(Note:- This story is pure fiction and the way the crime was done may or may not be foolproof in real life. But don't try it in real life due to obvious reasons)
~~~~
Lillian returned home and found the dining table was already set up.
She sniffed the air as a funny smell hit her. It wasn't bad but it wasn't a pleasant one either.
"You're back." Her sister panted out, coming out of her room holding kitty's back to her chest to keep her claws away from her.
"What... is going on?" Lillian asked, puzzled. Her cat had never behaved that way before. Meowing and swinging her claws around with the intent of scratching someone.
"This thing is man crazy." Riley said in an accusatory tone holding the cat infront of her.
The cat, as if understanding Riley said something bad about it, meowed agitated, complaining to Lillian about Riley.
Lillian looked at kitty and then back at her sister and then back at the cat.
"What?" She asked, making a funny expression to convey her thoughts and feelings.
"Alex dropped me here. And guess what!? You're cat saw him and clung to his clothes."
"You brought Alex here?" Lillian interrupted Riley and asked.
"It was only for 5 minutes and it was early in the morning. You were still in Vincent's." Riley explained before looking down at the feral animal in her hand and glaring.
"I had to pry her off of him as he had an important meeting to go to. And she had been sulking ever since-."
"She had been sulking and didn't want to eat." Lillian finished on her behalf, nodding to herself, understanding the situation.
This wasn't the first time it happened so she wasn't surprised. They previously had a model stay right across the hall in one of the apartments, it was when Lillian had newly bought kitty who was only a few weeks old.
Lillian ran into him one day in the hallway with kitty and he had greeted her thinking she was Riley and even ruffled Kitty's fur, making her purr in delight and lick his hand.
Later that day after returning home kitty kept looking at the door, longingly, and refused to eat when Lillian kept it's food next to it. She had then taken it to the vet thinking something was wrong with it- only for the vet to assure her nothing was wrong with Kitty, fortunately.
Lillian was worried but only after it happened again did she realize her cat was just crazy for attractive men who pet it's fur.
"Yea, so I showed a few pictures of Alex in my phone after putting the lasagna in the oven. Right the lasagna!" Riley exclaimed, gently putting kitty down, and went around Lillian to open the oven.
So, that's the smell Lillian smelt!
"Would you mind giving me a hand?" Riley asked with a sheepish smile, showing Lillian her hands, which was filled with kitty's fur.
Lillian shook her head with a smile and reached for the oven mitts.
"I can't believe you were trying to make kitty jealous." She said, putting the oven mitts on and reaching for the container inside the oven.
"I'm offended you'd think I was trying to make her jealous." Riley said, dramatically, placing a hand over her chest making Lillian give her a blank look. "Maybe a little bit. You know I love messing with her, it's so fun."
"How does your brain even work?"
"In unique ways. And she had been trying to scratch me ever since." Riley said proud of herself before pouting, sneering at kitty who meowed pitifully scratching herself on lillian's jeans, like she had been wronged.
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Lillian replied placing the glass container on the counter behind them and removing the foil paper on the container.
"Ouch. Anyways how did your day go?" Riley asked looking at the lasagna as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. Lillian noticed how anxious Riley sounded. Even if it was only a little bit, it was enough to give her away.
"Good." Lillian replied. She didn't really have anything much to say about it. "I forgot my room and had to lie to mother that I had a headache." Lillian narrated the story succinctly.
Riley nodded.
"What do you think about her?" Riley asked. The only thing that's stopping her from just leaving that family was Laura. Riley felt like she was punishing the wrong person, but she did choose their father so indirectly it is her fault. But she can't help but feel she'll regret it later on.
Laura was a pitiful person, and Riley would be broken if she were to be in Laura's shoes. Her being oblivious to everything and her child coming back only to leave her again- only this time, they won't be coming back.
Lillian thought for a few seconds, searching for the right word. She didn't know what she thought of Laura or find any words that she can associate with her.
Fragile, perhaps? Pitiful?
She loved her husband and children so she was a good person but how did Lillian perceive her? It was a difficult question since she didn't interact with her much.
