Chapter 3

3 Henry was doing it while I was in the kitchen boiling noodles.

He sat on the living room floor with a second-hand laptop on his lap.

I had bought it in a college town, and he had disassembled and rebuilt it three times.

The screen was filled with lines of code that I couldn't even begin to understand.

“Mom, look at this,” he said.

I walked over. The screen showed a Wikipedia page for a man named Dominic Sterling.

CEO of Sterling Group. The youngest billionaire on the Forbes list in Chicago.

Henry expressionlessly pressed a key, and Dominic’s profile picture turned into a giant pig’s head.

“Henry!” I gasped.

“I’m not done yet, Mom.”

He pressed another key. The Sterling Group’s official homepage turned into an open letter.

The headline read: “CEO Dominic Sterling had an improper relationship with co-founder Seraphina Vance and refuses to pay child support.”

The spatula in my hand hit the stove with a clang.

“How did you―”

“This is his company server,” Henry pointed to an IP address, his face eerily calm.

At six years old, he had the expression of a cold-blooded adult.

“The firewall was weak. It only took me forty minutes.”

“Why would you do this?” I asked, trembling.

“Because he wronged you.” Henry looked up.

He looked more and more like Dominic every day―a face I hadn't seen in six years, yet saw every morning.

“Mom, you never mention Dad. But I looked him up.”

“I scrolled through your social media from six years ago. Every March 11th, you’d post a dark photo.”

“March 11th is the date of the Sterling Group’s annual gala.”

I leaned against the counter for support. “How did you get my password?”

Henry looked down, sounding a bit guilty. “Mom, your password for everything is our birthdays plus yours. I got it on the first try.”

I knelt down to his level. His glasses were thick―his prescription had gotten worse.

The doctor said if he kept staring at screens, he’d need new ones every year.

“Henry.”

“Yeah?”

“Your father isn't a bad man. He just...”

“He just didn't want you,” Henry finished for me.

His voice carried no emotion, as if he were stating a mathematical theorem.

“And him not wanting you is his loss.”

He closed the laptop and stood up. He placed his small hands on my knees.

“Mom, I’m not changing it back. Let his people see who their boss really is.”

“Henry, listen to me.”

“I have boundaries,” he said, wiping his glasses.

“I only messed with the website. I didn't touch his finances, emails, or contracts.”

“I’ll make him lose face, but not money. Because you said we shouldn't break the law.”

I looked at this child. He hacked a multi-billion dollar company in forty minutes and then told me about the law.

I picked him up and hugged him tightly. “Thank you, baby.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” he patted my back. “I’m just the opening act. My brother and sister are up next.”

“What?”

He buried his face in my neck. His voice was muffled.

“Mom... the security feeds in Dad’s office right now? Hunter probably turned them into National Geographic.”