Ferd don’t underestimate yourself

My head snapped in my dad's direction, he was finally going to tell me after all this time of me begging and pleading. I was shocked but nevertheless I decided to just let the man speak before he changed his mind or something.

So, I nodded like the good little son I am, and dad stood up with his laptop in hand and walked towards me.

"Alister Revere", he spat the name with such malice, "He an extremely dangerous person. We went to University together back in the day. At one point we were even friends. That was until I met his girlfriend, your mother".

My eyes widened and a strangled sound escaped my lips. I didn't know any of this before nor did I have a clue.

"What?", I voiced my thoughts, "my mom used to be with this Alister guy?".

Something akin to shame passed his face. I couldn't believe what my ears were telling me.

My dad was a player. He stole this dude's girlfriend?

"I did some things that I am not proud of back then. Janae and I started to see each other behind Alister's back. She was still his girlfriend while we had an illicit affair for months. I was stupid to think he wouldn't find out. When your mom got pregnant I still had two years of University remaining. Your grandfather already had my life planned out for me straight down to the woman that I would marry."

"I tried to convince her to leave Alister so we could be together, but she refused. I even offered to marry her not that my parents would've allowed that. Your mother was a stubborn woman, she told me she loved Alister, and he agreed that they would raise the baby together even though you were not his. I disagreed because I wanted to be a part of your life. Alister hated me and forgave your mom for our infidelity or so I thought. That spring break I was working on one of your grandpa's many oil rigs when Alister showed up there, but he wasn't alone, he brought his younger brother. There were only few people on site that day, I found out afterwards that they bribed the other workers beforehand because when they showed up no one else was around".

Dad paused before returning to his seat leaving me with the laptop where I sat. It had a lot of information on Alister. There were pictures of him, newspaper reports a police report and so many other things, but I wanted to focus on my dad first before going through all the evidence on the laptop.

He ran a hand through his hair as if preparing himself to tell me what happened next. Until he finally spoke.

"They both attacked me when I disagreed to forget about you. They practically beat the crap out of me until I got a chance to run. I was in the control center when it happened. They found me and some of the machinery was damaged. But that wasn't the worst part. There was an explosion on the oil rig because of a lever I accidentally pulled while trying to get away... Alister's brother died in the blast. Alister lost his left arm. But me, I only suffered a concussion from the throw of the blast.

"The police got involved but your grandfather took control of everything, and the incident ended up being ruled an accident", dad now placed his head in his hand, "I felt so guilty about what happened that I agreed to stay away from you and you mother from then on. I was wrong to ever agree to that".

"You obviously didn't keep that promise so what happened?", I asked wanting to know more, even though I doubt I could handle it.

"A few months after that Alister drove his car off the road with your mother inside, she was seven months pregnant with you. I found a letter he'd sent to me that day telling me that I took away the two people he cared about the most and now he was going to do the same to me. He promised me that as long as he was alive you would never be safe. It was already too late for me to do anything by then, your mother died on the way to the hospital the doctors had to do a C-section and barely managed to save you.

"I didn't have much power and I hadn't established a place in my father's company yet. So, I took you and I left England the very next day. You grandfather was furious that I was abandoning the company, but I couldn't have protected you against Alister at the time if I'd stayed. I moved to France with my aunt and finished school secretly. I guess eventually I got complacent and had forgotten about Alister over the years. After I married Adalind everything seemed perfect. Until two years ago. You were only fourteen, but I don't think you even realized or remember what happened the day I sent you away. I usually had your driver bring you home from school but that one evening I decided to take you to the office with me after school. The car you were supposed to be in exploded and the driver died. If I hadn't come for you that evening you could've died. I later learnt it was Alister.

"I might've been a bit complacent, but I was careful enough. There was no way he should've been able to get past all my security and to you that easily. It reminded me of that day, he had cornered me at the oil plant, if he had bribed anyone of my people then my entire security was compromised. It meant that I couldn't trust anyone. I panicked, especially when he called me anonymously that evening thinking he had killed you. I felt powerless, I barged into your room and started packing your bags right away. I couldn't keep you safe if I couldn't trust the people around me. So, I sent you away and I went back to England. I've been trying to eliminate the threat ever since. But when Alister's uncle died two years ago, and he inherited his company and has been becoming more powerful since then".

Dad then looked over at his best friend who was seated in one of the large couches and I noticed he had been quiet since he entered the room only listening but never saying anything.

"I was the one who helped your dad get you off the continent safely", Dad's friend finally spoke up, "three days ago Alister stole your file and he killed Rajaun thinking it was you. There is an encrypted part of your file that he hasn't gotten into yet".

"How do you know?", Mr. Dubois seemed to have expected my question.

"Because it can only be accessed from one of my data mining farms. It is virtually unhackable, your dad and I saw to that".

I was sort of confused though, "If it's unhackable then Alister can't get into it and if he thinks I'm dead then why did you make me come back here? Wouldn't it have been safer if I stayed in the States".

A small smile graced his face, but I was overloaded with too much information to reciprocate it, "That's a good question Julian. That unhackable part of your file has all the details about your life in the States, your addresses, schedule, everything. If he accesses that second half of your file then you'll be fully compromised and going back to America will be out of the question

Unfortunately, Alister knows the only way to access the full contents of the files is to get into the data mining plant and hack into the network. Which brings me to the reason why we risked bringing you here. You are going to go onto the network and create a virus that will hack into the file once he tries to open the file on the network and it will corrupt all the data he has. We've already deleted any and all other copies of your file so once we destroy the version he has it will all be gone".

I nodded as he explained since it seemed like a good enough plan with just one loophole, "Quick question though, if the file can't be hacked then how can I create a virus to hack that file once it's on the network?".

Mr. Dubois shared a smirk with my dad, "It's simple", he said, "you were the one who created the original software".