***

A four-year-old girl was hiding behind a giant oak tree in the backyard of a huge villa.

She giggled to herself when she heard a deep voice call out for her, "Cupcake? Sunshine? Soldier? Where are you? Come to me."

She put a hand over her mouth to conceal the laughter bubbling up in her throat.

"All my kids left me, what am I gonna do now? I can't find them," the man sighed, knowing very well all the three kids can hear him.

The girl felt bad for the man and came out of her hideout just as a blue-eyed boy and a brunette with her front teeth missing stepped out from their hideouts.

The man's back was turned towards the kids as he sat hunched over on the grass. Laughter filled the air as the three kids tackled the man in a hug which caused them all to lay flat on the grass.

The girl giggled uncontrollably as the man placed a kiss on each of their foreheads. "Aw, my babies. Don't leave me alone like that," he smiled at them.

"But that was the game, pops," the older girl giggled.

"I know, but I want my little bundles of joy to be around me, Sunshine."

"Aw, don't be sad pops," the little girl frowned.

The man just smiled at them and replied, "I won't be sad if you stay with me, Cupcake."

The boy decided to join the conversation, "We love you, pops. We won't leave you."

The man had a big grin on his face as all three cute children gathered him in a warm and loving hug.

"I love you too, kids. And I'll do anything to protect you," he whispered.

***

I opened my eyes and sat up. What was that? Who was that man? Who were those kids? I frowned when I realised I didn't have any answers to my questions. It did not seem as if it were a dream, it felt so real. I don't remember much from my childhood, but it did seem like it definitely happened. Why would I dream of something like that if it didn't happen?

A knock interrupted my thoughts and the door opened to a fresh and presentably dressed Valentina.

"Rise and shine! We have a meeting to attend in 30 minutes. Go get ready," she shooed me away.

I just left my thoughts to be and made my way to the washroom to carry out my daily routine.

After getting ready, Christopher dropped into the room to take me to the conference room with him.

He smirked when he saw me in a shirt saying 'Boy Bye' and I just rolled my eyes at him. As we walked through the dark halls, I kept wondering about the dream I had.

I still had no idea why did I dream something like that. I never had a dream like that before, never had I dreamed something so real. As I was deep in thought I didn't hear Christopher calling my name so, when he waved a hand in front of my face I snapped out of my daydream.

"What's up with you? You seem a little off," he furrowed his eyebrows.

I just shook my head but he wasn't having it, "Tell me, Ash."

"Its just a dream I had," I told him.

"What about?" he asked.

"I don't really know. It was extremely real, like a vision but I can't seem to remember it happening," I muttered.

"Like a memory trying to resurface?" he guessed and I nodded my head.

"I can't really help you with it but, if you have one of those dreams again tell me and we'll dig some information, okay?" he assured.

I just nodded hoping it was a one-time thing and pushed it to the back of my mind. As we stepped into the room I smiled at Alex and Valentina and glared at the Jacksons after.

I sat in my seat with Christopher on my right and Alex on my left with Valentina on his other side. On the other side of the table sat the absolutely uninterested family.

"What are we here to discuss?" I spoke up after the 2-minute glaring contest they had against us.

"The annoying boy you drugged and brought here," Anna replied while checking her manicured nails.

The door then opened to a panicked Aaron and two guards dragging him inside. They dropped him in a chair and left, closing the door behind them.

Aaron's eyes wandered to all of our faces and once he saw me he did a double take and then furrowed his brows.

I stood up from my seat, walked up to him and crouched in front of him. He eyed me with caution and I sighed, "Don't worry, we are not here to hurt you."

"How do I know I can trust you?" he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Well, firstly if we wanted to kill you we would've done it by now. Secondly, we could've tied you up and kept you as a prisoner. And thirdly, we even got you checked out by a doctor to see if you're okay," Christopher butted in, glaring at him.

I rolled my eyes at his behaviour and turned around to signal him to keep quiet. I then turned back to Aaron and looked at him being deep in thought.

"Is it money you want? You can take as much as you want but please, let me go," he pleaded.

"We don't want money, we have enough of it already," Lucas smirked at him and I sighed in annoyance.

"Then what do you want?" he asked.

"Information," I shrugged.

He just gave me a weird look, "Information about what?"

"Damien Gray," I replied.

"Well, if you want information about him why don't you ask his son instead of kidnapping me?" he scoffed.

