Chapter: 1827

Next, Alberto unmasked, revealing the scars etched on his face, staring at her with deep-set eyes.

Following that, Victor gripped her neck, teeth clenched. “How dare you, Rachel?"

The dreams wove a tapestry so vivid that reality blurred into the surreal.

Abruptly, she jolted awake, eyes wide, staring into the ceiling. Her vision struggled to shake off the lingering haze. Fatigue had led her into the arms of sleep without even letting her dim the room lights.

Glancing at her phone, Rachel discovered it was already two in the morning.

Though she'd barely slept for four hours, the dreams had aged her soul by what felt like eons. The past four years paraded through her thoughts-people met, experiences Lived.

Slowly, Rachel sat up.

She dried her hair as she emerged from the restroom thirty minutes later. Her soberness re-settled in.

After turning on the desktop computer on the table, she crossed her legs and took a seat. Quintin called her as soon as she put on the headphones. Observing the time on the computer screen, she figured that it should be in the afternoon at the Red Hackers right now.

"Mommy!" Instead of Quintin, Joey's voice came through the phone.

"Joe, why the call from Quintin's account?" Rachel questioned, eyebrows raised.

“Mommy, it's been days since you rang me up," Joey complained. "Uncle Quintin's been alone typing for nearly two days. He just hit the hay, saying he's finally cracked it. I don't know what he's up to, but I figured he's helping Mommy, right? I didn't want to disturb you, but I miss you loads, so I used his account to try and reach you."

Amusement danced in Rachel's eyes. “Honey, you can call anytime.

Mommy's never bothered."

“Mommy, I miss you so much."

"I miss you too."

Joey wished he could leap into his mother's arms and get enveloped in her familiar scent.

“Mommy, when are you coming back?"

“Soon, I promise!" Rachel replied, clicking on Quintin's file named “Gibson Group Medical Project." Skimming through the intricate data and Lines of code, she said, "Can you hang on a bit longer, sweetie?"

Joey wanted to say that he didn't want to wait any longer to be reunited with his mother, but at the same time, he knew that she needed to do something important first before she could come back to him. He was a kid, but he always understood his mother.

“Then I'll wait for you, Mommy."

“Okay, Rachel told Joey before hanging up the call. She started reading the documents Quinn sent her.

Rachel copied hundreds of megabytes of data from the project team's computer through the virus. In truth, only a few documents were put into the USB drive that she gave to Odin today. She deftly changed some of the important data on it.

But she also knew that Odin didn't completely trust her and would ask someone to analyze the data.