"My nephew Asher, he will be back in a week."Lia was in Aster's office listening to his schedule."That's good!"Aster nodded. "You know what that means?""No?""It means we should probably live together."Lia laughed. That was the best joke she had ever heard."I'm serious.""No, you are Aster. "Seeing that he didn't chuckle with her, Lia finally realized that something was wrong. Very wrong."You are not kidding?"Aster shook his head."That's really impossible. My family will not allow me to do this.""I know. That's why we need to find a way."They pondered many ideas."How about I leave after your nephew falls asleep and come up early in the morning?""A good idea. But he is not stupid. He will catch on layer. Or someone else will catch it."Yeah, Aster was probably in surveillance every moment."Then if I live with you, my family will catch on."Yeah, it was like a dead end."How about you live in my apartment building? You can leave whenever you want and come whenever you wan
"Mom, I think we should get an apartment. I want to buy one near my office and my lab. So, I can rest assured about you."It wasn't actually a lie. Lia had stayed most days at the lab so she didn't have to travel. And now she felt it would be good to get that apartment. It was really good. And she would still earn later. Then they could buy land."Yes, it's your money. You decide."Her mother had decided."But Mom-""Jake, next time you win the lottery, we will go with your decision. And your sister should have thought about this. I trust her."It's not every day that you find trust like this. Lia was so moved that she cried.She told them she would go see some apartments near the tech district. That place was the most developed one in terms of company headquarters and real estate. And Aster had a place there. It's cool, and she was not getting it for free. Also, Lia thought if things didn't work out in the end, she would sell the place. Someone would definitely buy. It's kinda a win
Lia ran away the moment she knew that her mother was planning to throw a welcome party. She didn't want to be recognized by the kid when she met him as his aunt. That would blow her cover. Also, she was being cautious. Because she was at home, someday she could slip up and jeopardize this entire operation. She wouldn't want that obviously because she would lose so much money.Aster was puzzled but he didn't say anything. She was being cautious and you couldn't say no to that."Where's your sister?"Jake looked left and then right. He got up from the sofa and searched the balcony, home office, and finally her bedroom. Lia wasn't there."Mom, she's not here.""I'm really fed up with you kids. You disappear when we unpack and she disappears when we have to host a party."Seeing his mother mumbling, Jake slowly reached out to eat a cookie on the plate kept aside.He was about to touch when he was hit with a spatula.He looked up and found his mother glaring at him. "It was worth a shot.
Trainwreck. This was a trainwreck. Asher had tears in his eyes as he gazed away from Lia. Lia who was a child king in her childhood was stumped at this development. She did nothing. It was a big mistake.She just entered the room and she tripped over a wire. Unfortunately, that wire was placed behind the card tower made by the kid. And it collapsed gorgeously. It all happened in slow motion. It was enthralling like the dominoes falling. And at the same time, Asher was about to cry."I don't like you."He yelled and ran away. Lia looked broken by her luck just now. This was a huge difference from what she witnessed and expected. She saw her brother charming this kid and herself disgusting him, probably. Lia wanted to cry.Aster didn't wake up from the fast chain of events unfolding before him. He didn't have time to utter a word or even a gasp.It was maybe the fastest worst first impression ever. And to top it the first impression was already made with a lot of prejudice."I'd bet
"I was worried about you."Lia told Aster when her call finally got through. "I'm fine now. I should be asking you. How are you? This should be the first time you faced something like this, right?""Yeah, it was unexpected. Does this happen to you often?"She was insanely curious."Want the truth or lie?""Lie.""This was the first time."Lia chuckled."I want to ask you something.""What?""You could get out of this. Such things will happen more and more and the danger will only increase. You could quit right now."Lia paused.She had to think about this. She didn't envision saying yes but she saw herself saying no. Maybe earlier she would not be willing to enter this den of thieves. But now, she saw him something as a friend. She didn't want him to fight this all alone."I just need you to protect my mom and brother. And also me. I can be your less involved partner.""Haha."Aster felt happy. He unconsciously didn't want her to accept this offer.The question posed itself again whe
"You are staying home often these days," Jake observed.Lia nodded. She found that she was jobless. Because she was still working on the website, she didn't take on any new projects but that meant staying quiet a lot and getting taunted."Why? You are supposed to be in the college but here you are, making jabs at me for being at home."Lia retorted perfectly."I'm preparing for my exams so I'm allowed to be here. But you don't go work somewhere and you are sitting jobless."That was not really true."I'm taking a break, you know."He made a face at her. They were getting worked up and they finally resorted to a guessing game before they stopped."I'm thinking about a player who is not your favorite.""That's the total player community," Jake was angry."Yeah, that's why I chose him."Lia was victorious because of this. Her brother only concentrated on Ron Lexor, an e-sports player. Others, he didn't care enough to know about them so he didn't know others.Lia always won by using this
