Chapter 19: Four Digits

"The guy you were seeing was my brother?!" I couldn't believe it. It didn't make sense.

"Pooksie, I can explain--"

Jace backed away from her. "It's--"

"No." My voice echoed through the room. They were both staring at me.

"This is so wrong. How did this even-- How long has this been--" My words tumble out of my mouth.

"Vee," Jace made his way towards me, like I was a frightened animal. I held my hand up to stop him.

"And you. She's my best friend, Jace." My voice shook in fury.

I threw his paper at him and left.

I could hear Hannah call out my name, but I ignored her.

That was why she didn't want to tell me who she was seeing. She knew I would react this way if I knew she was messing around with my brother.

Hannah had somehow caught up with me in the stairway.

"Venus, wait." She heaved and grabbed my arm, swinging me around.

"Let me go, Hannah. I don't want to talk to you right now," I barked into her face, and ripped my arm from her manicured hand.

"I don't get why you're this upset! What's the problem with me seeing your brother--"

"What's the problem?" I was boiling over with so many emotions I didn't even know which ones I was reacting to. "The problem is the fact that you're not seeing him for the right reasons. You're using him as a rebound because you can't be with Luke."

Hannah was hurt by my words, but she didn't say anything. I could only see her cracked heart through her eyes.

"All this time you've been fooling around with one man after the other - each time hurting yourself in the process," I gripped the stair railing to steady myself, "and that was all I ever focussed on. I didn't like how you were hurting yourself, but I gave up trying to convince you to stop because you wouldn't listen.

However, I recently became more aware that the other party can get just as hurt by what you're doing."

Damian's sorrowful face flashed before me.

"I can't let you bleed on my brother too," I said to her feet.

I left before Hannah could muster a response.

I didn't talk to Hannah or Jace again for the next day. Both tried to call me, but I didn't want to pick up. I didn't feel like talking to them.

I might have been a bit more accepting with them being together if they had only told me. I wasn't going to be completely fine with it, but at least I would have felt a little less betrayed. A little more important - worth sharing important life updates with.

I checked my watch. Five more minutes. Then the fire alarm will go off for the fire drill. Earlier, I have managed to get my mother's key card when I brought her some coffee and a decent lunch. The card was on her desk, barely sticking out under a stack of papers, and I slipped it into the sleave of my shirt when she wasn't looking.

A few more minutes and the building will be evacuated. I was waiting to hear the alarm and the footsteps of everyone moving out in an orderly manner.

I was in the small janitor's closet, near a blind spot where the cameras don't have a clear view. It's near the restroom on the floor of my mother's office, so if a camera caught me, it would look like I was heading for the restroom. As for the camera that will capture me enter my mother's office, I had a plan. I memorized the number of the camera, and will thus be able to delete the footage between the time I enter the office, and then shut it down so that it won't capture me leaving.

After I'm done finding what I needed to find on my mother's computer, I will put her key card under her desk, to make it look like it might have fallen and kicked underneath it.

I had exactly twenty minutes to enter my mother's office, get the information, and exit, before she and the other people working on this floor would be back.

The alarm went off and my chest vibrated with nerves.

I let five minutes pass, until I heard no one making their way outside anymore. I opened the closet a little bit and peaked to make sure there was no one.

The halls were deserted, so I hurried to my mother's office, and scanned the key card to open the door.

Just as it beeped with a green light, a pair of footsteps padded in my direction.

I fumbled with the doorknob, my gloved hands slipping against the metal.

Oh God, please don't let them have seen me already.

I finally got the door open, ran in, and closed it behind me.

"F*ck, it's probably not even a real fire!" One of the voices said as they run past.

"It doesn't matter, Steve! If Sergeant Marx doesn't see us we're screwed!"

Their footsteps echoed through the hallway until they were gone.

I let out a shaky breath in relief. They didn't see me.

I rushed to my mom's computer, only to stare at a screen asking for a four digit passcode.

Of course. Why wouldn't it be passcode protected?

If my hair wasn't tied back into a ponytail, I would have pulled it in frustration.

My mother wasn't stupid enough to write the passcode somewhere, and I didn't have time to search for a note. I had 10 minutes left.

I tried my William's birthday. Denied.

Jace's birthday. Denied.

My father's birthday. Denied.

My own birthday. Denied.

My hands were trembling.

"You have one attempt left," the screen read.

"Shit, shit, SHIT. What can it be?" I thought out loud.

