A cinderella crime story, p.11
A Cinderella Crime Story, page 11
Brendan nodded.
“So, some of my questions might sound obvious, but bear with me. First, why did you choose to solve the problem the way you did?”
“I…honestly don’t know.”
“That’s okay. Let’s just start with your first step.”
Don’t feel bad. This is perfectly normal. Aiden hoped his voice conveyed that sentiment as he moved his finger carefully over the points in the problem that mattered the most. I can help you. I like helping you.
You can set the mood of a group early on by curating your behavior. Set the mood to your best advantage. Make yourself the key master without needing to say a word, and you will have the ultimate control over people, Hui Ye had said, but Aiden strangely forgot. He spoke slowly, moved deliberately, and smiled small. He curated expressions and his body language. He utilized techniques to help Brendan and not himself, and his own heart fluttered with warmth, spreading it with every beat against his chest.
“Wait, I don’t understand what you just did. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” Aiden paused at the words. His hand reached for his cellphone and silenced it. “I’ll just go over it again.” Aiden shifted even closer toward Brendan, writing out the steps. “Got it?”
Brendan stared and tipped his head, but the smallest smile finally appeared at the corner of Brendan’s mouth that had been frozen in a frown. “Actually, yeah, I think so.”
Brendan’s smile turned wider and brighter. The familiar warmth in Brendan’s voice and eyes returned in full when he arrived at the right answer. What is he worried about? Look at him. He’s improving so quickly.
Aiden unknowingly scooted even closer, angling his body so close that his shoulder jostled into Brendan’s. He opened his mouth.
“It’s fine. Don’t apologize.” Brendan didn’t look up, working diligently on the problems. “You’re helping me right now. Don’t you dare apologize.”
The warmth of Brendan’s words transferred to the tips of Aiden’s ears. He nodded. “I won’t apologize,” he whispered.
Brendan nodded and continued solving questions.
Breaths echoing like horns in his ears, Aiden moved away. He pressed his hand against his burning chest. Stop heart. His chest pounded harder.
“You know what I’m thinking?” Brendan suddenly asked.
Aiden jumped in his chair. “What?”
Brendan leaned on his arm against the table and stared at Aiden’s face. His blond hair gently fell against his eyes. “You’re going to be a great teacher. It made me excited for you. That’s all.”
Brendan turned away, returning to his math problems.
Aiden’s burning chest twisted. Tears welled up in his eyes.
He scrubbed them away before Brendan could notice. Do you really think so? He wanted to ask out loud, but before he could, Javier hopped over. “All right, switch. I’m not making progress with Christina, and you seem to have better luck with Brendan, so I’m going to take over now and you help her.”
“You suck at tutoring, you know that?” Christina called from the other table.
“Yeah, sure.” Aiden moved out of the chair and sat down beside Christina.
She tipped her head. “Are you all right?”
Aiden blinked in surprise.
“You look upset is all.”
“I…” His voice hitched outside of his control, and he forced a breath to interrupt the cry stuck in his throat. “I was just thinking about how I want to be a teacher,” he whispered.
He clutched his hands and squeezed his eyes to prevent any more tears from leaking out. Brendan said the words to him so easily, so nonchalantly. His words opened a door to a future that Aiden never saw himself in, but a vision struck. In a classroom, he learned his students’ names. He decorated the walls with cartoon characters explaining difficult concepts. A bookshelf sat in the corner, filled to the brim with various picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels. His students moaned and groaned over difficult questions, and he swooped in with a smile, watching the stress ease from their tiny, scrunched foreheads only to be replaced with a proud swelling of the chest and the straightening of their backs.
He saw himself having fun the same way he was having fun tutoring Brendan, and the vision struck his heart with fervor and pain.
“I want to be a teacher,” he repeated. He continued squeezing his eyes, but the tears escaped from underneath, dripping down his cheeks.
