"You are no longer mad, right?" Emily asked as she tightened her arms around her brother's waist.

A sigh escaped Simon's lips before he hurriedly nodded his head in reply, immediately agreeing with her.

"Of course! I'm not mad anymore, I swear!"

In the current situation where he was being held captive by his little sister, he was ready to do anything to just get a few seconds of relief.

At first, she was only hanging on his arm but when he refused to fall for her cute and pitiful act, she decided to level up her game and snaked her arms around his waist.

If it had been someone else, it would barely have taken him a few seconds to push that person away.

However, it was not someone else. Rather, this was his little sister. There's no way he would use his physical force on her, hence resulting in his current situation.

"You are the best!"

Emily shouted with happiness filling her beautiful eyes as she hurriedly let go of him.

One moment she was clinging to him like a koala and the next moment she reacted like he was just an extra person crowding her room.

Simon just shook his head but decided to not comment on the topic. Rather, he decided to focus on the important matter at hand.

"So, what are you doing?" He asked as he took a seat on the bean bag which was resting near her study table.

His question made Emily's eyes sparkle as she turned towards him with excitement.

"Take a look!" She offered as she pointed towards her laptop screen.

"I already did. It looks like a legal document to be honest. That's why I'm a little confused." Simon confessed.

Emily chuckled softly as she replied, "Well, it's indeed a legal document. It's a contract."

Her words made Simon jump off the bean bag in surprise as he stared at his sister in shock.

"What contract?"

He could feel his heart starting to beat faster as more than one bad scenario started appearing in his mind.

Was someone trying to play dirty with his little sister? Was someone taking advantage of innocence?

It was like Emily read his thoughts from the horrified expression that he had pulled on his face because she too stood up from her chair.

"Goodness, Simon! You are acting like I'm being conned or something." Emily said with a chuckle as she pulled her brother towards her queen size bed.

"Are you not?" Simon asked with genuine confusion which made her burst out into giggles.

"Even though I'm still seventeen, but that doesn't mean I can be fooled so easily. First, relax and let me explain everything in detail." She offered and to her amazement, Simon immediately agreed.

Emily took in a deep breath to calm down her excitement a little bit for the time being before she launched into explaining about exactly what was going on.

"I don't know if Leo has already told you guys about this or not, but I've been working on a webcomic for nearly a year by now. I've like a hundred or so chapters prepared and I think I'll be able to end it in the next few chapters."

She stopped for a moment to take a look at Simon and almost burst out into giggles when she saw his shocked and confused face.

"Well, a few weeks ago I found out about an online site which is conducting a contest for webcomics and I just decided to upload a few chapters. I was totally not expecting it to garner such a huge web traffic. Moreover, I got a contract offer from that site around a week ago"

Emily finished explaining as she pointed towards her laptop screen where the third page of the contract was currently visible.

Simon was more than just shocked or surprised. He first looked at his little sister and then at the laptop.

Without wasting any more time, he walked towards her desk and picked up her laptop.

For the next twenty minutes, Emily's bedroom was filled with pin-drop silence as Simon read through the entire twenty pages long contract.

He then even spent some time searching about the online site and finding as much information about it as possible.

As Emily watched him setting the laptop aside, she decided to speak, "I have already searched about the site. I read a lot of reviews about it. As far as I know, this is not the first time they are conducting this contest. They did something similar the previous year too. Moreover, they are in partnership with a reputed Entertainment Company of our country."

"And I already informed Domenic that I want to discuss something important with him. I was going to fill in the information required, then I was going to let Nick take a look at it. Once I had his permission, I was going to submit the contract."

Simon listened silently as he tried to not smile at the destination that his baby sister had actually matured in such a short time.

"What's wrong?"

Emily asked in confusion as she noticed the slight twitch on Simon's lips that he was probably trying to hide.

"I'm just amazed that you actually possess a brain with working ability. Never knew that you can be smart enough to handle this situation so maturely. I'm really impressed." Simon told her and noticed the pout that she immediately made at his words.

"In complementing you, Little bird," Simon informed her as he ruffled her perfectly combed hair.

"Simon....!"

Emily almost slapped his hand away but succeeded in controlling herself at the right moment.

"What? I'm just styling your hair." Simon replied as he continued to ruffle her hair but then stopped after a few seconds.

"Yeah, right. I'll love to have you as my personal stylist. However, don't expect me to give you a single penny for it." Emily said as she tried to settle her hair.

"Wait! Why are you being such a miser? As far as I know, you get pretty high pocket money every month and you are not even spending it. Also, you are going to earn money through your book. As far as I can see, you are wealthy enough to provide me with a good salary."

Simon immediately countered as he pointed out all the facts. Not like he really wanted her to waste her money on him, but teasing her gave him the satisfaction of another level.

"Are you seriously eyeing my money? Wait! Are you jobless?"

Emily stared at her brother with shocked eyes as she tried to process the fact that Simon was actually jobless.

It took some time before Simon realized that she was not making fun of him. Rather, she actually believed that he was jobless.

"You seriously dare to call me jobless. Aish! Who's feeding you with such rubbish?" He funnily reprimanded her.

Emily let out a sigh of relief when she realized that he was not jobless.

"Oh, God! I almost thought that I will be giving half of my money to you every month from now on. So good to know that it was just a bad thought." She muttered as she fanned herself to cool down a little.

"You...! You are such a little devil."

Simon shouted as he pushed her on the bed and started tickling her.

He was amazed to find that she was ticklish. As soon as he merely touched her clothes she started laughing so hard.

The two of them launched into a fun game of sibling fighting, that none of them realized the passage of time.

By the time they stopped, none of them had the energy to even laugh anymore.

Simon took in a deep breath before he turned his face to look at his little sister who was also trying to catch her breath.

A small smile appeared on his face as he realized that for the first time in a very long period, he was feeling really happy.

And all the credit goes to his little sister!

-

After that night, Emily's life started sailing smoothly.

She submitted the contract with Simon's help after Domenic gave her permission with the promise that she won't let it affect her studies.

Her webcomic became a hit within two months, garnering millions of readers who appreciated her art and story.

Her friendship with Rylan, Shane, Grace, and Joe continued to become stronger as time passed by.

She never came across any more weird dreams and since her life was going on smoothly, her past too did not try to invade her present.

She barely met Kaiden during the last quarter of the year as he was busy taking care of his business empire while she was focusing on her midterm exams.

Her relations with her brothers also became stronger, even when she barely saw the soft side of Domenic again and Mark kept acting as......... Mark!

Her exams passed smoothly and everyone was happy with her performance. Shane and Rylan too did pretty well.

It was time for Christmas and New Year break, and Emily was more than happy to spend her time with her FAMILY.

However, why it appeared like this was the end of her smooth sailing life? Probably because a tsunami was coming for her!