An Undercover Spy

Silent Breakfast

    Dim sunlight poured in through the window and washed over Avery's face. The loud knocking quickly lured her from her sleep. 

    Avery propped herself up on one elbow. She slowly rubbed her eyes with her free hand.  

    Too loud! Who would dare knock like that on her door?!

    What time was it? 

    She stood up and yawned. It was still 4:30 am for the love of god! Why would someone come knocking on her room like that. 

    She walked calmly to the bathroom, not caring about the knocking. It wasn’t her family so whatever happened to them didn’t matter to her. 

    She washed her face and quickly brushed her teeth. Avery headed to her room’s mirror and brushed her hair with her hand.   

    “Whoever it is, you just signed your death’s date!”she yelled as she opened the door. 

    Avery frowned as she saw no one. Then, she felt a light tap on her right leg. She looked down, startled and scowled at the little kid in front of her. 

    “Mom! Ezra! There’s a thief!!” The young boy screamed with a smirk on his face. Avery gasped and deepened her scowl. He looked so much like James, he was clearly his child. 

    Like father like son. Both of them are crazy. Avery wondered if all the family was the same. She would kill herself if the family she was spying on are some crazy psychopaths!

    “Lord help me!”she muttered as she walked to her nightstand to bring her phone. 

    Suddenly, she felt herself being dragged backwards and attacked onto the floor. 

    “What the! Get away you moron!”She pushed the man with all her force. “What do you think you’re doing?”

    “Who are you and what are you doing in my house?”he shouted. 

    ‘Oh I’m spying on your dad, sweetie’ she fought the urge to say that sentence. 

    “I’m your daddy’s personal assistant”she said in full sarcasm, making the man roll his eyes. 

    “About time he tells us!”he huffed walking out with the young boy. 

    “Don’t you ever do that again! And you smirking little frog, if you weren’t 4 years old, I would’ve kicked you to China!”she screamed, pointing at them. They stopped walking and turned around. 

    “Hey! I’m 5! You are 4!”

    “How dare you say that to a child-“

    “I’m not a child!”

    “Tim stop! And you, you’ll regret this! Who the hell brings a girl like this to his house!”he said, shaking his head and walking away. 

    “I’m a woman!”she corrected, stomping her feet angrily. 

    “Why is happening here!? Why are your loud voices heard from upstairs?”came James, dressed into a suit. 

    Avery gasped silently as she took a glance at her room’s window. The sun wasn’t completely up yet and he was already working?! 

    “This person you brought was insulting your child”his son said. 

    “Did I hear right Ms. Emelcourt?”James questioned. 

    “Not entirely! I was calmly sleeping and then suddenly I heard loud knocking on my door, I ran and opened it. Then your young child started screaming out of nowhere and called me a thief!”she explained, telling half the truth. 

    “Can we end this? I’m already bored”he said, fake yawning. 

    ‘What kind of father he is? He didn’t even try to know what happened.’

    “That’s nice!”she exclaimed, walking back in and closing the door. 

    “I didn’t even have the chance to look at that annoying man because of the younger one’s smirk. Jeez what kind of 5 year old boy is this evil!”she grunted. 

****

    Awkward. It was the only feeling that was surrounding Avery. 

    Sitting on a table alone wasn’t making her feel any better. So, she got up and and stood beside the window. 

    She waited and waited and waited till the family got down. She was starving. 

    She was wearing a simple white T-shirt with dark blue jeans. She just wanted to go and eat the food from the kitchen. 

    After some minutes, James and a lady Avery’s age walked down the stairs. Was she his daughter? 

    She was beautiful with a short petite body. She was staring Avery up and down. She had pixie blonde hair and hazel eyes. 

    “I see you’re waiting for us Ms. Emelcourt”James said amusedly. 

    “Yeah actually no. I was just looking at the beautiful view” she chuckled. 

    “Okay”he said, ending the conversation. “Come over”he invited. She nodded and sat beside them. 

    James was sitting at the end of the table, of course, wearing his all day suit. The woman was sitting beside him on a side chair. Avery walked and sat in front of her. 

    As the servants saw that they had arrived, they came in with the food in their hand. 

    As always, she had a poker face on. No emotions. No expressions. That was her rule. 

    Loud footsteps were heard. She turned her head towards the stairs and saw the same young boy descending down the stairs with his brother. 