Lia stood alone behind the pillar wishing to go back in time. It all started when Aster messaged her.Aster- Can you come to a party with me?Lia- Why?Aster- It's actually a wealthy people kind of party and you need to be with me as I'm married.Lia- FineLia dressed in a gorgeous way and that's why she was well, targeted.Aster was taken away by the elders for a small talk. It was just a matter of minutes.And the wealthy ladies sent veiled insults towards her. She was angry but she didn't change her expression."She should be from some middle-class family. How dare she come here?""That miss couldn't marry into the Brooks family and she was the most popular candidate.""Yeah, do you know she was sent abroad by her family?""That's a pity."Lia listened to this conversation with bated breath and understood many things. The lady they were talking about should be the one who found fault with her at the last party.They all stopped when Aster came back.He bent and whispered in her ear
"Hey, Claudia is so miserable." Lia sat with Aster in his study. They were there to discuss plans. "Why?" "She is being treated like this by her aunt." Aster was amused. "You know she is okay. I think her father is the culprit here." Lia was shocked. She looked at him with wide eyes. "He didn't know. How could he be responsible?" Aster leaned back against the chair and spoke in a low voice. "If he cared enough, he would have found the clues. He was running away from her. Maybe someday he doesn't want to face her. His mentality like this caused her harm." "But why?" "Lia, human emotion is very complex. It's like when there is zero exiting, a person can comprehend it in infinite ways. And emotions are inherently complex so you get more than infinite possibilities. How a person could feel or react, you cannot fathom. But you can try to predict. It may or may not be right. Just don't keep hoping about someone. It's best to be confident yourself." She nodded. She didn't understa
The date was wonderful. When they came back, Lia couldn't stop smiling."So, I'll see you tomorrow. "Aster dawdled without wanting to leave. Lia smiled and nodded. "Yeah, you go first. I'll wait for your signal."Lia left first and opened the door to Jake's face."Have you son some lottery again?""Noo!"Lia wanted to stop her face from smiling like an idiot but it was proving to be hard."Then your experiment was successful. I knew it, let's celebrate by eating leftover ice cream from yesterday."Lia didn't pay attention to him. At this point, she didn't need to pay attention to him as he was already taking out ice cream. She slipped away to her room.Lia then opened her window and opened the balcony curtain. It was yellow, and the signal successfully alerted Aster. He smiled and sat in his room, waiting for Asher to come back.Aster wanted to talk to his brother and tell him how happy he was today.It was like he was floating. And nothing could stand in his way or hurt him today.
Butterflies were dancing everywhere. Lia felt like she had eaten some and some were flapping around her.That was really hilarious to think. But the thought of dating Aster sent her over the edge. She was being foolish but she was really happy.Lia cleaned her desk three times in a row before managing to calm herself down.Aster- How about we go to the museum today?Lia sent a reply lightning-fast.Lia- YesMuseum date, haha.She would love it.Museums were interesting and she would get to see a slow motion world there.No crowds today and more time to watch the exhibits she loved.Like the historic paintings and fossils.Lia wasn't worried about other things because she found herself wondering. The impact of the dating was this. She found herself double guessing her double guessing results.Finally, she dressed herself in a very casual way.And like always, she left her apartment with a note taped to the door. In case her brother wanted her to a grocery run, he could see the note and
Lia- YesAster grinned happily and he wanted to do a cartwheel. That ended badly as he knocked over the vase on the table. But that didn't damp his enthusiasm.It was a feeling he never experienced. It was like he was living in a fluffy cloud and he was made of a fluffy cloud too.The high he was feeling made him forget so many things. For instance, the stupid contract he made then. And the threatening things in their lives. And the fact that he never told her that the Lexor family was related to her.Yeah, love has selective vision and he was the perfect example.Lia was somehow the more clear headed one in this scenario. She just started working on her game. Lia had this habit. When she was bursting with something, she would try to delay it with some other work as a tactic. And when she felt somewhat calm, she would deal with it.This only worked for ten minutes and she kept having flashes of Aster. Lia sighed and smiled."Stupid Lia!"This showed that her tactic wasn't working an
