The Double or more Life of the Fake Heiress (Mirabella)

Curtis knew Mirabella was a whiz when it came to medicine, so her noticing his condition didn't surprise him. He cleared his throat before replying, "Just got into a bit of a scrap."

Mirabella just raised an eyebrow at that.

Feeling a bit uneasy under her gaze, Curtis quickly looked away and changed the topic, "Where's James?"

Mirabella nodded towards the kitchen, "Doing the dishes."

The mention of dishes made Curtis wince slightly. He glanced towards the kitchen and sure enough, saw James's figure hunched over the sink. He quickly looked away again.

Well, he thought, just another day.

"Oh, Ms. Mirabella, could you help me check a security setting?" Curtis asked, turning back to her, his tone cautious.

Mirabella, having some free time, nodded.

Curtis's face lit up with a smile, "I'll go grab my laptop." He rushed outside to his car and fetched it.

When he got back, he booted up his laptop, navigated to a link—the backend monitoring software for the Shepherd family's businesses in Riverdale—and handed it to Mirabella, "Here it is."

Mirabella glanced at the screen and immediately asked, "The monitoring system's security settings?"

"Yep, that's the one." Curtis was impressed. She hadn't even started and had already zeroed in on the issue.noveldrama

Curtis, known for his computer geekiness, sat down next to Mirabella. After a brief pause, he added, "I feel like there's something off with this firewall, but I can't put my finger on it."

"Let me take a look," Mirabella said, her fingers dancing lightly over the touchpad. But just as she accessed the first layer of the firewall, she twitched.

Curtis, focused on the screen, didn't notice Mirabella's reaction and e continued, "The system was hacked before, and after I found out, I fixed the program and added two more layers of firewall."

Mirabella coughed lightly, thinking that the two extra layers were pretty much useless since there was a hidden Trojan horse he hadn't spotted.

"No worries, you did a decent repair job. Most people wouldn't be able to get through," Mirabella said calmly.

Curtis scratched his head, feeling like the compliment didn't quite land.

But he didn't dwell on it and kept his eyes glued to the laptop, hoping to pick up some tricks from the master.

l.ne

Mirabella dove into the firewall settings, her fingers tapping out shortcut commands. Suddenly, the screen went dark, and a black dialogue box popped up. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, and lines of code appeared in the box.

Before Curtis could make sense of the code, the black box disappeared.

Soon after, Mirabella handed the laptop back to Curtis, "I've fixed some minor vulnerabilities in the firewall for you. Everything else looks good."

Taking back the laptop, Curtis noticed that the previous uneasy feeling about the firewall was gone, and there was an additional super defense mode.

This defense mode seemed familiar.

Curtis frowned, trying to remember where he'd seen it before.

At that moment, James walked out of the kitchen. He approached Mirabella and Curtis, narrowing his eyes.

Still lost in thought, Curtis didn't notice James's gaze until he heard soft cough. Looking up to meet James's deep, dark eyes, Curtis suddenly tensed and stood up with his laptop, "Uh, James."