Although the ongoing conflict, a few things were confusing to Aefia.
To start with, her eldest aunt was in house arrest due to what she had done. If anything else, this would send her to jail. But knowing her mentality, Aefia figured that she was planning on using her to end her own arrest if she were taken to court after this.
Since Aefia's room window was located directly below her aunt's balcony, she had managed to eavesdrop on their most recent conversation. If she remembered correctly, last night at one, Aefia woke up to murmurs and laughing which severely disrupted her sleep flow, making it the worse day-off for her.
Not knowing how to go back to sleep, she decided to stay up and listen to the gossip outside her window. Since she didn't official have a phone to play video games and couldn't steal or play with her parents' phone, this was her only way to entertain herself.
During the conversation, while her mind was still waking, she noticed that her aunt was talking on the phone with her youngest aunt. She realized that her aunt was on loud speaker the whole time and was also speaking in whispers sometimes. But her youngest aunt, who was fat, greasy-faced and loud, could wake anyone up from their sleep if they had their windows open.
*
It was the middle of summer and Aefia's room was quick to get heated. To allow for ventilation, her window would be open twenty-four hours every seven days until summer ended after nine months.
In the country she stays, temperature during summer would rise to fourty or fourty-five. At night, the temperature would drop to thirty or thirty-two. If the air-conditioners were turned on, the air inside the room would be hard for Aefia to breath.
It was a condition she had gotten at the age of five and most of the time, the doctors would tell her parents that it was just in her genetics. In fact, her whole paternal side of the family had lung issues and both her paternal grandmother and grandfather died due to lung diseases.Although it was always rare in the family to have asthma, it was very common to be able to develop lung cancer.
From her maternal side of the family, it was either heart disease, kidney failure or brain stroke. Her grandmother, who was almost always sick during her time on Earth, had died due to kidney failure. In between, she had gone through pancreas cancer, diabetes, brain stroke and hepatitis B.
Her maternal grandfather is still alive but due to another family drama, there was no connections with him. In Aefia's family, although they were happier than most main characters Aefia had read about, they had more drama to surpress the longest story which had ever been told.
*
During her mission to listen in to the sisters' conversation, she heard them talking about the wedding which was a failed sabotage because of Aefia. This caused her to wake a little bit more and press her ear against the cold glass.
"That kid just decided she would act brave and expose of the politician's true face. My husband was going to be promoted to a higher rank after he became president! I told you not to mess up!" Her youngest aunt spoke.
"What do you want me to do?! She is our brother's daughter and if I just went and dragged her down, who knows how her father would react when we asked him for a share of our property?!" Her eldest aunt replied.
"You may be right about that, but look at you now! You are in a house arrest and my husband is unemployed! Tomorrow he will try and ask our brother for a position in his company. Just notice how our reputation has gone down! As a person who has always spent and lived like a millionaire, I have never once begged someone for help!"
"Then why did you ask to borrow money from me last month?! Remember when you couldn't afford that designer bag of yours? You said you were going to pay me back in a week but now it's already four weeks!"
"Don't tell me as a younger sister, that I can't ask for money from you?! Are you that stingy?! You don't know how to share? That's why your son keeps getting divorced. What is this, his third?!"
"Says the person who is planning to give marriage to her sixteen-year-old daughter for a six-storey building from her son-in-law! At least my son is thirty! He is making a living, has a house and pays me every month for my living expenses!"
The constant fight between the two sisters was fun and very much entertaining. It was always rare for this sort of things to happen and Aefia finding out but it was gold compared to when they would work together to plot against the family.
Suddenly, the conversation turned upside-down and the topic returned. Since they were already mad, their voices automatically raised and Aefia no longer had to lean against the window and could hear their conversation from a few inches away.
For her own safety, she moved away and sat next to the window and continued listening. As a spy for the Mafia, she was used to eavesdropping in any position while in her brain, she would start summarizing everything for the report later.
This time, the conversation was about Aefia herself. About how she could be used again for their own needs now that she had done a good amount of damage to the family's reputation.
"So what are you going to do? She is being appreciated by her parents and she gained trust with the police. I don't care if the police and the government acknowledge her bravery but if her parents, especially her father, thinks she is not a burden, then that ruins our plan to take over as much as her inheritance as we want."
"Just how is she so intelligent? How did she find out about such a thing?! It is impossible for a kid with their normal brain to learn multiplication tables, so how did she do that? She isn't smarter than the both of us!"
I heard that you both have achieved your masters and PhDs. If you really managed to get that certificate with your brain, you won't have thought that way. So if I am correct, you guys were cheaters who were 'forced' to go and get 'educated' in universities.
If you don't even know, we are asked to memorize the multiplication table at the age of eight. Just how do you expect us to learn it when memorization is key ingredient for primary schools. At my age, we are learning algebra, which is far away from what you think I am learning now.