He opened his eyes, ashamed, but Christina just listened. She nodded. “Then be a teacher, Aiden. Be whatever you want to be.”
But I can’t. He scooted forward and asked to see Christina’s exam. A swirl of joy and sorrow intermingled inside him, and he sagged in exhaustion at the both warring inside his heart. As the night continued, as Christina started to understand, sorrow won over the joy. I can’t be a teacher.
Even if his stepsiblings and stepmother didn’t love him, he didn’t have it in his heart to abandon them.
• • •
Mr. Chen reminded Aiden of the delicate softness and comforting colors of flower petals. He wore professional clothes, but his tie often remained loose around his neck. His arms hung against his side softly. He wielded a gun, but it was concealed within the folds of his loose jacket, and his body rarely tensed or prepared itself to grab it.
His voice chimed. His face was exceptionally beautiful with pale skin, a small nose, and moon-shaped eyes. He carried himself with such grace that his long legs appeared to dance across the floor. His greying hair did little to disrupt his appearance and only added agelessness to his profile.
The servants adored him. Aiden knew from the second he entered the house. They didn’t scurry away in fear like Mr. Yang's did. They didn’t straighten, silence themselves, and scramble to appear busy like Mr. Zhou's staff. They greeted him with smiles and polite nods, they continued conversations, and they worked at their own pace.
Mr. Chen’s office was brightly lit against tall bookshelves. He offered his hand to Aiden and had a firm yet gentle handshake. “It’s good to see you again, Xiao Hui. I owe a great deal to your brother, and I am sorry for your loss.”
He means it. Aiden couldn’t believe it.
“I want you to feel at ease when working with me, so I have prepared some things you can do. Important but far from dangerous.” He passed a schedule book to Aiden.
Aiden opened the leather book to see a list of dates and names interchanging. “Meetings?”
“We change where we host so we look like close family friends having potlucks. We always bring food and our family. The next host is actually your stepmother.”
Aiden stared at her name next on the list.
Mr. Chen tipped his head. “She didn’t tell you?”
Aiden shook his head.
“Ah, well, I have known her even prior to her marrying into your family. She was always insistent on being involved. It doesn’t surprise me that she’s decided to take responsibilities without your knowing. She must be doing what she thinks is best for her children.”
“Of course…” He read the agenda for the meeting. An entire hour was dedicated to the discussion of federal agents busting gambling dens and their obvious attempts to bug buildings. The traitor is still at large, Aiden remembered with a start. He looked up at Mr. Chen. “Do you know who the Guo family is?”
The man stiffened. “How do you know that name?”
“It was on Mr. Zhou’s notes for his security observations. He suspected loiterers were either federal agents or from the Guo family.”
“That man,” Mr. Chen mumbled in Chinese, but the tension disappeared from his shoulders. He shook his head with a sigh. “The Guo family is a disgraced family of Infinite. They used to be part of the innermost circle like Zhou, Yang, Hui, and my family currently are, but they’ve fallen into obscurity since.”
“They…couldn’t be the one leaking information then. Right?”
“No. They are already gone. They were gone before you were even born. I suppose they do have a heavy motive for ruining Infinite and, more specifically, your brother. Your…” Mr. Chen stopped himself, glancing at Aiden. He cleared his throat. “Your family was responsible for their fall from grace, so I can see them attempt to take revenge, but they’ve been thoroughly shut out. They couldn’t be the ones emboldening the government agents.”
Tell me about the Guo family.
Aiden could not understand why the kidnapper believed he knew about a family that left Infinite before he existed, but he forced his face to remain even when he picked his next question carefully. “Have we gotten closer to finding out who killed my brother?”
“Do you know something?” Mr. Chen asked promptly.
He considered mentioning Celia, but at the memory of his stepmother’s annoyance and condescending eyes bearing down on him, he shook his head.
