"You did what?!", Adrian asked for the third time.

"I. Got. The. Main. Server. Of. The. Hudson. Enterprises. Hacked.", I repeated, word by word, in exasperation.

"You get caught, you are going to jail.", He stated the obvious.

"I wouldn't have done it without calculating the risk. Trust me, I won't get myself arrested and sent to some stinky prison filled with madmen."

"I wish you did.", Adrian said under his breath.

"Hey! I heard that.", I whined and he smirked cockily.

What an ass!

I rolled my eyes and said, "This is important."

He nodded and got up from his bed, at the edge of which he had been sitting on and I passed him my laptop. As he started reading the paper trail that I had found, I began pacing across the room.

It was about the same size of Casey's and Charlotte's room, I guess. I took in the details of the room like the New York skyline wallpaper behind the headboard of the bed with dark blue and black bedsheets, matching the colour scheme of the room. On the left hand side was a textured brick wall with shelves filled with trophies, medals and photo frames.

In front of me was a wall clock, a big TV screen and below it, a cabinet filled with magazines, newspapers and a few books. There were doors, on each side of it, one leading to the bathroom and closet and the other out of the room.

On the right hand side of the room was a two-seater sofa and a small side table. Behind it were large curtains covering the entire wall. I tugged on them but they didn't seem to budge.

Adrian said, "It won't open like that."

"Why?", I knit my eyebrows together.

Adrian sighed with disapproval and then picked up a remote from the side table that I hadn't seen. He pressed a button on it and with click, the curtains started rolling up. Oh!

Once the curtains were no longer in front of the window, I looked outside and gasped.

Wow!

The New York skyline, now just silhouettes of buildings with light brimming through the windows were visible from outside and blended completely with the wallpaper inside.

"Beautiful, isn't it?", Adrian said, beaming with pride as if he owned the skyline.

I just nodded and kept staring outside the glass window. Yesterday, I had stayed over at a hotel. It was too late and I was too tired to drive and I didn't want to damage the Lamborghini in my half-sleep-drive mode. When I had returned back in the afternoon today, Dad had found me and had started lecturing me about how immature I was.

I sighed and looked up at the sky. It was cloudy, very cloudy. We could expect snowfall by tomorrow morning. Temperature outside was dipping but, here in the warmth of the central heater, I could easily roam around the house with a thin sweater. I pressed my forehead to the cold glass window but then...

"NATE IS A CHEAT!!!", Adrian shouted as he literally slammed the flap of my laptop shut. I ran towards my poor laptop and craddled it in my arms as if that would protect it.

"Adrian, careful! This is my laptop not Nate's!!", I screamed.

He took a deep breath, trying to cool off his anger. "I can't believe it. Did you tell your dad?"

I shook my head in a negative. Adrian had just found the documents that Nate had carefully hidden on his laptop. Today, when he went to the office and used the WiFi, Stephen's spyware copied all of his computer's data.

"So...do you know why our company suddenly suffered such a loss and everyone believed it was the company's failure without blinking an eye?", I asked with dry humour.

"Your brother is in serious trouble. Your company's stock market losses, this partnership, it's all because of him? I just...he's been fooling everyone! How the hell did I not realise this before?", Adrian said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

Nate often resorted to tricks and cheating though even I hadn't expected this. If only I had looked into the company files earlier like I had planned on the day of the share distribution meeting.

Nate had been hiding the company's money, showing the transactions in the form of trainings and services instead of money, as they were difficult to register. So, about fifty percent of the revenue collected from the projects never even reached the company. I was damn sure that if someone raided his house, they would find stacks of cash buried inside.

"We were lucky that he hadn't deleted his account details or else it would have been harder to track the suspects. He is the golden child after all.", I rolled my eyes and sat on the sofa next to Adrian.

"We should make this public. That little bastard deserves to go to prison.",Adrian said through clenched teeth, his voice seething with anger.

"Wow! Aren't we being very rational here?", I turned towards him and cocked an eyebrow, "You know what, you sit right here, I'll be back in a minute."

"Er...Vanes..."