"Yes, she isn't smarter than us. I believe she is secretly in third grade right now. Maybe her father is hiding the fact because he thinks it's embarrassing! And let me tell you that she is my younger daughter's age!"
Woman what?! I am in seventh grade and I am not your daughter's age! Just what is in your mind? I hate you already but you are making things worse! Is this how you spread rumors?
Both of the sisters laughed as they joked on about Aefia while she listened. She too laughed at their rumors, but because they were dumb and acted as if the information they just made up and sold was a million dollar question.
"Anyway, we were supposed to be talking about the prize she had gotten right?"
"Yes! Since you are in house arrest because of her, I will go claim it for the both of us! I know she trust us as her aunt. Remember when we used to get told on and we would rush over to our aunts because we trusted them? I believe it would be the same for her!"
Keep dreaming! I have the least amount of trust on the two of you. But you will never understand because I am a hypocrite like the two of you.
"So how are we going to persuade her to bring out the money?"
"I will just speak nice to her. I heard that she is down with a fever since today and her mom is refusing her out of her room. If she refuses Aefia from coming out around me, I will create drama to intimidate her into bringing her outside.
"Then, I will sweet talk her because she is dumb and a kid. After that, I will ask her about the prize money. I will start by asking her how much she got. She will tell me anyhow if I mentally manipulate her into taking out the cash and giving it to me to count.
" I will send her to bring me a glass of water. In that time, I will pocket the money and when she ask me where the money is, I will say that I gave it to her mother."
"That's smart but what are you going to tell her father? Now that she has done something big for the family, it is well-known that her parents would grow more fond of her the more she does something good."
"Don't worry! Her father would be busy interviewing my husband tomorrow! And if she complains to her father, he will be sure to call me straight away and I will just lie about it. There is no way her father would ever believe her even when she pleads! I have done multiple black magic rituals to make sure he never listens to his family and always gives an ear to our needs."
"Let's see if you succeed. If not, I will make sure you get the punishment you deserve."
The call ended there and Aefia went back to bed. It was only one thirty at that time.
Meanwhile, back at her youngest aunt's home, she spoke to her daughters after the talk with her sister ended.
"Did you hear that? Now I want you both to play along. That kid is actually smarter than the average adult. If you don't win your uncle's money, then no one else can. And don't worry about the share, I will take the money for myself."
"But mom, she is just a kid, why are you both so jealous of her? Why are you running towards her inheritance when we are already living the live of a royalty." Her eldest daughter spoke.
She planted a slap on her face. "Mind your words young lady! Just that I am making you graduate and become a lawyer, doesn't mean you will use justice for our enemies! You will only represent us even when we are criminal fugitives!"
Seeing this, the younger daughter stayed silent. "What? Do you think the same as your sister?"
"No mom, I was shocked at how sister is so dumb-folded. I clearly think that girl should go down." The younger daughter replied.
"Good! Remember that she is your enemy, not your cousin." She said while looking at her elder daughter's direction.
***
Aefia played the recording at the court. She was allowed in as a victim and decided that she would use that position as a way to expose her aunts even more. "This is solid prove that my aunts had it all planned from the start."
"Right. Can you hand it down to the security guard? He will hand it to me in return."
She nodded and the guard collected the phone which had the recording. From the day she had successfully caught her aunt red-handed in front of an entire crowd of people, she had suspected they would come up with a plan to take Aefia down.
She had asked her closest servant to lend her the phone and she installed a wireless microphone to the headphone port. She had seen an ad while playing video games on the maid's phone and thought that it could be used for her spying. The ad was a vlogger holding a piece of rectangular metal and fur which was held near the mouth for a clearer audio.
She secretly bought it with her allowance and her servant was the one who picked up the package. Since she had bought it from an official store, she was confident that she would get the correct product.
Every night, she would ask her maid to plug in the other part of the microphone and go to sleep. The night she had eavesdropped on the conversation, she had the microphone near her pillow and was able to get most out of the conversation.
This in return helped her prove that her aunt was in fact guilty and was planning on doing more. She even pointed out how her eldest aunt had wanted to make Aefia think that she was doing something wrong by proving her guilty in front of the people who she stole money from but invited to the wedding, now she owes thirty people at least ten thousand each.
"I have heard what I had to hear. I here by declare that the suspect is indeed guilty and the sentence is jail for two years minimum. If she chooses to cause another crime, the sentence will increase." The judge said while slamming the hammer down on the wooden piece.
Both of her aunt's gave Aefia an annoyed look before walking into their respective cells.
I have sent two people to jail and exposed a corrupted politician. What bothers me the most is that I, as the criminal who committed man slaughter, is a person who caught criminals and exposed them. If there is just anything to be done right, I believe it is that I should be the first person in jail.