Chapter 74: Flowers for Mrs. Lockhart

Zarah entered the classroom silently and sat at the back. Their professor was discussing and his back was facing the whiteboard.

Zarah's ears were listening to the discussion while her hands and eyes were on her phone hidden behind her open book.

She was busy hacking the school system to find out who posted that malicious article online.

Her eyes flickered with a deathly glare when she traced the IP address of the owner of the post.

It was posted in an internet cafe not far from their campus.

She hacked into the security system of that internet cafe and she found Dani Chong, Crystal's newest minion. She was a freshman.

Crystal sure did know how to use other people for her dirty deeds. She felt pity for Dani. Should something happen, she would be forced to take the fall for Crystal.

She decided to hack into Dani's phone to gather conversations that would link Crystal and Dani in this.

She would not believe that Dani would do this on her own. She was a freshman and had not known Zarah for a long time.

She must have resentment toward Zarah to post something malicious online.

Her gaze darkened when she saw that there was a group chat.

After taking control of Dani's phone, she took a screenshot of every conversation that was important to her case.

While she was at it, she noticed someone was also hacking Dani's phone.

She did not stop the person and let him or her do what he wanted to do with Dani's phone.

After ten minutes, she had everything she needed and a dangerous smile flashed on her face.

She had also hacked the website and taken the post down. Such an article should not exist in the first place.

She didn't want this news to reach Xavier because she didn't want him to worry over this trivial matter.

After an hour and a half, the class was dismissed.

Crystal and her minions were happily talking in their seats as they prepared to leave for their next class.

Zarah on the other hand was going for lunch with Hope since it was already eleven thirty in the morning.

She was ready to leave when Crystal and her group decided to block her way.

"Move." Zarah coldly said but they did not budge.

"Don't think that because you have a real sugar daddy, we will be afraid of you." Crystal sneered and then continued, "I wonder how you hooked up with Mr. Joseph Lockhart when he's from Country A."

Sure enough, what she said caught Zarah's attention.

"So you know who he is yet you dared to involve him in this. Aren't you afraid that the Lockhart family might sue you?" Zarah told her indifferently.

"What are you talking about?", Crystal feigned innocence.

"Are you going to deny it now?", Zarah asked back.

"He's a popular figure in Sterlington City. Who would not recognize him?", Crystal reasoned.

"Crystal, Country A in particular is notorious for censoring every piece of information of their important figures on the internet. They censored almost everything so outsiders like us had little knowledge about them unless we were the few chosen ones."

Even she was shocked to know that such a country did exist. She could only find a little information about the Lockhart Family aside from their names and not updated photos online.

Other than those who personally met them or got acquainted with them could recognize the Lockhart family.

Almost every business elite in Sterlington could recognize both Joseph and Dylan as they often engaged with them during business events and gatherings.

Dylan in particular openly showed himself in public gatherings to represent the Lockhart Family and Lockhart Empire Group or LEG.

And so she was sure that there was no way Crystal could recognize Joseph Lockhart immediately. She would believe if she could recognize Dylan but not Joseph Lockhart.

Unless someone she knew saw the original photo and recognized Joseph right away.

"And besides, how did you know that it was Joseph Lockhart when the photo posted on the forum contained his blurred face? Unless--"

"Unless what?" Crystal interrupted her right away.

"Unless you've taken the photo yourself and asked someone to publish the article on your behalf."

Crystal wanted to refute yet she was tongue-tied.

She had no idea how Zarah was able to know this when her father had just told her about this last night.

Her father did tell her to be careful as the people from the Lockhart were dangerous.

He even told her to delete the photo immediately and warned her to not publish it online.

He listened to his advice and decided to blur his face and then gave a copy to Dani to post it very early in the morning in the forum.

"Crystal, are we in trouble?", one of her minions asked Crystal and Zarah smirked in response.

She didn't say anything but forced her way by pushing them to the side so she could leave the room.

Zarah then saw an incoming call from Olivia.

"Zaza, I saw the article posted at your University Forum. What the hell is going on?" Olivia's worried voice sounded from the other line.

"It's alright. I have already got it taken care of."

"Are you sure?" Olivia probed.

"Yes. I know who is behind that malicious article about me. I'll be collecting debts soon," Zarah said dangerously which meant she had enough.

Olivia chuckled and a glint of malicious intent flashed in her eyes.

"I want to help," she seriously said and Zarah considered it.

"I want to scare the Gil Corporation a little."

"Oh, then I better start digging up their dirty laundries and expose them."

Zarah thought that she could do it alone. However, since her best friend offered help, she would not decline it.

She also had other things to do.

"Thank you, Liv."

"Silly. It's a pleasure to take orders from you. It's been a while since we have done this, Commander."

"Don't call me that. I'm no longer your Commander," Zarah said as that word would always remind her of the dark past they shared.

"You'll always be our Commander Zaza. Trixie and I will forever be grateful to you."

"Aren't we best friends?" Zarah raised her brows while waiting for her response.

"We are," Olivia beamed with pride from the other line.

"Anyways, it's been a long time since you used your account in the Anonymous Legion portal. Don't you want to say hello to our members? We've reached a thousand members across the world," Olivia told her.

