Under The Veil of Night

Raising her hand to the door knob, Kanae gathered her resolve. Even if it was hard, she had to tell her sister.

Kreet (sounds of door opening)

Looking at the living room in the mansion, she saw that the light was dim but not completely off. In the middle of the hall, sitting on the couch was her younger sister. Turning her head back, Laura stared at the haggard looking Kanae.

"Sis, is the news true? Mom and dad left?"

The expression on her sister’s face caused Kanae to nearly unable to step any closer. It was so painful to see the helplessness and pain on the young girl’s face. Laura was clearly trying to hide it, but the gaze she had showed them all clearly. Gathering her resolve, she nodded her head slightly.

"They have left, Laura."

Laura didn’t immediately answer. She turned her gaze slightly to the other side. "I see."

Making her way to the couch, Kanae sat down beside Laura. The two of them didn’t say anything, but Laura slowly lowered her head to Kanae’s shoulder, resting on them.

No words came out, but Kanae could feel her shoulder getting wet. She slowly raised her arm and caressed the girl’s head. Both of them were trying to hide their sadness. They don’t have anyone else anymore, only each other with a lot of people vying for them.

At that moment, Kanae vowed that she would protect her sister. No matter how hard it would be, she would do everything she could to make sure that Laura would be able to live normally. At the very least, she didn’t want to see her sister cried like this anymore.

"Everything is going to be alright," she said in soothing voice.

Laura knew that it was not true, but she nodded her head nonetheless. Even if it was a lie from her sister’s side, she would believe it. Her sister would never disappoint her.

They stayed like that for a long time until the two of them fell asleep due to tiredness.

...

Kanae didn’t know how many things she had to take care. From her parent’s grave to the matter of inheritance, she took care of them all. To not make Laura worry, she didn’t tell Laura anything and let that girl started the new semester without asking for anything but study.

Today, she got a special guest, her aunt.

"Brat, is there anything you need? You seem rather tired," her aunt asked in a mocking tone.

Looking at her aunt, a beautifully dressed woman, in front of her, Kanae held the urge to not beat this woman up. Even though there seemed to be nothing out of ordinary, she knew very well what this woman had done to her family. Not just this woman, but also her uncle and their daughter.

Kanae looked back at her aunt. "I want you to stay away from my family. You already get what you want, right?"

Her aunt’s eyes narrowed. "Are you talking about the fake golden letter that you make? Do you think it’s enough to make me stay away from you?"

"You already threaten me to make it. I don’t have anything valuable for you anymore."

When she was young, her aunt came to her parents, asking for the letter. She used a lot of means to make sure that she could get it. Towards her insistence, Kanae decided to make a forged one with the help of her parents, which surprisingly turned out to be a pretty well done letter.

Her parents gave the letter to her aunt and with that, she no longer bothered with them.

However, there were more problems lately because her aunt’s daughter performance was not up to par with the standard. As the result, she continued to ask for her parents to make forged result to ensure that her daughter could stay in that prestigious school.

Now without her parents, there was no way she could do that anymore.

Her aunt sneered. "Indeed, a young girl without anything valuable. Your parents are too poor that the inheritance they give will never worth much in my eye."

Kanae stared back at her aunt calmly. These few days, she has been facing with a lot of derision from countless people. Adding one more wouldn’t hurt her at all because it was nothing but verbal attack. Compared with the pain of losing her parents, it wouldn’t amount to anything.

"Since I don’t have anything valuable, it shouldn’t be hard for you to stay away from me, don’t you?"

Her aunt lowered his gaze. "Brat, do you think I can’t leak the news about you making forged letter?"

"If you treasure you and your daughter life, you won’t do that," Kanae replied calmly.

Her aunt snorted. This brat sure knew quite a lot. Trying to fool the government would be the same as asking for death because they didn’t like it. With the power behind them, no one dared to stand up against them and messed up with their rules.

"You’re lucky, I don’t want to do anything with you too. I’m already too busy," her aunt finally answered. "But let me remind you, brat. Even if you come to me while crying, I’ll never lend you a hand."

"I won’t."

The two of them stared at each other as her aunt examined the young girl’s gaze. She snickered internally, truly worthy of someone bearing the blood of her sister: determined and unwilling to give up.

Kanae watched as her aunt walked away. It was only the very first step because there were still a lot of things she had to do. One of them was fighting for the inheritance she had. Because she was still underage, the inheritance was supposedly placed in the hand of her uncle.

She was worried that her aunt might intervene, so she decided to have this talk with her. Little did she know that her aunt would die just a few weeks after this incident because of some matters.

"Like I will let you off with my inheritance," Kanae looked towards the sky with determination. Even if they tried to pressure her down, she would never give up.

Looking towards the list on her hand, she knew that the hearing with the elders of the Nali Family would take place not long from now. She had to convince them that she was capable enough to take care of herself and not under her uncle.

It would be very hard for she was only a 14 years old girl.

"I need money right now," Looking at her wallet, she knew that she already almost used up the money they had for the burial and many other things. Even for living, it would be hard to have enough.

Her eyes turned to the dark alleyway located not far from her. It was a narrow road leading directly to the Black Street not far from here.

Black Street...

In the past, she would never think about going there because of how dangerous it was. She had learned martial arts, but it could never guarantee her safety because anything could happen there. Not to mention, the fact that she was a girl alone could drag numerous troubles if she roamed there.

"I don’t have any choice, don’t I?"

Rummaging her clothes, she found a black uniform for male. It was the costume that she bought for a drama last year. Trying it on, she found out that she didn’t have much change in her build. Afterwards, she picked up a cloth to cover up her face in order to not let anyone found out her real identity.

Gathering her courage, she stepped out from the house into the dark alley.