Mr. Chen sighed. “We are all searching. We won’t stop searching until we find the culprit. In the meantime, while I am in my business meetings, I have prepared these folders for you to look through. This will give you a good overview of what businesses I am involved in, alongside which industries I worked with your brother on. I figured none of the other heads even attempted to explain what you will likely be taking over, so I might as well be the first. Take your time. I’ll be back after my meetings.” He patted Aiden on the shoulder and left the entire office to Aiden without even a guard to watch him.
The Chen operated on trust and loyalty. The Zhou operated on stiff hierarchy. The Yang operated on fear and manipulation. How have the families even gotten along for this long for Infinite to continue? Aiden lowered himself into a chair and began reading through the documents. How did my brother fit into the picture?
His hands froze when he repeated Mr. Chen’s conversation in his head.
His stepmother was always involved with Infinite. Aiden thought she held little power or authority in the operations, and from the way his brother spoke, he didn’t believe his brother allowed her to involve herself. How long has she actually been involved with Infinite then?
A shiver ran up his spine. He tried to focus on the documents before him, but new questions drowned him in their depths.
• • •
Be grateful.
His grip tightened around his pencil.
Be dutiful, be obedient, be kind. Thank his good fortunes and acknowledge the struggles the Hui family swam through to climb to their station.
Aiden stood amongst a sea of swirling questions. They washed over him, drowning him in the depths. Choking, he swam against the currents of swirling words. With lungs bursting and light disappearing, he reached forward as if he could grasp the air in his hands. Instead, he grabbed words from the sea of questions, opening his palm to see them arrange themselves.
Had Yin Mei always been this deeply involved with Infinite?
He should be grateful for his stepmother’s involvement. He knew nothing about the business. The will was still missing. If the other families knew, not only were his stepfamily’s lives in danger, but his as well. She managed to lie for him to ensure they suspected nothing. She prevented them from ushering him into a position he was wholly unprepared for. Because of her, all his brother’s hard work didn’t turn into dust like the corpse sealed in a coffin.
Just do what she tells you to do. She clearly knows what she’s doing. Be grateful.
A hand wrapped around his arm, and its pressure pulled him out from the world of drowning words and crashing questions. He gasped, and he stared into eyes of calming blue.
Aiden was still tutoring Brendan and Christina with Javier.
Brendan’s hand remained softly cupped around his arm, but he moved it away when Aiden turned to acknowledge him. “We were talking to you,” Brendan finally said. He peered over. “You seemed out of it.”
“I’m…sorry,” Aiden mumbled and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He shivered at the angry blowing of the air conditioning. His back ached against the hard surface of the chair. “I dozed off.”
“All right, I’m going to say it.”
He looked up in surprise toward Christina, who swiveled her chair around to face him. Her arms crossed and pressed against her chest, and she uncrossed her legs to scoot closer to him. “What your family is doing to you is wrong, and you shouldn’t take it. We all think that.”
Aiden scooted backward. “My family’s not doing anything to me.”
“Then why were you crying the other night about wanting to be a teacher? You’re already in college to become a teacher. And I’m guessing whatever job they’re forcing to work in is not that.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Aiden murmured.
“Look, I know you’re going to say it has to do with family and the role you fulfill for them and how it’s a cultural thing, but Javier’s family is like that, too. He’s talked to me about the pressure he feels from his parents and even his grandparents, but I know that his family doesn’t treat him the way yours do. Javier, talk to him.”
I’m tired.
Aiden turned his face, grey from sleep deprivation, over to look at Javier.
Javier sat with fidgeting hands, sagging shoulders, and a jittery leg. However, his eyes remained steady, and he nodded at Christina’s words. “I wouldn’t have said it like Christina, but I don’t disagree. I get feeling like you can’t talk back or argue with what your parents want. Hell, my dad still struggles with my grandmother on that. But still…” Javier’s leg stopped jittering. He placed his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Just because you feel an obligation to your family’s wishes does not mean they get to trample over yours. Stop working. Tell them you quit. You’re falling asleep in an uncomfortable chair—and upright, mind you.”
