and she could hear the little boys' mocking

voices in her head. I am not a mongrel who doesn't have a dad, she told herself fiercely. Mommy still

won't tell us who our daddy is, but where there's a will, there's a way, right?

With that in mind, Alissa scanned her face and began to cross-refer to the online database. She

refused to believe that she couldn't find anyone who resembled her. Mommy's gorgeous, but neither

Arianna nor myself inherited her good looks. This means that we must have taken after our father. She

had a feeling that she could get a lead if she just ran a quick search and comparison.

Her little fingers flew across the keyboard, and it didn't take long for her to find a person whose face

bore a striking resemblance to hers. Greg Buckley? CEO of Buckley Group in Zyrtonia?

The information rendered Alissa furious. You're telling me that he's that rich, yet he chose to abandon

his family? What a piece of filth!

Her fingers flew over the keyboard once more as she grew angry at the thought, and before long, she

had keyed in a code that allowed her to break into Buckley Group's internal system.

Meanwhile, Greg was in the middle of a meeting when he heard the faint beeping sound that came

from the computer. "What's going on?"

Troy glanced at the computer and all the color drained from his face. "Mr. Buckley, our system has

been hacked. I'll get the technicians on this right away!"

"Give it to me! The hacker has already broken through our firewall. By the time the tech team fixes this,

the hacker will leave our system in tatters!" Greg took over the laptop impatiently and began keying in

several complicated codes, but he was in the process of doing so when his brows drew together.

The laptop screen had turned black, and against the dark backdrop was written a word in crimson:

'Scumbag!' The word appeared only for a second, and a flash later, the screen turned blue.

Greg immediately keyed in a series of codes and began tracking down the hacker. He would like to see

which idiot had been so bold as to break into their system just to taunt him and call him names.

Scumbag? Now that crosses the line!