Aurel slammed her bedroom door in a fit of rage. She jumped onto her bed and screamed into her pillow. Aunt Eva entered her room, seeing what she was doing. With a worried expression, she sat on the edge of the bed while stroking Aurel's leg.
"Aurel? What's wrong?"
Aurel, still angry, sat up immediately. "See? What did Mr. Graham do to me?" she clicked her tongue in annoyance. "This is all because of Sophia!"
"Anyway, why were you getting drunk at PIK?" asked Aunt Eva.
"I wasn't drunk!" Aurel protested. "Maybe someone put something in my drink!" she guessed.
"Then, why didn't you tell Mr. Graham about this?"
Aurel shook her head. "He wouldn't believe me. He only believes Sophia!"
Aunt Eva leaned closer, whispering something. "Of course! Because she's his favorite child!"
The two continued gossiping about Sophia and Kaelino. Before Sophia started dating him, the girl seemed ordinary and tended to be neutral toward her family. But when Kaelino entered her life, Sophia became much more critical of her own family.
Aunt Eva, Uncle Roy, and Jordi shared the same thoughts. As family by blood, they were naturally cynical about outsiders like Kaelino, especially... he was just an ordinary man, someone who would only live off the Husky family fortune.
After the gossip ended, Aunt Eva decided to leave Aurel's room. Leaving the girl alone there after showing support for the injustice she had suffered at the dinner table.
As the hours passed, one by one the Husky family members fell asleep in their rooms. Sophia opened the door to Aurel's room; the girl was still awake in her bed. Her eyes stared cynically, as if she didn't want to see the face of the person who had ruined her that night.
"What do you want here? Haven't you had enough seeing Mr. Graham's punishment on me?" Aurel taunted.
Sophia stood in the doorway, then folded her arms beneath her chest. "I'm just teaching you a lesson, so you don't end up like Aunt Eva and Uncle Roy," she said.
Aurel smiled cynically. "What do you even know about them? Please, enlighten me, second heir!"
"Simply put, they have no influence in this family. Even though they are my father's siblings, they still don't contribute anything that my father needs," Sophia explained, making Aurel even angrier.
"That's just your opinion, Sophia!" Aurel snorted, unable to accept the accusation. "You even dare to insult your own family!"
"Oh, really? Anyway, I'm glad my father didn't end up kicking you out of this house."
Aurel lost her temper, rising from her bed. "Sophia! You've gone too far! If my father were here! He would punish you and your father too! You always think you're above everyone else, wake up!"
Sophia rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Oh Aurel, you're still too young to understand." She stroked Aurel's hair that fell over her left shoulder. "If my father hadn't been merciful back then, maybe now you wouldn't be feeling what the Husky family has given you."
Aurel wanted to fight back, but she couldn't. What Sophia said was true, and she couldn't argue with the painful reality of what had happened to her father. Her face turned gloomy, her breathing becoming quiet.
"I just don't want you to end up like Aunt Eva and Uncle Roy, who only know how to belittle others. Besides... you're only 19, you still have many choices in life, unlike them who are already in their forties." She took out her wallet, retrieving her credit card. "As long as your last name is Husky, you are my flesh and blood. I won't let you become a vagrant because of my father's anger."
Sophia took Aurel's hand, handing the credit card to the pitiful girl. "Return it after my father unfreezes your ATM." She smiled slightly, winking one eye at her.
"Wh-why?"
Aurel stared at the card. Her hands trembled not from fear, but because she didn't understand. Sophia had just destroyed her at the dinner table. But now... Sophia was giving her a credit card.
Sophia disappeared from sight; slowly, Aurel closed her bedroom door. She looked again at Sophia's credit card. "Stupid sister, I don't understand what you're planning!" she muttered. "And that damned Kaelino, he managed to get close to you. How foolish!"
*
*
*
Days passed. At the police station, a slight tension arose between Kaelino and his superior. He slammed a file onto the police chief's desk, his expression serious.
