Page 4 of Royal Hacker

First, I tried to get out of Sam’s lap, so I could sit on a chair to be on more even ground to tell the story. He held more tightly and said I needed to stay put.This will be a long night.

3

Patty

“Patty or Jessica, talk,” Alex commanded. He sounded pissed, and I was uncertain if it was at Jessica or me. Alex had promoted Jessica to CFO of Ross Enterprise about six months ago. I could understand why he would be mad at us. We were both part of his and Bridget’s life, and we had decided not to share that we were sisters.

I’d been working for Bridget at White Hat Security for the last three years, and I liked it. They didn’t know who I was, about my past, or my real personality. I liked being around them because they made me feel like family. I worked hard to keep it that way.

“You two have so much to explain,” Bridget demanded. She was sitting with Alex on the black leather couch in Sam’s office.

“Okay, let me start by explaining Jessica is my fraternal twin sister.”

Everybody started talking at once, trying to ask questions.

“This story is complicated to communicate, so will you all shut up?” I yelled at the room. When the room quieted down, I started the story about how I ended up in Sam’s club. “So tonight, I might’ve hacked my brother-in-law’s iPhone to find out his location because I knew he was lying about where he was. My main goal tonight was to see what Doug was doing here. When I walked in and saw him with a woman, I lost it. Jessica is everything to me, and it hurt to see him doing this to her. I might have broken his nose and gotten him ejected from the club,” I said quickly, in one breath.

Before I could continue with the story, Jessica explained, “I had it under control. I wish you wouldn’t have gotten involved. You know, he might try to sue us for a few extra million to keep quiet about the fact that you punched him.”

“Okay, how could he sue you guys for a few million when you’re my receptionist? I’m sure Alex doesn’t pay you enough to have millions sitting at home,” Bridget said to Jessica and me.

“If you guys would let me finish my story, you would understand all this. Jessica, if he tells anybody anything, he’ll lose more with the prenuptial agreement you have. He was the one who told Sam about me, so he broke the nondisclosure agreement already. We can go after him—let’s work on one thing at a time.”

The room had quieted down while everyone waited for me to explain. Jessica and I had told no one about our personal life without making them sign a nondisclosure agreement. But because these were my friends, I couldn’t ask them to do that. Jessica and I needed to trust people, and if it backfired, we would just have to fix it.

“I will start from the beginning. My father came here thirty-five years ago and got our mom pregnant. They didn’t want to get married, and she didn’t want to move to Shialia. Dad and Mom agreed we could stay with Mom during the winter and visit my dad in the summer. In the summer, we learned about my father’s side of the family. I’m the oldest and should be the next in line for the crown. I chose a different route. I was able to graduate high school early and got my master’s in computer engineering from MIT. My dad still wanted me to run the country, so I got a master’s in business from Wharton. While getting my master’s in business, I designed cybersecurity systems. The system I designed you might know as Black Hat Security. Once my father knew my heart wasn’t in leading the country, he chose another one of my siblings. Jessica has also declined the crown. That is why one of my brothers is supposed to be next in line. Which also means our offspring are no longer in line for the throne. We have an agreement with Daddy: as long as we aren’t in danger and don’t do anything wrong, we don’t have to move.”

Everyone in the room remained quiet. Mouths opened, closed, opened, and closed.

“The only people who know are identities are immediate family, maids, and Doug. This is our first time letting any friends know our secret. I only work remotely for Black Hat Security and talk directly to the vice president.”

Bridget got her voice back and didn’t look happy. “Okay, one fucking second here. Let’s take a step back. I pay you jack shit to be my assistant, and you have a lot of degrees, including one from MIT. You own one of the top security companies any IT person would love a job at. Why the fuck are you working for me?”

Before I could answer Bridget’s question, CJ asked a question. “Furthermore, if you are that good, why the fuck did you get a virus and make me clean it off your computer the other day?”

Okay, that was funny.I wasn’t in the mood to work that day and had wanted to give him the challenge. I wanted to see how long it would take him to fix a new experiment I was working on.

I didn’t want to answer the question, but I needed to get the information out. “I was working on a new code and wanted to test it. You did great and helped me figure out what I needed to tweak. As for the other stuff, I wanted to work with people who didn’t know who I was. When people find out who I am, they treat me differently, and I wanted a mindless day job. As for what you pay me, I don’t keep it. The money goes to charity.”

Alex had been quiet during the whole conversation. I could see the wheels in his head turning. I knew my sister loved her job and didn’t want to lose it. “Jessica, you are my employee, and if you want to keep your job, detail is on your ass. We don’t know what your soon-to-be ex-husband might do. He is about to lose millions and his lifestyle. Asher is putting security on you for the foreseeable future. We have to be careful Doug doesn’t retaliate.”

“I think this spitfire also needs protection. Doug was mad when he left here,” Sam declared with way too much arrogance.

“Jessica, why don’t you take tomorrow off and work on getting divorced from your piece-of-shit husband?” Alex said. She looked stressed, and I knew she was mad at me more than anything.

I never liked being in arguments with my sister. It broke my heart when she was mad at me. “Jess, can we meet up tomorrow for lunch? I can go to Mr. Richardson’s office with you, if you want.” I was hoping she would let me come with.

“That’s fine. Let’s meet at the coffee shop on Third around noon. I will let Mr. Richardson know we will be at his office after lunch. This has been all so exhausting. I will see you tomorrow,” Jessica said while heading toward the door.

Asher rose and told CJ they still had a scene to do.

CJ turned and asked, “What coffee shop are you meeting at tomorrow? I want more information—you are so not off the hook.”

I ignored CJ’s question for a second. I didn’t want Bridget to fire me or lose them all as friends. “Bridget, please don’t fire me. I love working for you, and you guys are my only real friends. I didn’t want to bring this baggage in to work. I will let you know everything you want.”

“I will not fire you. I wish you felt you could have told us what was going on in your life or who you were. Damn, we could use your skills as a hacker instead of making you do stupid jobs. I’m going home. Take tomorrow off to help Jessica with the lawyer, but when you come back to work, you are no longer a receptionist. You will do computer work.”

I couldn’t turn her down.

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