Beau

She missed Lily. They grew up together in an orphanage and had always watched each other's backs. Her best friend was deaf and mute, the main reason Beau was fiercely protective of her and the fact that Lily was the only one that knew her secret. The only family she had.

Having been diagnosed with IQ autism 360 had been a burden. A nightmare concealed and suppressed. She didn't want to be considered a freak of nature. And she sure as hell didn't want to have been experimented on in a government facility. Moreover, she didn't want to lose Lily.

By the age of seven, she was already teaching Lily the universal sign language. She had memorized and solved every math equations there was. Her mind was constantly at work. Brainwaves always restless and churning with equations and puzzles and out of this world's ideas. Only Lily kept her anchored. She learned how to pace herself so her best friend could keep up.

The pretense of not knowing more than what was taught at her age had taken its toll when she was ten years old.

She just needed more. First, she had decided she needed books, mostly in foreign languages. Mostly, unsolved math equations by geniuses. But she would need money for that. She begged Mrs. Anderson, their foster parent to let her bake some goodies and sell them from house to house. Thank God the crack addict agreed with a commission.

In secret, she studied, her knowledge broadened. Her skills strengthened. She learned 40 languages, including old Latin and Hebrew. Got her own computer from the money she and Lily had scraped and saved from selling goodies.

By then, Beau decided to create her website with untraceable IP. Her expertise in Math soon gave her the ability to manage financial reports. Complicated, mind-boggling, brain-twisting investment, and expenditures. She analyzed transactions, cross-reference any minute detail in each data. The only setback was she was underage at that time, no legal company would employ an accountant at her tender age.

The obvious solution was to dig deeper into the dark web. There, she found clients that will look the other way as long as she managed their books and investments. In return, they filled her prepaid cards after each contract. No questions asked.

Because there was a steady flow of cash, she was able to support Lily's studies. She had to go to a special school and Beau had no problem with shouldering her expenses.

Due to advanced learning, at fourteen, she graduated high school. Went to Berkeley at fifteen and graduated Suma Cum Laude at 19 with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance and Accounting. And she had her Master's and Doctorate the same year. At 20, she owned her own business and she was her own boss.

Her sister by heart Lily became a Special Education teacher, fell in love with Adam then moved to England.

Beau was happy Lily found love and remained her best friend. Up to now, still working as her part-time secretary. Lily was the only person she could trust with her life.

If her clients and their men would actually know who she was. She knew she would have a lot of enemies.

***

Five days of routine. Five days of restlessness. Five days of hell.

When she told Lily she would finish the books in 24 hours, what she meant was within six hours. The financial analysis was submitted a few minutes after. Good luck to whoever was stealing from the coffers.

Shaking her head, she went back to cleaning her quaint cottage. Located on the outskirts of the city, all she can hear were cicadas singing in the stillness of the evening.

God! She had been doing the same thing for five fucking days, the place was so squeaky clean, bordering on sterile, she could sleep on the kitchen floor naked and would not be contaminated with any type of bacteria.

-Great fucking analogy.-

She bet Dominic would love to see that.

"Shit!" Where did that thought come from? She can't. Not with him. Tears will flow once more if she kept on thinking of him. She wouldn't do that to herself. It was an absurd infatuation leading nowhere. She just couldn't. And even if it was possible, she would not bring trouble to his doorstep.

Because if there was something she was sure of, her middle name was trouble.

She had plummeted into the unknown. For the first time in her genius life, she didn't know the equation she needed to apply for her to come up with the correct solution to her situation.

There was no denying it. For a genius, she was quite idiotically stupid to the highest degree.

She, Beau Anderson, had fallen. In more ways than one.

***

"Hey, Lily Billy. Wassup?"

"Rolling my eyes from your silliness." Beau smiled despite her melancholy.

"I know you love me."

"I wish I didn't. Shakes my head. I found you a legit client."

The Beau System she had invented from scratch was more advanced than China's Wuxi. Her computer can perform around 200,000 trillion calculations per second. And she could climb any secure server known to man.

It was twice as fast and three times as efficient that it can surpass any software in the world.

She bet Pentagon would love to get their hands on her baby. Too bad they couldn't. Her invention was deeply ensconced in her brain, they had to kill her and dissect it to have the smallest possibility to know how it was built.

If her next invention will pull through, she will be able to hear Lily's voice or give her a true voice, the one that will come from her vocal cords.

"Beauty Grace. Tapping my fingers."

"Eh...still here, Lil."

"The client? Heavy sigh."

"Ok. Legit you say? The name of the company?"

"DV Corporation. Owner of hotels, restaurants, resorts, and casinos. They also own various shipping companies. Last I checked they are earning billions in profits for the last three decades. In Euros. The accounting head has noticed discrepancies for the last two weeks. The difference is 200 million in Euros. You know the guy. He was a colleague of yours. Daniel."

"Wow. If the initial computation came from that dickhead, then he is a mess. When will I receive the data?"

"Shaking my head at your language. The twins are playing in the background. There is a catch." She wished she could hear her and the twins' noise in the background. She smiled at the thought.

"The client wants to meet the accountant and work from their main office. Cringing. Waiting for response."

"You know I don't do that, Lil."

"You want legit and this is how legit works. Banging my head on the table with your stubbornness."

"I know... it's just that..."  Dare she?

"Please. For me? I worry about you. Blinking back tears. You need to go out."

If only Lily knew.

"Don't you dare cry, Lil. You know I hate it."

"Sniffing. Kids are embracing me."

Lily had her there. Damn!

"You are not playing fair, Lily. I am mad at you. My lips are pouting and I am pulling out my hair."

"Laughing hard. I know you love me and your nieces. That is why you are going to do this and stop working for your dubious clients. Besides, they will pay you double. They just want the report like yesterday. You are the only one who can do it."

"Ok. You win. When?"

"Triumphant smile. Monday at 9 am. DV Corporation Main Building, edge of the financial square in Union Street. Make mama proud. Smirking."

"Yeah. Yeah. Miss you and girls, Lil."

"We miss you too. Sober. Sad face. I wish you could visit."

"I can't do that. I won't risk putting you and my nieces in danger. Love you."

"Another heavy sigh. Embracing my kids. Love you, Beauty Grace."

"Yeah. Talk to you soon. Bye."

The beeping in the Bluetooth device signaled the call had disconnected.

Could she do it? Would she be able to tolerate people in a corporate environment? She supposed she had the weekend to talk herself out of it.

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