My mother wouldn't use her own birthday, it's too obvious.

Four digits. Maybe it was another important date?

Four digits, come on Venus.

0603. That was Danté's office passcode. I didn't know why my mind thought it would work. But I couldn't think of anything else.

I typed: 0603.

Access granted.

I didn't know what to do with that information. Why was my mom's passcode the same as Danté's office?

I didn't have time to think about it. I deleted the camera footage showing me entering my mother's office, and deactivated the camera.

I plugged my untraceable USB (which I got from Damian) into the computer and scrolled through the computer's files.

Five minutes left.

Blood rushed in my ears.

I came across an encrypted file, named "0603", I frowned at the screen.

Was this what Danté meant when he said that I would know when I saw it? My gut screamed at me to copy the folder.

So I did.

Two minutes left.

The door beeped and opened. I bit back a startled scream.

"Vee, what the hell are you doing in here?!" William yelled by the door.

The copy finished and I ripped the USB from the the computer, and logged out. "I'll explain everything later."

I tossed the key card under the desk.

"Venus, what the hell are you up to?! Don't tell me you're actually going to investigate Parker?"

"William, I don't have time for this right now. Just trust me, okay? We have to leave now." I ran to the door, grabbed Will's arm and dragged him behind me.

"Venus, you could be killed--"

"Either way I'm gonna get killed, William! I just want to make sure that I at least try to set things right before then."

I dragged us down the stairs and outside in under five minutes.

"Where have you two been? If this was a real fire you'd be charred remains by now," Sergeant Marx said when he saw us.

"We were here the whole time," I said, offering him a grin, and trying to look like I didn't just run down five flights of stairs.

"Oh, damn. I guess I missed you, sorry." Sergeant Marx bought my lie without a blink of an eye.

William looked at me with a look that said "How could you lie to a superior like that?"

I shrugged in response and pulled him away from the rest of the personnel, who were making their way back into the building.

We stood near a tree that was probably five times my age.

"Venus Bellingham, what have you done? Do you realize how serious this situation is?" Will's eyes were burning with fear and worry.

I cleared my throat. "I am... busy with a mission... by myself... without orders."

"Well, that's f*cking obvious, Sherlock. What I want is to know exactly what is going on? What could you possibly want on mom's databases?" William looked like he wanted to shake the information out of me.

"I... can't tell you. It's too dangerous for you to know," I said, kicking a rock. His scrutinizing eyes are too intense to meet.

William put a hand on his forehead, his eyebrows almost reaching his hairline. "When you said you were going to be killed either way..."

"I meant it."

"Jesus Christ, Venus." William looked up into the cloudy sky. Then he closed his eyes and breathed in a long, deep breath.

William was going to make me stop what I was busy with, even if he didn't know the whole story. He wanted to protect me from all of the dangers in the world - dangers that he himself had to endure.

I wish I could have saved him from what he went through. I wish I could take away the trauma he was living through. I wish I could wake him from his nightmares.

"Sis, this is about more than Parker, isn't it?" William met my eyes with understanding, like he had seen the whole mess I had gotten myself into through my eyes - and understood. Like he would help me. It shocked me so badly I didn't know what to say.

"When you asked all those questions about The Inferno and Riot, and all the research you did on the mafia..." He didn't finish his sentence, but his eyes told me that he knew I was working for them.

"I had to do something," I almost-whispered. "I couldn't just sit by."

William's lips formed a goofy smile. "You're much braver than I ever was, little sis."

No, I'm not. I'm doing all these things, but nothing ever came from them.

I'm stuck working for the mafia and I will get killed when they're done with me. I filmed solid evidence against Lieutenant Parker, but my phone broke and the evidence is probably lost. I got into my mother's databases, but the information I got was encrypted and I didn't even know if it was the right folder.

"If you are... working for them, let me help you," William suddenly said.

I stared blankly at him. "Will, no. You could be killed. And if Father finds out..."

"I don't care." William's features expressed a determination that I have never seen in him before. "I would rather die fighting for what's right. I'd rather die protecting my sister than a filthy, scaly, lying police force run by our father."

"What do you--"

My cellphone vibrated in my pocket.

I pulled it out to see a message from Hannah: "Pooksie, I know you're mad at me, but I need you. Please come to the studio. It's urgent. Bring Danté and the boys too."

I glanced up at William. "Well, I think we can discuss your helping me at a later time. I need to go save a damsel in distress with the mafia."