Zaria couldn't sleep even after her call with Desmond. Instead, she was even finding it much harder to catch any sleep. Sitting up, she grabbed her laptop from the night stand and placed it on a pillow between her legs. She turned it on to launch her Creszone[1] application. She checked through her moments, and when she saw that Ximena had posted a picture three minutes ago, she raised an eyebrow. The sleepyhead was still up?

Scrolling down, she saw several more posts one of which was Ryan's, who had posted a picture of his hand interlinked with a smaller one. She didn't need to ask to know that the little hand belonged to Nina.

She suddenly realized that she had missed the little teenager so much…

[You're still up?] Came a text message in her private message box and she clicked on it. It was Zeus, the night owl—her hacker friend.

[What are you doing?] Came another question, which Zaria laughed at and drafted a reply.

[Do you even need to ask? You can find that out by merely tapping a few keys on your keyboard.]

Zeus replied within a minute since he was online. [I don't want to hack my way into knowing things about you.]

[Like you didn't do that before?] Zaria sent over an eye roll sticker and then wondered whether it was the right time to ask him. Remembering that she would be too busy during the day to log into Creszone, she decided to ask. [I was hoping you could do me a favor.]

[Anything for you, my dear.] He answered in his usual friendly tone.

[Could you send me the video again? I deleted it.] Remembering that he had sent her many videos and might not know which one she was talking about, she added, [The one from the Forts' living room.]

[Why did you delete it?] Came his question, and she could imagine his frown as he typed it as though reprimanding her.

[I showed it to Jaime to threaten him and was scared that he would come to seek me.] She explained, since he had helped her out and he could find out even if she tried to hide it anyway.

[Why do you need it now?] He interrogated her.

[It will be used to sue Jaime, I guess.] She typed after thinking about it and not being able to come up with a definite answer.

The other party typed for a long while, but he did not send his text message even for a long while, rendering her nervous. Just when she wondered whether he had flopped on his keyboard and fallen asleep, his text message arrived and it was preceded by an angry sticker. [Zaria, I sent that video to you so you would use it to clear your name after getting in trouble with the Forts. It was for your own good. I'm not going to resend it and make that Fort guy fall harder for you.]

She felt her heart sink to the pit of her stomach and she didn't know how to respond. It was only a while later that she managed to ask, [What's this got to do with Desmond?]

[Who will it benefit the most?] Came the quick question.

She was about to answer when she realized that indeed Desmond was the person who would gain the most out of it. Once he managed to sue Jaime, he would have managed to get rid of the real murderer, and at the same time, proven his mother innocent and gotten her out of prison.

However, she couldn't help asking, [What do you have against him?]

[He is after you. Is that reason enough?] Zeus replied, rendering her speechless.

Desmond really was a harbinger of trouble. Just how many people disliked the fact that she and him were getting closer?

…

"Zeus doesn't want to send the video to me." Zaria reported to Desmond the following morning in his office.

For some reason, he seemed to have expected it. Perhaps it was because he was used to being opposed by everyone around Zaria, so he didn't think this hacker, who was a man, would agree to help him. It made him wonder whether the man had feelings for Zaria but the thought would anger him so he tried to forget about it.

"You tried your best and that's already good enough." He held her hand. "I have another alternative, but it will depend on whether you are willing."

"What is it?" She was curious to know what the harbinger of trouble had in mind.

"Get a hacker to retrieve all the deleted information from your phone. This will restore everything including the video." He suggested seriously, and she looked up at him.

"I don't mind. I can simply delete what I don't want later." She decided after thinking about it.

He didn't expect her to agree so fast, so he was surprised. "You have to know that the deleted information will appear on his computer. If there is anything that is too personal…"

"There isn't." She interrupted before he could finish his statement.

"I'll call him over then." Desmond took out his phone. He was already prepared since soon after he made his call, a young man entered the office and he introduced him to Zaria.

"Meet skeleton." He showed the skinny man in.

"So this beauty is the one whose phone I'm about to wreck?" The man named Skeleton asked while pointing at Zaria.

"Don't you dare wreck it." Desmond threatened him.

"Don't be so serious. I'm just kidding." The skinny guy laughed and opened his palm to Zaria.

"Bring it over."

The guy took her phone and tapped a few things on it. He then took out a laptop from the bag he had brought, and after turning it on, he typed a few things and turned to her. "Wait. What am I looking for?"

"A video from a surveillance camera footage. The angle is slanted, obviously. And the thumbnail is Samantha sitting on a couch while Jaime and Marchal standing behind it." She answered while trying to peek over and wondering whether he had already finished hacking into her phone. She would be shocked if she had not noticed the speed at which Zeus did things.

"It's not here." Skeleton shook his head after glancing through the thumbnails.

"What?" She hurried to his side to take a look. She glanced through the videos carefully and when she didn't see it, she frowned. "Maybe the thumbnail changed?" Desmond asked at the side.

"I don't know if that happens but let me take a look." Zaria responded and tried to click on the videos to play snippets.

When she was done, she frowned. "It's really not here. I know all these folders and none of them is it."

"Think about it. Did you perhaps save it in a different folder so no one could get to it fast?" Skeleton asked.

"I do have a secret folder, and I remember saving something in there." Zaria felt rejuvenated as she hurriedly clicked on the said folder and entered the password.

However, as soon as she saw the content, she froze. It was too late when she remembered the content and it was already displayed on the laptop screen. Uhm…

She hoped Desmond was not looking, and when she felt his breath from behind her, she closed one eye and quickly exited the folder.

"You took pictures of me?" Came the tease behind her.

He was puzzled, not expecting that the subject of her secret folder was none other than him. He wasn't sure when she took it but the background looked like a golf course…the West Golf Course?

"Honey, you didn't need to sneak photos of me. If you wanted to, you could ask me to pose. I would do so however you want. I would even do so au-naturel if you asked me to." He teased the woman in front of him, who looked embarrassed after getting caught.

"Can't you feign oblivion? Sheesh" She jabbed him.

"You are blushing. Could it be that you already have a picture of me with nothing on?" He laughed out aloud.

"I would love to watch your lovey dovey interaction but I need to get back to work." Skeleton interrupted.

"What about your computer?" He asked Zaria.

"It's not there either. I think I know what happened." She frowned as she spoke.

"I think so too. It's the hacker, right?" Desmond asked with a frown, a hint of irritation in his tone.

Skeleton couldn't initially comprehend what they were talking about but when he did, he was baffled. "Who is that damned hacker? I want to show them how it's done.

"Tone down your arrogance, Skeleton." Desmond rubbed the space between his brows.

"It's birds of a feather for you." Zaria chuckled, knowing that Skeleton could not defeat Zeus. The latter was too good and fast at it.

"Do you want me to help you hack the surveillance cameras at your home? Maybe there's still a record." Skeleton suggested.

"I find it more plausible to think that it's deleted. If he didn't want me to access it, he wouldn't leave the original in an accessible place." Zaria sighed, wondering what Desmond had done to deserve so much hatred from someone like Zeus.

"While that's true, I like to believe that while some things are nightmarishly challenging, nothing is impossible." Skeleton stubbornly insisted, and Zaria could only laugh.

"Good luck."

____

[1]... Creszone, a social media application like Instagram and Tiktok

...

AN

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