Weddings are definitely boring. What makes it even worse, is that I have to take care of my four-year-old brother and I don't have access to any device for gaming. Let's just hope mom and dad drags us out before the photography session. I would really think about sabotaging it myself if situation turns out the way I am thinking.
She sat with her family all the way in the back. They were out of notice and out of chaos. Aefia tried to spot her uncle and Mr. Robert. She had a feeling that something was going to go wrong due to her toxic aunts, so she brought her pistol with her even though she was supposed to be in strict restrictions because of it.
Due to her accumulated kill counts over the last two weeks, her uncle was in a fear that she might turn into a savage mass murderer by the time she is fifteen. One other thing he feared, was whether Aefia went around using weapons in public to get rid of her suspects.
But unlike her uncle, Aefia was smart when it came to situations like this and she had secretly trained for it with the help of her colleagues. The female member in particular was more than happy to help her.
Along her journey as a spy for the Mafia, Aefia was asked a lot of questions about how she had the ability to solve cases in a flash while it took them several weeks to solve it.
Sometimes, Aefia would disregard them by saying, "It is the rule of the thumb that helps me solve cases faster." When in real life, everyone and everything felt stupid and dumb. The way people couldn't determine the outcome of their actions and risking their lives to do things which aren't worth as much, made Aefia wonder which young person in the entire society started it.
Aefia wasn't a very nerdy student at her school, but she had high levels of interest in human psychology. Her school didn't teach her that, but her school's library was as huge as the ones sometimes shown in aesthetic shots taken by other people and posted in social medias.
During lunch break, she would stay at the library and build scores in her library card. She was into mystery novels, because of which, her skills in problem solving and determining the next move of a person was as simple as tearing a piece of tread from its roll.
Sometimes, Nada would come over to Aefia's house with a couple of books. Mostly of which, her father, who is a librarian, would bring for Nada to read. But unlike Aefia, Nada was a fantasy-lover and mostly of the books her father would bring home were non-fiction and mysteries.
Up until now, no book that Nada had brought to Aefia, was ever a dissapointment. Almost all would have an interesting story to share, but the only annoying thing was when the story climax would be the same set of events but with different characters, different location and different reason.
Her aunt came from the back and jabbed Aefia in the shoulder out of a sudden. Ouch! Woman I am not an animal like the rest of you!
"Why are you guys in the front? You should be sitting in the tables which are for the guest of honors. Also, this table is reserved for someone else." Her eldest aunt spoke.
Umm...what? Look, I don't know why we are supposed to do this but this is your son's third wedding and there is no guarantee that he will be successful in this one too. Based on what the previous two had said, you were the reason behind their divorce so don't pull my family into this!
Actually, you should be lucky since your son even got married. The rest of my cousins are always rejected and I can see why. Woman like you really are a problem everywhere you go. Aefia laughed silently.
"Oh, well you should have said it before! Let's get moving." Her father answered for the entire family.
What?! No! I am only here for the food! You are willing to make me sacrifice my freedom too for this useless wedding?! I need to get in touch with my uncle in an attempt to keep away from the crowd.
Actually, let's just do as she says, otherwise it will be in BCC News the next day. I would expect the headline to be 'Spoilt Girl Chooses To Attend Cousin's Wedding Only To Play Video Games In Secrecy'.
The one thing that makes me disgusted about this three women in my life, is that they don't know how to shut their mouth. Just why does she enjoy being a blabber mouth in public? I always get second-hand embarrasment when I go out with one of them.
What else is irritating is that they always talk about property and wealth. Like madams, I am just a kid, please leave me alone and shut up because I have no clue of what property you inherited or my great-great-great grandfather had bought. I don't even know if I was born during the inheritance.
She thought as her family walked towards the table at the front and the fourth in the row if you started counting from the left. Since she didn't know who to talk to, she spoke to herself, which made her think if she was a psycho at some point.
While counting people at the venue, she noticed that Nada had come with her aunt and uncle, and was currently talking to her father, who was Aefia's biological father. Without second thought, she told her mother that she spotted her uncle and Nada and got an excuse but she had to take her brother with her.
She carried her fast-asleep brother on her back and walked towards Nada. Noticing Aefia, her uncle and Nada both turned to face her. Her uncle stepped forward and helped Aefia carry her brother.
"You didn't come to school today, but you did come to the wedding. Can you tell me why?" Nada asked.
"Let's just say I was busy helping my mom around her room." Aefia answered. She looked at her uncle to help her, but he was already talking to someone else and his back was facing her. Wrong timing Mr. Robert!
"Aefia, you have servants. Just what is going on?" Nada proclaimed with a suspicious face. "Anyway, did you hear? A group of politicians are now looking for a child to arrest. They are saying that that child is a spy for the most powerful Mafia group in the entire country. There are rumours going around which states that child will appear in this wedding today. There will be an attempted sabotage to try and capture the child."
"That's...interesting. But how can a child be that powerful? How old is it?" Aefia asked while trying to keep a surprised tone rather than her current angry tone.
The rotten politicians are trying to play their new scheme, and in this location too. They must have found out our family ties. But just how is that possible? I know I had a feeling there will be an attempted sabotage, but I didn't know it was to capture me!
