Reina's point of view

The past few days have been a war. It seems it wasn't only Niklaus I had to look out for, but his cousin too. I wonder what Maya must have done in her past life to attract such douchebags and now Reina has to clean up the mess. This is why today I would be having a meeting with Eden, the disturber.

That man was quite persistent and sly, I had refused meeting with him - Niklaus was enough trouble- but he just had a way of cornering me and now I had no choice but to agree to a meeting.

Since the meeting was scheduled in the afternoon, I decided to enjoy my morning or so I thought.

The doorbell rang.

I was on alert, I wasn't expecting anybody neither was it any of my people - they would have alerted me beforehand. So I carefully made my way to the door and looked through the peephole, there was nobody.

Maybe, it was just a prank.

A family was living in the opposite apartment on the same floor that had these children that does that.

However, I hardly took a step forward when the bell rang again. I shut my eyes tight, someone was getting on my nerves. Was this an expensive joke or what?

But then, just to be sure, I picked up my gun from the table where I had kept it and hid in the waistband of my pants before going to answer the door.

I opened the door cautiously with one hand while the other was readily accessible to the gun from behind in case push comes to shove. Peering out from the door left and right, the hallway was empty.

"Hi mom," Someone jumped into my view out of nowhere.

"Christ, Jesus!" I almost aimed the gun at Ailee, my daughter, "What were you thinking scaring me like that?"

"Hi mom," Allen made his own appearance.

"Oh," I should have known. Ailee without Allen was an incomplete equation.

"Who sent you both here?" I kept the gun away and folded my arms across my chest, knowing their grandfather wouldn't send them out to me after knowing they were in danger of being discovered by Niklaus.

"We sneaked out," Ailee was quick to add, "But we came with a guard,"

Oh, Ailee, always the master planner. She knew I would chew them alive if they didn't come with protection.

"Why are you here?" I asked them.

I know, yeah, what an odd question for a mother to ask her kids but if you've lived with them for seven years, you'd understand why the caution sign is placed in a dangerous area.

"Because I missed you, even if Allen didn't," Ailee went ahead to pout her lips, wrapping her arms around my waist playfully.

And yes, she's always the first to diss Allen - after supporting him.

My gaze rested on Allen, our eyes met, he looked away yet muttered, "I'm sorry for my behavior the past days,"

I was surprised hearing that from Allen, the boy had an ego as huge as an elephant. That must have been hard for him to say.

"Well, I'm sorry too. You have the right to know who your father is, son. But just give me a little time and soon you both would meet him,"

I watched his gaze move to his sister, they communicated something through their eyes - I just hope that was positive information.

"Sure," they answered at the same time.

"So can we spend time with you, mommy?" Ailee pressed.

My sixth sense told me something was not right yet I waved it off. How could I resist my wonderful kids?

So I let them into my apartment with a grin. I had been so harsh on them lately, it wouldn't be bad to spoil them rotten this morning.

I couldn't go out with them and even if we did, they had almost everything they could ever want from a store.

We ended up playing video games for two hours before moving over to baking. We competed with each other on who was going to make the best cake.

It was quite fun because we wasted flour - I included - turns out the kitchen was not meant for me. Allen had the best cake - but not to a professional level- yet we had enjoyed eating it.

After that, we were so exhausted that we sprawled undignified on the couch until Ailee suggested I braid her hair.

I was so glad by her warm request, I had always wanted to do that for my kid when she's of age. I was engrossed with that joy that it took me five minutes to realize Allen was no longer with us.

"Where's Allen?" I asked, reality dawning on me. Allen, being left to roam around unsupervised was not a good thing especially if he had a motive in mind.

"Don't worry about him, he's probably somewhere doing what he always does best,"

Exactly, that was the problem. Whenever Allen does something he likes best, it is always something big.