"He does not know anything about the mafia and company being led by Damien. And by the way, we haven't kidnapped you, we saved you," I told him.

"Oh yeah, sure. Saved me from what?Assassins?" he sarcastically asked.

"Yeah, from assassins."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"The threats you received weren't empty threats. I know because I was the one who fought those assassins," I calmly replied.

"Okay."

"Okay, what?" I squinted my eyes at him.

"I'll tell you all I know if you keep me safe," he announced.

As I turned to the others with raised eyebrows, everybody looked at each other's faces and I just rolled my eyes at them.

"Deal," I concluded.

He smiled and shook my hand to conceal the agreement made.

"Now can you start telling us what it is you know, I have a hookup to attend," Lucas hissed.

"You are seriously a human equivalent to HIV. Disgusting," I scrunched my nose as Alex chuckled.

"I swear, every time you open your mouth, my lifespan decreases by 6 months," he rolled his eyes at me.

"If that were true, I'd never stop talking," I glared at him as he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Gosh, do you ever shut up?" he groaned.

All the while Valentina, Christopher and Alex chuckled in amusement at our banter.

"There are some remarkably dumb people on this planet. Thank you for making me understand that," I smirked as he turned red from anger. Layla and Carl stared at me with open mouths and Anna was uninterested, as always.

I felt content with my comment and got up from my crouched position and expectantly looked at Aaron.

Aaron sighed, "Damien was going to take 50 million from me." My mouth hung open in shock.

"What!?" Christopher snapped at him.

"Why would you give him this money? Do you know what he wants to do with it!?" Alex sent daggers his way.

"I didn't give him the money so he changed his plans and I know what he wants the money for, bombing and terrorism."

"Then you aren't doing anything?" I frowned.

"He needed a place with high-security systems to keep all his data and information safe, that's what I am helping him with," he hung his head low in shame.

"Why are you helping him?" I asked incredulously.

"I am not helping him by choice, I have to do it," Aaron gritted out.

"What does that mean?" I asked him while holding back Christopher to prevent him from punching Aaron.

"He kidnapped my sister," he mumbled.

I almost didn't hear him but when I did, I was horrified. How low can a person stoop down to just in order get richer than he is?

Christopher shocked us all by putting a hand on Aaron's shoulder, "We'll find her and we'll get her back to you, don't worry."

Aaron grimly smiled when Mr Jackson decided to ruin the moment. "Who is helping that kid? I know I'm not," he announced.

"We had a deal," Alex glared at him.

"Yes, and that deal did not include saving some stupid sister and protecting a useless brother," Lucas rolled his eyes.

"Are you always this stupid or do you only show off when I am around?" I sarcastically asked him.

"Okay! Enough!" Valentina yelled.

We all turned our heads to stare at her as if she was crazy. "Listen to me," she demanded.

"We are going to save his sister, we going to protect him and we are even going to stop Damien Gray. End of discussion," she announced. All of us nodded and then looked at Aaron.

"I have all the information on the transactions, the bombing patterns and I even have a copy of all documents important to Damien Gray."

"Great, where is it?" Alex eagerly questioned.

"At Hathaway Corporations."

"Okay, then-," I was interrupted by Aaron claiming he wasn't completed.

"Since I am 'missing' as of now, they must have appointed a temporary person in charge of the duties carried out by the CEO. You can't just walk in there with me and get access to documents. You will have to somehow get the access key from the current in charge and only then you can use my desktop. You will have to find the only encrypted document on my desktop, break through firewalls so Damien isn't notified and then transfer it to your device. You can, however, decrypt it after," Aaron explained.

"Do you know how to hack?" I could feel everyone's eyes staring at me intensely.

"I do, but to a limit," I timidly answered.

"Can you crack encrypts and break through firewalls?" Aaron questioned me.

I nodded, "That I can definitely do."

"That's more than enough," Valentina assured everyone.

"Okay, so here's the plan, Ashley and I will be the ones to go inside the building and do the hacking and sneaking part. Lucas and Alex will be on the roofs for back up and Anna and Valentina will cause the distraction for us while we'll be getting the files. Clear?" Christopher was quick to devise a plan.

Seeing everybody nodding, he looked straight into my eyes and said, "You will not be the one stealing the access key from the in charge. I'll do that."

I smirked at his jealousy and then nodded. Let him do the work, I have computers to deal with anyway.

Finally, time to get to the end of this nuisance.