Mostly, I work in the office. I barely get out and they have absolutely no proof that I belong to a group of Mafias, let alone know that a child could be a spy. So if I am right, my suspicions on that one loyal member who went missing is involved in some sort of bribery.
"I am not sure, but I have eavesdropped into a conversation and learnt that the culprit mostly works in the office. The reason the information got leaked was because one person worked there and with the child. In one incident, during an office raid, the child spy was involved in mass murder and was found to be a high-ranking Mafia member." Nada explained.
No! It is what I have feared! That was a case of bribery than. I need to inform uncle about this!
"I see. But why would they want a child? Maybe they were used by another member? They don't know what is in the minds of others. It's not as if they could read the mind of the child, could they? What age and gender is the child?"
"Twelve and a girl. A very intelligent girl who is stronger than the boss of the Mafias."
Aefia shuttered in an instant. "So she is our age? Now maybe the politicians thought that we could be one of the suspects, what if that girl spy isn't here? Won't it ruin the happy mood around here? Aunt payed a huge price to the venue itself."
"You are right. Their justification system is broken. No wonder they are called corrupted by a few people."
"Let's take a walk, it's almost time for the photography," Aefia said. "Though I actually hate photography very much."
"Same! I wish I wasn't invited in the first place." With a moment of silence, Nada started speaking again. "That gets me wondering, why are you here?"
No way! I have completely forgotten that she still doesn't know she is my cousin!
"My eldest cousin is getting married. You?" Aefia asked back.
"My mother's brother's wife's sister's eldest son is getting married. Honestly, that's a long distance relationship." Nada said, "Does that mean we are family?"
"Looks like it, you are my far relative, so you are considered my cousin. But that is equivalent to being best friends right?"
"Yes, you are right."
They walked and chatted for a long time while her uncle continued speaking to Mr. Robert. Her brother woke up shortly after and Aefia changed shifts with her uncle to babysit him.
Photography went as irritating as Aefia had expected it to be. She only chose to take a family picture and she had to sit at the bride's feet. Her long gown was always stepped on and it would cause the emerald-green silk to stain with mud, turning it brown at the edge of the dress.
Her dress was made to match the bride's red gown like the other women in the family. Her aunts and cousins had to have at least one featured handiwork in their gowns which was taken from the bride's and for Aefia's, it was the collar.
Her dress had gold-embroidery of flowers at the bottom and heavy lace work. The waist and shoulders were covered in gold chains and the collar had embroidery of the same pattern in the bride's sleeves. On top of the gown, was worn a georgette coat featuring the same embroidery of the dress on the hems of the sleeves and the end that touched the ground.
After the photography, Aefia walked straight to the buffet. She looked at the array of food and lifted the lids one by one while sniffing her favourite dishes. Noticing that, her uncle walked over and decided to sneak a talk while no one is listening.
"Did you hear the rumour?" Her uncle asked.
"Yes. I was going to talk to you about it. I have a confirmed suspect already. And I think he is the one who sold the information to the political group." Aefia answered.
"Tell."
"The day when we were searching the wreckage, we found the only surviving member, right? It could be possible that the political group saved him shortly after the explosion went off. During that time, he was probably threatened that of he didn't tell them who was the mastermind, he would be killed.
"As every other human alive, he chose his life. He told them that I was the one who set up the explosion and found out about their spies who worked for us. Before that, they probably found the dead bodies and conducted a failed inspection which led them to resort with this plan.
"After which, they asked about my family ties with you and your loyal member told them about me being your niece, which was obvious of him saying. The next two weeks, they spent researching about me and my background.
"If you remember, they wanted to conduct a search at my school the following week after the explosion, but was rejected for the students' back to school day. Through further analysis, they found out that I was the daughter to the owner of a very highly-named software engineering company in our area."
"And because of that, they probably went to your father's company to enquire about you around some time today and your father told them you were preparing for your cousin's wedding. When they asked about the venue..."
"Bingo! You understand it now, don't you? Now that you know how, it's time to think about why." Aefia snapped her finger. "But I don't think I need to explain it further."
"Because if you were removed from the company or was captured or arrested, I won't be able to find out about their plans and what will happen next since our mission rely solely on your findings. They already knew that you were the reason behind the company's success and wanted to eliminate you so they could corner me and we will lose the case." Her uncle continued.
"Right! Now think about what plan I might try to execute with the information I have gathered. We have a very short time and don't think about protection. What do you think their next step will be?" Aefia asked while walking away to avoid grabbing people's attention.
Her uncle stood at his exact position and thought for a while, What could be his next step? For short, I will have to ask Mr. Robert to get his guards to keep an eye to the entrance and inform immediately when he spots an anomaly. I think that is what Aefia would do to start with.
But one thing though, Aefia would actually want to set up a trap to try and extract as much evidence as possible. Just how does she do it and how would I do it? Ask more people? Or have the people as evidence?
Suddenly, a gun shot through with a *bang* and the chandelier shoke violently but stopped short of falling down completely.
With this indication, the sabotage had started and that was the reason why Aefia told her uncle not to think about protection first.