“That’s not why!” Aiden snapped. He slammed his hand on the table. “You don’t understand, and I can’t explain it, so please, stop talking about this.”
Javier and Christina flinched. He watched with horror as their faces fell. He bowed his head and covered his eyes. Words of apology bubbled out from his lips, incoherent, and he tried to curl up to hide his fury, but couldn’t in that tiny, hard chair. He twitched, itching to scratch his own face and pull out his own hair. Maybe I will, he goaded himself. One of his hands grasped his head. Maybe I will.
“Guys, that’s enough.” Brendan stood up, slipped his fingers underneath Aiden’s, and lowered his hand down from his head. “We should go. It’s late. You two go back. I’ll walk with Aiden.”
Heart fluttering from its broken pieces, Aiden gazed upon Brendan with wide eyes. He grasped tightly to Brendan’s hand, pointedly turning his head away.
Awkward silence filled the room, save for the sound of backpacks rustling. A pair of feet left first, and another pair followed, before stopping at the door. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Christina said and left.
“You agree with them, don’t you?” Aiden croaked. He continued to latch onto Brendan.
A beat of silence. “I don’t really know anything, and it’s definitely not my place to say anything. All I do know is that you’re tired, and you don’t look well. I do think you should take better care of yourself,” Brendan said.
“There are things I have to do.”
“You can’t do those things if you’re not well. I’m…not trying to intrude. So let me know if I’ve overstepped.” Brendan took a breath. “I’m just saying—we care about you. We want to see you happy, and you don’t seem to be. Right now, at least. But if you don’t want to talk about it, we just won’t talk about it.”
Aiden curled his fingers tighter, trying to draw Brendan’s warmth into his own shivering body. Don’t be weak. He closed his eyes to hold back tears. Unable to muster the strength to stand, he whispered, “Can we just stay here for a few more minutes? Before I go back home?”
“Mmm.” Brendan sat back down beside him, but purposefully moved his chair away. His fingers remained curled around Aiden’s, gently, but stayed loose enough for Aiden to withdraw his hand if he chose to do so.
Beyond thankful, Aiden stayed an arm’s length apart from Brendan, took a deep breath, and rested his head on the table. The two sat in silence, entwining their fingers in the passing peace.
Chapter Nine
“This what you want! Everything’s always about you!”
Aiden stopped short of the front door at Zhu Zhu’s screaming. His stomach grinded. Disdainful eyes, a razor-edged voice, and a body boiling with impatience waited for him inside. But I can’t stay outside forever…
He forced the door open, stepping inside to see Zhu Zhu’s tear-streaked face. She threw a decorative vase onto the ground. The porcelain crashed into pieces, and scattered, joining the torn pages of an artbook.
He closed the door, shutting it louder than he hoped, and the three abruptly stopped to stare at him. Zhu Zhu’s hair stuck out in chaos, and mascara streamed down her face. She wiped her eyes, glared daggers at her mother, and stormed up the stairs. Aiden stepped aside in time as she shoved past him. Her bedroom door slammed so hard that Aiden’s heart jumped to his throat at the expected impact.
“Zhu Zhu!” He Bao cried and attempted to give chase.
“Leave her, He Bao. There is no point in trying to reason with her when she is being so emotional,” Aiden's stepmother hissed. A few strands stuck out from her well-crafted bun. She realigned her dress sleeves.
I could not have worse luck.
“I was waiting for you,” his stepmother snapped. She marched out of the living room to where he stood at the doorway and shoved the photograph of his brother in his face. “Why do you have this?”
Aiden’s heart heaved back into his mouth, racing for an acceptable excuse, but his stepmother continued before he could even attempt one. “You knew that this was dangerous to have for the family. He Bao told me that you volunteered to tear this up. Is there a reason for you keeping it?”
