Inside the airport's lobby, Jesse returned to his siblings after realizing the young man he saw pacing around in the room wasn't really familiar.
As soon as he did, the young man turned to yell at the short, chubby man who stood in front of him.
"Hey, why are you still keeping me here? Did you hear nothing I said just now? Let me go this instant or you will face the wrath of the Adler family!"
The fat man trembled visibly and clenched his jaw tightly. Despite the air conditioning in the room, big balls of sweat were rolling down his forehead every second and the blue color of his suit jacket had turned into a darker shade to show it was soaked in sweat.
He reached for the button holding together his suit jacket across his large stomach and unbuttoned it, but he barely felt the relieve of doing so.
Seeing him remain silent, the young man frowned and closed the distance between them with a tight frown.
"Are you ignoring me? Do you think you can ignore me right now?!"
The chubby man hurried shook his head and stuttered fearfully, "F-forgive me, Mr. Adler, but this airport is heavily supported by the Adler family. By Jett Adler to be specific."
"His word is law. So if he says to hold you and notify him once you get into the country, we have no choice, but to do so."
Daniel Adler bit down on his lower lip aggressively, unable to come up with anything to retort.
Since he couldn't think of anything to lash out at the man for, he suddenly turned to the other person standing behind him and hissed loudly.
This was the hotel attendant who reported him to the airport director.
"And you, why didn't you act like you didn't see me? You should've looked away when you recognized me, you darn idiot!" As he fumed, he began walking towards the hotel attendant.
He stopped in front of him and raised his foot to hit him when the glass door suddenly swung open.
He froze and swiftly turned to look at who walked in. He gulped down difficulty and absentmindedly brought down his leg when he saw the icy look in the man's eyes.
He dropped his leg on the floor and clasped his hands behind him, then forced on a smile. But the man, whose presence filled the room as soon as he walked in, continued advancing towards him.
With every step he took into the room, Daniel took a step backward.
Jett Adler stopped in the middle of the room and slipped his hands into his pockets, his eyes pinned on his younger brother.
Then he parted his lips to say, "You came back. I don't remember telling you you could come back."
Daniel blinked twice before looking away fright.
"Wh-what? What are you talking about, Jett? It's not like being back does anything to my studies."
"I recently realized that my school supports online learning. So I can learn from anywhere in the world."
"And it's not like I'd be here all the time. When it's time for exams and tests, I'd leave the country to take them. So you have nothing to worry about."
"Furthermore, I've learnt a lot after being banished to stay there for the past seven months. I'm more responsible now and I can take better care of myself."
Daniel Adler was sputtering like a tap without control. However, when he looked up and saw the same icy look on his brother's face as when he first came in, he flinched and continued fearfully.
"What is that look on your face? I didn't do anything wrong. Unlike before, I didn't take a detour to any country. I took a flight straight to Silicone Valley just to prove to you I'm now a changed man."
"If you don't believe me, why don't you have the airport pull up my flight record? It's not like i have anything to hide."
Jett still didn't retort. Instead, he began advancing towards Daniel again.
Daniel saw this and began stepping backward as well, but the more he stepped backward, the more Jett continued advancing towards him.
Finally, his back hit the wall, leaving him with nowhere to run to.
Seeing Jett continue to close the distance between them, he turned pale with fear and his knees buckled instantly, sending him tumbling to the floor.
He squeezed his eyes shut and drew his knees to his chest shakily.
The man who was causing fear within the airport manager and the hotel attendant just now was now the one experiencing it. This time, on a larger scale.
"Don't keep quiet. Say something. Tell me if I'm going to die already or if I'm going to live to see tomorrow!"
Jett stopped a few inches away from him and mummed, "Daniel Adler, do you know there's a missing poster all over the city of Zeen after you disappeared from their university?"
"Fine, kill me. I've lived longer than I thought I would. 25 years is a long time to roam the earth. It's only right that I've come to the end of my journey here on ea...wait, what?" Thinking Jett had condemned him, Daniel was almost sobbing before his words made sense to him.
He stopped fidgeting and hurriedly looked up at Jett in confusion.
"Missing person poster in Zeen? What are you talking about?"
Jett Adler's icy gaze intensified at his question, causing him to quickly bury his face in between his legs.
"Don't kill me. Please, don't kill me. I'll be on my best behavior. You can even take my cards if you want." Daniel kept mumbling as he continued fidgeting.
Jett stared down at him for several seconds before he turned and began walking out of the room again.
As they walked out of the room, Kelsie was getting into the elevator with her children.
When they got downstairs, there was a taxi waiting for them already. The family of four were taken to the middle of the city which bubbled the most and had most of the expensive hotels, malls and apartments.
They drove for over twenty minutes before they stopped in front of a fifty-storey apartment building.
She led her children to the top floor and got them settle in. She changed out of her clothes and walked to the living room.
The triplets had changed out of their clothes as well and were doing various things. When they saw her, the guilty ones hurriedly hid what they were doing.
Keira hid her phone behind her to hide the fact she was streaming her game online while Jesse, who was in the middle of hacking into somewhere, was sitting on his laptop.
Zade was the only one who held onto a beaker. When he saw her walk out of her room, he got up from the floor and strode to her.
She bent over to ruffle Zade's hair before kissing him on the forehead.
Then she straightened up and looked at them one after the other.
"Jesse, don't hack into anyone's computer for any reason. Zade, don't order in anything and don't prank your siblings. Keira, don't stay too long playing with your phone."
"I'll be gone for a few hours. If you need anything, use the telephone to call the people downstairs and tell them what you want."
"Don't open the door for anyone that doesn't show you their ID to confirm they work for this apartment building. What did I say you have to look out for?"
"The person at the door has to look like the person on the ID. If he has the things we asked for and if there isn't anything suspicious about him." Jesse answered promptly.
Kelsie turned her attention to Kiera, "And how do you know if there's anything suspicious about him?"
Keira, who was thinking of how to get back to her game, was caught off-guard and didn't hear Kelsie's question.
"If he forces on a smile and looks behind his shoulder the five seconds we make him wait." Zade answered instead.
Kelsie slipped her phone from her pocket and pointed at it with one hand while the other kept tapping on her screen.
"There's a camera in the house. It's so tiny you can't see it no matter how hard you look for it. I'm going to turn it on for two hours."
"Don't leave the living room or I'd just assume you disobeyed me and make you spend the entire day tomorrow without your phone."
Keira's shoulders slumped immediately and she brought out the phone from behind her back sadly.
Right in front of Kelsie, she logged off from the game and dropped it on the table in front of her.
Kelsie smiled proudly and walked to kiss her on the forehead before moving to Jesse to do the same.
Then she left her apartment. In the elevator, she called for a taxi. Once she was outside the building, she checked her phone for when the taxi would arrive.
Glancing at her wristwatch, she walked over to an empty spot in the parking lot to wait for it.
Because she had her eyes on her watch, she failed to notice the warning sign pasted on the wall behind her regarding the spot she was standing on.