"A thousand?"

"Yes. We've reached the membership limit a week ago. Don't worry, I have stopped the recruitment of new members."

"Good."

"How are the missions going? Did the new members adapt to our system well?"

"You don't have to worry. Our system is easy to follow. We have plenty of hacking and freelance IT jobs in every region and so our members will not starve."

Zarah heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Liv."

"You don't have to say that. You're the idol that everyone in the group looked up to. That includes me, too."

"Liv, I'm not a God or a saint to be looked up to."

"We know. But you've done so much and you're worthy of everyone's admiration."

"Anyways, I have to go now. I'll be eating lunch with Hope," Zarah changed the topic as she didn't want to dwell in that direction.

"Are you still trying to punish yourself for that incident three years ago, Zaza? You know it's not your fault."

"Is it not? Because I was not careful, it happened."

A mission was posted in their portal. The mission was from the military of their country.

She had been working with the military using her known alias as she didn't want to be branded as an enemy of every country.

The mission was to aid their soldiers in the war.

Country Z deployed troops to another country to help that country fight the terrorists.

She accepted the job as she thought she was battling the terrorist and helping that country to regain freedom. Also, the job was done remotely. She didn't have to be there to help.

She was to hack the security system of the enemy's base so the soldiers could infiltrate easily since the terrorist had a strong hacker on their side.

The mission was a success at first. Twenty soldiers were able to infiltrate the base not knowing it was a trap set by the enemy.

As soon as they were in, there was a triggering mechanism installed and it exploded.

Zarah could not fathom where she made a mistake.

Nobody blamed her as it was an accident.

They did not expect that the enemies would use an old technology that triggered the bomb timer and it exploded before they even knew that there was a bomb inside and it was a trap.

The enemies even counter-hacked their system and were able to manipulate their ballistic missiles and launched it.

It hit a public school and a hundred students died on the spot and a thousand were injured.

She managed to stop the other missiles from launching and even managed to locate the hacker's location.

They managed to capture the terrorists but that hacker was still at large until now.

This would always be a sore spot in her heart and as a hacker.

She was young back then and so she was bound to make a mistake. However, that mistake cost many lives.

Because of that incident, she took a break from being a hacker.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I gotta go."

"Okay."

Zarah was in a foul mood after that call.

Hope saw her walking down the hallway and so the former thought that Zarah was upset because of that article.

"The article's been taken down. However, the students' opinions are unfavorable. I've heard they wanted to file a petition to expel you from school," Hope said.

"Hope, don't worry. They can't expel me from this school. Let's go, I'm starving."

"Are we going to the cafeteria?" Hope asked worriedly.

"Nope. Let's go somewhere else."

If this was in the past, she would just go to the cafeteria as if nothing happened.

But now, it was different. Hope was with her.

"Okay."

They then headed to the exit as Zarah planned to eat at the restaurant outside the campus.

They were walking when two delivery guys approached her with two bouquets.

"Are you Miss Jansen?", the delivery asked Zarah with curiosity.

The receiver was Miss Jansen yet the note written was for Mrs. Lockhart.

"Yes, that's me," Zarah responded and was curious to know who sent the flowers.

The last time she received flowers was from Josh.

"Here's a delivery for Mrs. Lockhart from Mr. Lockhart."

Upon hearing the name of the sender, Zarah smiled and her mood became better.

"Alright."

"Please sign here."

Zarah grabbed the pen and wrote "Mrs. Lockhart" as the receiver.

"I haven't changed my name yet. We got married yesterday," she explained softly which was enough for the delivery man to hear.

"Congratulations on your wedding, Mrs. Lockhart!"

Zarah immediately hushed them as if she didn't want the students to know.

"Oh my God! Don't tell me she's married to that old man?!"

Sure enough, someone misinterpreted it immediately.

She would not be surprised if an article about this would be published tomorrow morning.

Hope giggled and then sighed in helplessness.

"If only brother-in-law would come to help you dispel the rumors," she helplessly said as she predicted that this might not be the case.

Zarah then received the flowers and she smelled them.

Warmth wrapped around her heart.

She grabbed her phone and like on cue, it rang.

"Why did you send me flowers?", she asked him.

"Don't you like them?"

"I'm not much into flowers but more into food. I'd rather have chocolate."

"Okay. I'll remember that. I just want to cheer you up at the same time say sorry. I felt guilty after Julie texted me that you were limping."

Zarah's face turned red after she heard it.

"Whose fault is it?"

"Mine. That's why I'm apologizing to you," he sincerely said.

"And I heard that you're in trouble," Xavier said while reading the email which Jackson had sent to him.

Zarah hummed in response and said, "News does fly fast. Don't worry, I can manage."

"Okay. Well, shall I expect a good show?" Xavier tried to tease his wife.

"You could say so. You'll be in the front seat."

"Oh! I love that! Anyways, I'm about to fly now. I have to go. I love you, mon amour."

"I love you too, Husband. Take care," she softly said before ending the call.

She then looked at Hope who was holding the flowers and said, "Let's go. My treat."

Xavier's call and the flowers he sent made Zarah's mood to be better.

***