"For four months I've been on this mission, and the results were useless." Kaelino stared at him, witnessed by several other officers not far away. "Satrio, he's the perpetrator. Was the voice recording I sent still not enough?"
The police chief massaged his temples, feeling a bit dizzy. "Son, it's not our right to arrest him. We only provide this evidence to the agency that has the authority. This is beyond our control."
"Are they being paid by Satrio, sir?"
"Son, don't talk like that." He pulled Kaelino's body closer. "Listen to me. They are everywhere, and you'd better be careful."
Kaelino glanced around at his fellow officers. "Are... we submitting to criminals like them?"
"No," replied the police chief. "We just need stronger evidence, not just the words of his half-drunk daughter."
"She wasn't drunk, she was one hundred percent sober," Kaelino clarified, still remembering how Satrio's daughter had consciously leaked the information.
The police chief didn't want to take the risk; he stood and guided Kaelino out of his office. "You're still on leave, aren't you? I have a vacation recommendation for you."
"But, what about this case?"
"Consider it closed; we'll just hand it over to them." The police chief smiled and nodded.
"Them who? Those who dare not fight the law?"
"Enough, son. We'll catch him another time." The police chief placed his hands on Kaelino's shoulders with a friendly smile. "I'm counting on you for the next mission."
Kaelino nodded slightly, a hint of dissatisfaction on his face. He then stepped out of the police station and glanced back briefly. He began to question himself, about their responsibility as enforcers of justice, still too blunt against the mafia. No matter how sharp their bullets were, they wouldn't touch those who felt immune to the law.
With a half-disappointed feeling, he quickly got into his car parked among the rows of officers' vehicles. The view from inside was no longer the same as when he first set foot here. Or perhaps... Satrio was too powerful for him to face alone?
As he was about to fasten his seatbelt, he briefly saw the reflection of someone sitting in the back seat of the car in the windshield. Kaelino let out a weak sigh.
"Captain." He glanced back with a flat stare. "Is there no other way, besides sneaking in like this?"
Captain Lubis smiled slightly, then showed him a file. "Satrio was declared free, wasn't he?" Kaelino just nodded, his gaze straight ahead. "You must be upset," Captain Lubis continued.
"Satrio isn't alone, son. He has several connections. But... the evidence I have is still too weak to put him away in Nusakambangan."
"So, what should I do?" asked Kaelino, curious. His eyes now directed toward the car's rearview mirror. "Without help from the police, we can't do anything."
"If we involve the police, everything will be hampered and take a long time. That man might even... go abroad and the case will be dropped," Captain Lubis asserted. He then handed the file in his hand to Kaelino. "The illegal mining products are always shipped using containers at two in the morning."
Kaelino opened the file the Captain gave him, one by one looking at the photos and the results of Captain Lubis's surveillance. He then pulled out one photo that remained a mystery. "About this photo of three people? Is there any other evidence?"
"Not yet, I don't have access to the mall parking lot CCTV. But I'm sure they are Satrio's business partners," Captain Lubis said confidently. "That's why I'm gathering all of you."
Kaelino glanced back. "You contacted all of them?"
"Yes, of course." Captain Lubis put on his sunglasses, his right hand now on the car door. "B'Bread, May twentieth at nine in the morning. Don't be late," he said, then got out of the car.
Kaelino's eyes shifted to his side mirror; there Captain Lubis was walking casually before disappearing into the crowd in the police station yard. On May twentieth, he was required to go to a place, along with the others Captain Lubis had gathered. He knew... as an intelligence police officer, the law was a barrier to bringing his targets to justice.
But without being bound by the law? Could he directly judge his targets? Like Satrio, who could still laugh freely and sit in fancy restaurants with his family?
He knew his status was as a law enforcer. He couldn't cross that line. And suddenly, a crazy idea crossed his mind. To free himself from the net that always held him back.
"I'm going to resign from the police force," he muttered, looking at the police station from behind his car window.