Chapter One

"Good morning, Miss Dutton. It is currently Tuesday, September 29, 7:00 AM. Partly cloudy today with a slight chance of rain." Kiera woke up from her sound sleep to one of her AI's voices waking her.

She groaned and rolled over in her large bed. "No, J. It's too early!" She moaned.

"Miss Dutton, you specifically requested to be wakened at this time today two weeks ago. There is the quarterly board of directors meeting today at 11."

Kiera groaned again but turned over onto her back, blinking up at the ceiling. "Okay, fine. You win, J… but I want to sleep in tomorrow!"

"Of course, Miss Dutton." JARVIS, her AI that she had created at 18, said dutifully.

Kiera rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed as her feet touched the slightly chilled floor. "Is the board of directors meeting the only one I have today, J?"

"As of this moment, yes."

"Good. I think I'll spend some time in the lab today."

She stood up and made her way to her bathroom to get showered and begin to get ready for the day. After showering, she moved to her closet with towels wrapped around her body and hair.

She grabbed a black and white pattern skirt, a black vest, and a long sleeve wrap top to wear along with her underwear. Kiera dried her body and hair with the towels before getting dressed. Moving to her vanity, she began blowdrying and styling her hair and doing her makeup. For her hair, she had it pinned up but let strands hang down in a natural like look and did a very delicate makeup look with rosy pink lips and cheeks. Throwing on a pair of earrings and a necklace, as well as a pair of high heels, Kiera was ready for the day.

"JARVIS, what time is it?"

"It is a little bit after 9:00." He answered promptly.

"Can you start the coffee maker for me, please? And let the driver know that I will be ready to leave shortly."

"Yes, Miss."

Grabbing her phone and wallet, and donning her special glasses, Kiera walked down the stairs to the main level of her house. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed the travel mug that had been filled with steaming hot coffee.

"Thank you, JARVIS."

"You're welcome, Miss Dutton."

Kiera did a little finger wave towards the small camera that JARVIS was viewing her and left to head to the car waiting for her. The driver opened the back door for her.

"Good morning, Miss Stark." He called her Miss Stark because no one has yet to realize that Kiera's last name was also Dutton. She had registered both names - Kiera Dutton and Kiera Stark - as legally her own so anything she signed as one or the other could not be counted as invalid because of the different last names.

"Good morning and thank you," Kiera said with a small smile as she slipped into the car and the driver gently shut the door behind her. He walked around the car and got in. After getting settled, they began to head towards Stark Tech which was about thirty minutes away on a good day, fifty minutes on a bad one.

Kiera just watched out the window and allowed her mind to wander.

And whenever it wandered, she always thought back to the family she hadn't seen or heard from in six years - which wasn't really their fault to begin with. She never really fit in with the rest of her family, always being the smartest person in the room made her feel like a freak sometimes when she was home… leaving like she had, had felt and still feels, like it was the best thing she could ever do. She had started developing her technology when she was still at MIT at 14, when she had left home a couple months after turning 16, her company was beginning to take off.

Now don't think that she didn't love her family, didn't love the ranch. She did, she sometimes loved too deeply and she still during personal vacations went to a ranch in Texas to keep her skills sharp.

Thinking about her family, brought up the others that she had added to her family - those that she knew if the Duttons ever came back into her life - they would never really see them as their family, which was fine with Kiera.

Over the years that she had been at MIT, Kiera had started AI programming and created three bots: U, Butterfingers, and Dum-E. Those three were still active although they are learning bots and not nearly as advanced as JARVIS.

JARVIS, whom she completed at 18, ran her day to day life and was the security for all of her homes - one in each of the states where she had a Stark Tech branch - with one in Montana near her family's ranch, and all of her devices/equipment - phone, laptop, tablet, labs.

The other three: FRIDAY, EDITH, and KAREN, ran branches of the company. FRIDAY ran the Malibu branch. EDITH ran the New York branch. And KAREN ran the Miami branch.

All four were able to connect to the others and Kiera - they weren't strictly restricted to their respective roles. Sometimes FRIDAY and JARVIS would switch their roles just to startle Kiera.

Kiera was jerked out of her thoughts by her door opening. She took the driver's hand and let him help her out of the car.

"Thank you. I don't know when I'll be done today but I do know that it will be closer to five if all goes to plan."

"Very good, Miss Stark. I'll ask to see if anyone needs any help."

"Nah, you're okay. Go have fun, have the rest of the day off in fact."

"Miss Stark?"

"Yep, take the rest of the day off. I don't want to see you again until tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Miss Stark. Thank you very much." After making sure she got inside safely, he got in the car and drove away happy that he is getting a full day of pay for a little bit of work. Miss Stark was always so generous like that.

Kiera walked through the doors and towards the elevators, nodding and smiling at the employees that were walking past her. Kiera got on the empty elevator and pressed the button for the floor she needed.

A few minutes later she was entering into the board room.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." She greeted, meeting the eyes of the the people that were on her board. They returned her greetings. "Well, shall we get started?"

And they did.