"Alright, I guess." Lillian mumbled, searching for a fork to see if the dish was done.
Riley frowned hearing such a passive response.
~~~
"Don't you think she deserves to know she had twins?" Riley asked, coming out of her room after washing her hands thoroughly.
Riley had never thought of telling them they were twins, but the idea suddenly popped in her head while she was in the bathroom. If she was in her shoes and she had given birth to twins, she would've wanted to know.
"She deserves to know." Lillian said, keeping the lasagna at a side to let it cool after poking a fork into it to see if it was done.
Well, Riley can't live as Lillian forever, she had her own identity so it made sense why they had to know they were twins.
"Do you want her to know though?" Riley asked her pointedly with one of her eyebrow raised.
Lillian had to think about it. Why did it matter what she wanted? It was what had to be done, if Riley wanted that is. She can't force her to do something she wasn't comfortable with.
"She has the right to know." Lillian said shrugging her shoulders.
That really didn't give the answer Riley was looking for. Or maybe this was her way of telling she didn't want Laura to know they were twins. Riley wasn't sure, which dampened her mood. Even after living with Lillian for so long, Riley didn't have enough insight into her thoughts.
Lillian was a righteous and practical women who followed the rules but... her wants, Riley wasn't sure about them. She had always been on the passive side so Riley didn't know everything about her. Even after 8 years, her sister was still a mystery to her.
"How is the investigation going?" Lillian asked, changing the subject as she saw Riley put her thinking face on then have an upset look. Whatever she was thinking, she didn't like it. And it didn't take a genius to figure out it was about Lillian.
Her sister was too nice sometimes.
"We have the face of the suspect. Remember the last case I was telling you about, the human trafficking ring. Yep, he is a part of it." As if a switch had went off in her, her mood changed from distressed to excited.
Riley had always been excited to talk to her about her cases and investigations. And Lillian hopped it'd lift her mood up a little bit.
"If you have information about him, then isn't the case over?" Him being part of the human trafficking ring was enough but him directly being involved in kidnapping, that just sealed the deal.
Riley scowled. "Not even close, we have no idea where he is. And I think he is in a disguise, I remember seeing him before." She placed a finger under her chin as she tried to remember where she last saw him.
Her eyes widened as a thought struck her. She was sure she had met him when she was a child- either a preteen or a teenager before Lillian started living with them- but it wouldn't hurt to ask her whether she knew the scarfaced man.
She fished out her phone from her pocket, unlocked it, searched for the picture in her gallery and held it out to Lillian- who sat on a chair with kitty in her hands and her fist holding a cat bar snack for Kitty.
"Have you seen him before?" Riley asked, keeping the phone on the table in front of Lillian.
Lillian hunched over to take a good look at the picture of an old man with a scar running down his face, he had a grin on his face which revealed the broken front teeth in his upper jaw.
The face doesn't really ring a bell...
Lillian shook her head at Riley.
So, she was right. Riley met this man before Lillian began living with them.
"Didn't you saw you arrested the human trafficking ring leader and the ones working for him? What about this one, then?" Lillian asked, since the human trafficking ring was taken down then shouldn't it be easy to find him?
But if he is in a disguise- it'd explain the difficulty. But why was he the only one in a disguise, what about the others? Did he perhaps know more information than others? That seemed unlikely.
Riley slumped on the chair beside her and sighed, tired but excited at the same time. Tired after after standing for an hour to make the lasagna and running away from kitty making her muscles lock in, in some places and excited for telling Lillian about the details of the ring.
She didn't know why, talking to anyone about crime made her excited. They are interesting. Though she didn't approve of the crime, she wondered how the criminals' brain functioned in intrigue.
But she had to be really careful who she talked to about her missions since they were confidential, as to not make the public worry or the suspect wary after hearing some rumors about themselves.
"He is not part of the human traffickers, he is part of sex trafficking. That is, the girls or boys who are abducted by the human traffickers are later auctioned to the sex traffickers and people like this man, bring the victims to their respective superior and later the victims will be part of their brothels." Riley explained as best as she could, pointing towards the man's picture in her phone.
Lillian nodded, processing what Riley told her.