"Just one minute", I said and then headed towards the door. I went down to the kitchen and returned with a glass filled with cold water.

"Drink!", I pushed the glass towards him. Cold water always helped me cool down, I hoped it would help him too. He reluctantly took it and downed the water in one go.

I then took my seat and giggled, "You should always look before you leap. That water might just have been poisoned."

He half-smiled, "Don't worry. Right now, even my ghost would kill Nate first."

"You are way more angry than I thought you would be."

"Why aren't you?"

I smiled slyly,"Because...Nate's mistake is my golden ticket to the position of CEO. Without this, after the wine incident, my chances were in dire straits. And there is a saying, a wise man learns from his mistakes. A wise business man also capitalises on others mistakes."

"Who said that?"

"You don't know?", I asked in surprise. He nodded his head in denial so I frowned, "It was your dad."

"Oh!", He forced a smile, "well, we just have to make the news of Nate's fraud, public and then we are good to go."

"Nope. If it were that easy, I wouldn't come to you for assistance."

"What do you want us to do?", Adrian asked.

"Well...We do have to prevent Nate from getting the position and for that we need to get the favour of other board members towards my side. How? I don't know but this is the plan."

"Why not just out him. Nate would go to jail, my investment in your company would not be at risk anymore and you, you'd get the CEO position you want. This plan is crystal clear.", Adrian said, failing to mask his irritation.

I thought of a good argument and said,"No! Adrian, I remember dad telling me that he gave Nate the responsibility to look into the matter when our stocks began to drop, that was the only reason Nate was able to conceal this ongoing fraud for so long but dad trusts him and, if he comes to know about this, he...", I paused as my voice faltered. I wasn't very comfortable discussing my feelings towards my family.

"He would be devastated?", Adrian suggested.

I sighed. Out of all three children, Nate had always been dad's favourite and it would be a lie if I said that I wasn't jealous. I was a late entrance in the Hudson family and given that I lived with my mom for twelve years and got her undivided attention, it was difficult to accept that sudden change, sudden lack of importance. Kate did try her best to make me feel at home, I can't deny her credit for that but somehow, all along I always knew I would never belong there. This feeling was set in cement now, especially after the way everyone turned their backs on me, three years ago.

"Vanessa? You there?", Adrian shook me out of my daze.

"Huh? What?"

"Earth to Vanessa! How can you just...Zone out in the middle of a conversation?", Adrian frowned.

"Sorry. My family...it's a touchy topic.", I said, blinking away the tears that had started forming in my eyes. I then cleared my throat and voiced my opinion, "Anyways, I am sure that we aren't going to be doing what you said. I mean, Dad will be devastated and I don't want Nate to be in jail when Olivia is soon to deliver their baby. But, most importantly, we have already faced a huge loss. This revelation will shake the foundations of the company, the employees would loose faith in our family and Dad might even go looking for a third option for choosing his heir."

Adrian processed this information for a minute, probably weighing my suggestion and then smiled, "Hmm...I'm impressed. Now, you are thinking like a CEO."

Wow! Did he just say that? I felt heat rush up to my face and hopelessly tried to conceal how wide my grin was as I thanked him.

Adrian just laid back in the sofa, resting his head against the window and smirked as he caught onto my expression.

"I have one last question for you.", He said while turning towards me.

"Fire away.", I said expectantly.

"Ok. Why did you come to me, of all people, for help?"

"Well there was never another option, really. I mean, you wouldn't invest in a company whose possible CEO was a fraud, so you ought to help me and plus, you have good connects and resources."

He nodded in agreement. Then, he got up, clasped his hands together and said, "I believe it is a truce then."

"I believe so too.", I chuckled as I got up and shook hands with him.

After a few minutes, I left to go retire to my own room because if I was not wrong, it was already two o'clock at night.

What I had told Adrian earlier as the reason why I came to ask him for help was only partially true. I asked for his help mostly because I had this feeling that with him involved, things were going to go well. I don't know why but after that party, I felt that ,even though he had been such a jerk, I could trust him, atleast when it came to business.