"Do you want to confront him?"Marvin asked Aster.Aster really wanted to ask that person how could he betray his family. This guy was his mother's cousin. And to do this, it was really bad. Simon had sent so many items from his mother's collection and they were more or less bad. Similar to the stuff the old man gave. Now he was really doubtful about the old man too.Was he also involved in this shady stuff? Was he the mastermind behind this operation?Aster didn't know."What's the guarantee that he will tell me everything if I ask him?"Lia nodded. Yes, he could lie. Then they would lose their edge by making the enemy know that they were onto him."Yes, you are right. I think all of the people we found are scapegoats. If it was that easy to find him, your brother or your parents would have found him. And to keep doing this stuff for such a long time, he should be somewhat proficient, right?"Lia rambled.She really thought that way. "Also, we found this organization. Maybe there are
"Yes, the animal categories are very disturbing. It makes no sense why they used that but then again, it all depends on the person who is making the categories. If it was me, I would give them artistic names. Like painting, singing, dancing, you get it, right?"Albert answered and chuckled.But who asked him anything about this? No one. He was very interested in knowing and answering questions. "Hey, you are still working on the cats' folder, Marvin is now combing through monkeys."He also provided status updates.Good guy.This was making Lia nervous and competitive. She felt like she was taking a competitive exam and she had only thirty minutes left to solve half of the question paper."Got it. Your decryption algorithm worked, let's see the results."They all surrounded Aster."Let's see the first image."It was actually a cat playing with a red dot but after the decryption, it became something else.There were words instead.59 million gain 15 million lossAJ recruited"What's thi
Lia watched Aster set up the equipment and do a final check. She stood out of the way watching everything.Albert just stayed there in the chair hanging his legs out and nearly falling asleep. He slapped himself awake and it was very funny to watch.Lia then watched Marvin coming out with cups of coffee.She took one because let's face it, she wasn't awake completely."Okay, we are ready. On your signal."Marvin nodded."It's time. Start."Aster pressed the button and the screen started changing. The text was scrolling and Lia found it difficult to read."This is going well. We don't have much to copy. It will be done in three minutes."And like he said, the status bar came to a stop."It's done."It felt less party kind of an exclamation but they were still happy. Lia thought that they would all jump in the air and celebrate. But the reality was that even with coffee, they were all very sleepy.""I'm going to sleep."Albert fell asleep there.As it was done, Lia nodded and went to her
"Mom I have to talk about the class schedule with Marvin and Aster. I'll be home late.""Okay, have fun."Lia had finished her dinner and when everyone were watching television, she got a signal from Marvin."You go. I'll watch Asher and Jake."Oggy declared. Well, if he was so sure, then why not?"So, what is that water thing?"Lia almost forgot. Oggy was also a member of the kid gang.Seeing their attention drawn to the fountain, the three of them left the room.They went to Albert's apartment because apparently Aster's was not totally safe now.They didn't get rid of all the spy chips there. They left one as a formality.And that's why they had to change their Lair."Tell me, tell me, tell me."Albert started repeating."Wait, let Lia settle down."Yes, Lia was searching for a good cushion. She was embarrassed at having that pointed out "I'm okay, you can start."She coughed."Okay, so here's what we found."Marvin then motioned for Aster to start talking."Marvin connected my cop
"Whew, we are back home. The whole thing was very stressful."Aster felt like he was in heaven when he saw his couch. He was that happy."Yeah, take rest now. We will check the computer in the evening. Let's get the information sooner so that we can work on other things later."Marvin changed out of his clothes and he was ready to go out.Aster was surprised."You aren't going to rest?"He questioned Marvin."Yes, I have to go check the company. With the headquarters not here, I have so much backlogged by being out."Aster felt sad for Marcin. Good thing Ray did his work in the meantime.Maybe when his brother woke up, he would be free and sleep till he naturally woke up.Those were some happy days.Aster sighed and fell asleep on the couch."Uncle, you are back."It should be later because he was woken up by Asher."Yes, Aster, you are back. When did you come back? We didn't know anything."Jake was with Asher."I came around afternoon. Then I fell asleep. I would have met you all in
"This is a disaster," Aster told himself when he saw the bustling crowd in there. The club was totally filled with people and it was getting on Aster's nerves.He had never seen these many people in such a closed space.He made his way to the other end to get to a secluded place.Marvin had gone to the other side so he could keep an eye on people coming and going out of the side door.Aster felt that Marvin was doing a very focused job. Marvin kept shooting him messages that kept popping before his eyes and Aster wanted to block him.Marvin was having fun with the glasses but Aster had worked on them for so long so he didn't have any preference over it."Hey, handsome, are you alone?"Aster was brought out of his reverie by a voice.It was a guy.He had short spiky hair that looked like it could really hurt someone."Oh, no. I'm in my company."That guy came near him and sat beside him."Crazy night, right?""You realize it's just afternoon now.""What? Its night. See."Aster saw no p