"It's illegal. How are the brothels still functioning?" Lillian stated and asked. If the victims were to go to the cops for help then it would lead to further investigation and, in the end, the brothels would get closed.
Riley shrugged. "Contract. The victims are made to sign a contract that they willing entered into a contract with them."
"But they bought them- which is illegal. Can't you relate them both?" Lillian added, petting kitty's fur with one hand and feeding it the cat bar in another. If they had proof that the victims were kidnapped and sold, and are now forced to sell their bodies, wouldn't it make the contract null and void?
Riley sighed. They thought of it too before realizing these men were too clever. Unless a bunch of those innocent victims came forward to file a complaint against them, it won't be possible.
"We tried but we don't have enough evidence to support the claim. Human trafficking is easier to prove since you only need evidence that they had been kidnapped but illegal brothels... we need proof that they were bought and no one is ready to make a statement of file a complaint, since it almost always results in death. And they do it in such a way, we cannot connect the bodies to these men.
There isn't much we can do unless we get the leader to confess- and it doesn't seem like he is willing to do it anytime soon." Riley said, annoyed with the leader of the human trafficking ring.
Lillian nodded, trying to think of a loophole.
"What if.... you are able to prove they were bought. By witnessing the victims being sold, perhaps?" Lillian wondered out loud. Well, then, the victims would be traumatized for life and she highly doubted it was ethical. So, the idea is not an option.
Riley's eyes widened in surprise at her sister's question.
"Girl, you're dark! But no, that isn't how we do things. No one gets hurt, physically or emotionally. Though I can understand where you are coming from, it still won't be enough. This is like a hierarchy, there is a supplier, then brothel owner, under them their underlings, and even more underlings under each one of them and so on.
The one in the middle, aka middlemen- who are important but not too important- will go to the auctions and buy the victims, on the brothel owners behalf. And if they were to get caught, the cops wouldn't be able to associate it with these shady brothel owners because they have normal 9 to 5 jobs in different company which makes it almost impossible to know who these people work for."
That was a lot of information. It was almost like they were in a crime novel. But Lillian would much rather prefer a novel over it being real, atleast no one will really get hurt in a novel.
"How did you manage to find the scar faced man?" Lillian asked, trying to create a world, inside her head, according to Riley's description. She had to say, it is hard to come up with a way to bring them down. But how are they so... united? She always thought humans would throw another person under the bus without hesitation if it benefits them or to save themselves.
There is definitely a ring master among them who is pulling the strings, that'd explain everything.
"Casey managed to get her hands on the invitation list (with the name of the brothel owners- who won't be attending) and also the identity of all the people who will be actually attending (the middlemen)." Riley could almost see the wheels turning inside her sister's head behind a blank face. "And no, the invitation list is not enough. They run a bar too and their lawyers could easily have it dismissed withing seconds stating that an invitation doesn't prove anything."
Lillian nodded her head, it didn't take long for her to figure that out and that wasn't what she was thinking, but it did confirm one of her assumptions.
"How are they not panicking, yet? After the leader got arrested?" It almost confirmed the fact that there was a master mind being these operations. If the leader was arrested, it should be enough to throw them off their game, atleast for a little while. Unless, someone already replaced them and the others know they have nothing to fear. But shouldn't, atleast one person mess up?
Riley shrugged her shoulder in response. She wasn't sure about it, either. But it only further confirmed her suspicion that Jason Matthews- the human trafficking leader's son- is part of selling humans.
She wasn't sure how big of a role he played behind the scenes, but she was sure he was part of the 'family business'.
"Maybe they are panicking- frightened out of their wits- or not, who knows. But even if they do manage to slip up and get caught, I highly doubt they'd give any information. The leader's son has a lot of dirt on the brothel owners. Anyways, the lasagna's all set now, let's dig in." Riley said changing the subject, in the end- getting up from the chair. That was enough crime talk for the day!
Riley felt guilty since she couldn't save all the victims and aggravated those people were committing crimes foolproof. Like, how can they do it so brilliantly?
Lillian nodded her head and saw kitty fast asleep on her lap.