I glanced down, scrutinizing Ailee who gave me her super-duper innocent face - she definitely inherited my acting skills- this was a distraction. Why would she request me to braid her hair if it wasn't an avenue to draw me away while Allen does whatever he came for?

Realization dawned on me and I sprang up to my feet with quick reflexes. I headed in the direction of my study with Ailee after me. Allen probably went there to get into getting information from my laptop about his father - his current obsession.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Ailee questioned after me but I ignored her, she was a good pretender.

I made it to the room, turned the doorknob, and entered with the expectation to catch Allen in there only to discover it was empty.

My confusion grew, this was impossible. I was so sure of catching him in the act that meeting this failure felt like a huge slap on the face.

I checked the room for signs of any intrusion but my things were exactly the way I had kept them. My gaze rested on the laptop on my desk and was about to go check signs of tampering when I heard the sound of water being flushed and a door opening.

"Allen?" Ailee called.

I abandoned thoughts of checking the device to go see Allen and where he emerged from.

The toilet.

"What is wrong with you?" I asked out of concern, seeing the sweat on his forehead.

"I think the cake reacted badly with my stomach," He groaned, clutching his stomach.

I felt guilty, here I was suspecting him of intruding into my study when he was going through this agony this whole time.

"Take Allen to the living room, I should have medicine for that," I instructed Ailee to help her brother to the sofa while I went to my room to get some over the counter drugs.

So I ended up nursing Allen to good health till some colors returned to his pale cheeks. We spent more time together and I had to admit, the relationship with my kids deepened. I needed to summarize this whole revenge thing quickly so I could spend more time with them.

"Kids, you need to leave. I have someplace to be very soon," I told them, checking the time on my cell phone.

"No" Ailee whined.

"Ailee," I pleaded.

"I'm bored, I need to spend time with my mother; that's what kids my age do," She threw a tantrum.

"I know, honey, which is why I'm so sorry and would find a way to make it up to you guys," I mollified her.

"Leave mom alone, Ailee. If you're so bored, go practice your knife-throwing skills - you suck terribly," Allen told her.

Before I could even react, Ailee had tackled Allen off the sofa and to the ground, sneering, "Who's pathetic now,"

Without warning, Allen broke out of her hold before Ailee could even blink, tacking her instead, "Really? Who's the Damsel in distress now?"

"Alright, both of you knock it out, now!" I boomed when they began to flip,unflip, roll each other to the ground, claw, screech, pull at hairs - in one word, they were fighting each other. Niklaus would give me a five-star rating for raising the kids well.

"If I hear you two fought ever again, you'd get it from me. You were trained to defend yourself not use the skills on each other, understood?! " I chided them sternly.

"Understood mother," Both chorused.

"Now shake hands," I ordered.

They obeyed, reluctantly.

"Good," I smiled at them, "Now give me some peace and quietness,"

They knew what that meant, bidding goodbye to me as they found the door.

With a sigh, I made my way to the bathroom. I had not less than an hour to meet with Eden and needed to bathe since I had some flour on me from our bonding activity earlier.

Done with bathing, I walked into my room with the towel wrapped around my head like a head wrap when I suddenly looked down to discover my hands were slightly dyed.

"No, no, no," I shrieked, running to the mirror in the walk-in closet, losing the towel as well, dyed green hairs fell across my shoulder.

My jaw dropped, there was no need to guess who put green dye in my shampoo.

"Allen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Meanwhile, unknown to Reina :

"Did you get it?" Ailee asked with a pleased smile as they climbed into the car.

"Of course, who do you think I am," He smirked, showing off the USB drive in his grasp.

Ailee's smile deepened, there was admiration in her gaze, "How did you manage to crack mom's password?," she took the USB from him to take a good look at their success.

She and Allen had purposely fought earlier to clear every doubt their mother might have regarding their visit. That woman was too damn suspecting.

"Easy as pie," Allen was smug, "There are just too many skills one could pick up on the dark web,"

Ailee was delighted, "I guess it's time to find father,"