Lillian picked it up and placed it on it's bed before crumbling the plastic cover in her hand and throwing it inside the dustbin.
~~~
Lillian held a fork in her hand as she contemplated whether she should eat it first or not.
Riley looked at her sister with her fingers crossed, internally squealing. This was her first time cooking and she wanted it to leave an impression on her sister.
Seeing Riley won't be taking the first step, Lillian stabbed a couple pasta on the corner of her plate and brought it to her mouth.
Well, it's edible. Lillian thought to herself as she chewed the pastas and gave Riley a thumbs up.
Riley grinned widely before trying the lasagna herself and grimaced. It was painful to even chew through the lasagna.
She almost gagged before turning towards her sister, apologetic.
"How are you even eating this?" Riley said with a disgusted look, using a napkin to spit the contents in her mouth out.
"It's not bad." Lillian said as she took another bite into her meal. She was not going to hurt Riley's feelings over some food!
"It's even worse. Give it to me! Let's order something." Riley claimed before sticking her hand out for the plate.
"We have different palates. What tastes good for me may not taste good for you, but that doesn't mean it isn't good." Lillian said. That wasn't necessarily false, just not completely true.
Well, if she is getting factual then there was nothing Riley can do.
Her sister is a saint, alright! Riley thought to herself, rolling her eyes.
~~~~
Later that day, Lillian found herself lying on the couch with her hand over her face and the other over her stomach, suffering from a bad stomach cramp.
She heard someone unlock the door but was too tired to turn her head. It can't be anyone she didn't know, since only Issac and Riley's parents had their key and she highly doubted Riley gave Alex the key to their home. Riley wasn't that reckless.
"You OK?" A familiar voice asked standing half outside and half inside the apartment with his hand wrapped around the door handle.
That got Lillian to turn around in surprise. She wasn't aware Issac would be dropping by today.
"Yea... what are you doing here?" She asked twisting her body so she wouldn't strain her neck looking at him.
"I heard you visited the Black's and came to check up on you." Issac replied, as if it was obvious what he was doing.
"You could've sent a message." Lillian offered.
Lillian knew Issac was at his place with his friend- going through their plan to build a resort- though she wasn't aware where exactly he lived, she knew that it was quite far away from her apartment.
"I wanted to see you too. You don't look quite good, I wouldn't have known that if I had sent a message." Issac noted before his tone dropped a pitch and spoke in a monotone. She could see his jaw clench as he looked at her. He was angry.
Lillian's face had a blank expression as it always did but she was pale. What the hell did Vincent do for her to go all pale?
"Riley cooked." Lillian said, licking her dry lips. Did she look that bad? She hadn't noticed if she did.
"I didn't know she can- ohh." Issac started before cutting himself off, as realization dawned on him.
"Want a bite?" Lillian asked with a grin. Riley threw it all away after she tasted it and didn't want Lillian to eat it, as she had a feeling that Lillian didn't like it herself but was pretending so as to not hurt her feelings.
"No." Issac said without hesitation.
He stepped closer to her and crouched down beside her. He placed his palm on her forehead and checked her temperature.
He pursued his lips. "Where's the indigestion pill?"
"I just had one before you stepped in." Lillian answered looking at his Adam's apple bobble up and down as he looked at her.
"Does it hurt anywhere?" He asked gently, moving a strand of hair from her forehead.
Lillian shook her head in response. If anything, she felt better.
"Well then, I will get going. Call me if you need anything." He said before stepping out of the apartment and closing the door halway behind him.
"Aren't you gonna stay longer?" Lillian called out, feeling like she was deprived of something. Upset he was leaving.
"Nope. I came to check up on you, which I did so bye for now. Let's go on a date tomorrow." Issac said and closed the door shut before she could say anything.
While, she didn't really have the energy to entertain him she certainly wouldn't have minded if he wanted to hang around. Strangely, she felt touched by his behavior too. He didn't have to say it, but she knew he just wanted her to give her alone time to process the day.
She wasn't good at verbalizing her needs and felt touched when Issac understood that without having to say a word. Or maybe it's just all in her head and he just wanted to hang out with his friend, but she chose to go with the former.