    For the first time, she was able to look at him. He was already staring. She nodded her head as a simple sign of greeting. He kept looking at her for a while and nodded his head back. 

    He had chestnut hair and deep forest green eyes. He was tall and well built. It was like he stays all his day in the gym.     

    She was glad someone else was like her. They both didn’t show any expressions. Avery wasn’t heartless, just careful. 

    She removed her eyes away when two women came following behind. One of them was very old and the other look like she was in her early fifties. 

    They all settled down and were all staring at her. Finally, James broke the silence to introduce them. 

    “This is Jess, my only daughter. This is my mom, Beth. The woman sitting at the other end of the table is my wife, Bertha. My oldest son is Ezra and the youngest one is Time but you can call him Tim” he said. 

    Avery looked down and hid her face with her hair. She tried hard not to laugh. Time? What kind of a name is that?

    “Nice to meet you. I’m Anna” she said, coughing, covering her laugh. 

   “You too”the old woman, James’ mom smiled. She was the only one who seemed friendly enough for Avery to smile back at, not like any of the others were smiling. 

    After James invited them all to start eating, they all dug into their plates. 

    It was just as Avery liked. A silent breakfast. She liked a quiet atmosphere around her in the morning since she wasn’t a morning person. 

    As she took a bite of her pancake, her face went pale. She felt like her mouth was burning. Immediately, she grabbed her cup of water and swallowed it quickly. 

    She stared at the others who had the same expressions as her. They were all staring at each other in disgust. 

    Suddenly, James shouted and two servants came rushing towards them. 

    “Call the cook right now!”he screamed. 

    Soon after, Sky came running  out of the kitchen with sweat on his forehead. 

James stood up and hovered over him. “I have never tasted any kind of food like that! Everything is so salty to the point that I feel my stomach on fire! How much salt did you put!”he shouted.      

“Uhh-not m-much Sir. I kno-w you don’t like- like it. Please forgive me sir”he stuttered while staring down.      

It made Avery a little frightened and pitying Sky. What if it was just a mistake? But how come all the food had extra salt?    

At that point, Avery frowned in confusion as she stared at the table. Everything was salty. If it was just one kind of food then it would a bit understandable.      

“This is unbelievable. I’m not giving you more chances to ruin my mood. Just leave my house and learn how to cook again!”    

“Sir, I’ve been working here with my wife and children for over 15 years, you can’t fire me”he said, helplessly.      

“Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do? Get out right now, before I bring the guards to drag you!”    

“Mr. Lueders, please, I’m begging you. I have a family to feed, ple-“    

“Guards!”James screamed as loud as he can, startling everybody, except Avery. She was starting to realize how similar that man was to her father. They were exactly the same. They were selfish, mean and cruel. She was used to shouting by now.      

The doors opened and entered three guards, different than yesterday.      

“Take him outside!”he ordered.      

They caught him from his arms and dragged him to the door as he was struggling against them. They shoved him outside and closed the doors after that.      

Avery lowered her gaze to her lap and wondered into her thoughts. If that man was treated like that for a simple mistake then what would happen to her if he found out about her identity?      

“Should I cook or will we continue this?”James’ mom asked softly. She looked like a baby. It was like time had stopped her young self from aging.      

“No mom, I’m not feeling like eating anymore. He ruined my mood. Anna, follow me, we have work to do”he ordered, walking away.      

Avery nodded, even if he couldn’t see her and followed him to his office.      

“Mr. Lueders, don’t you find it weird that all the food was salty? If it was a mistake, he would’ve added more salt accidentally only in one type of food not all of them”she said as they both sat down.      

“You’re saying he did it on purpose?”he asked with an amused look in his eyes.      

“No, I don’t mean that. If he did, then he’s really wishing to get fired. But I feel like it wasn’t his mistake.”    

“We have one chef only”he said, getting back to his work.      

“Can you excuse me for a few minutes?”    

“Why?”he asked.      

“Just a few minutes”she said with a simple smile. He nodded hesitantly. “Thank you sir” she said, walking out.      

She walked all the way to the kitchen, surprising the maids who were cleaning there.      

“Umm hi. Can I know where do you put the spices.”    

“May I know why’d you like to know?”the oldest one of them questioned.      

“I think I can prove that Sky is innocent”Avery replied, standing bravely in front of the three maids. They all shared looks and the one in the middle gasped.      

“You can prove that my husband is innocent?”The oldest asked.      

Avery nodded as the woman pointed towards a big white box.    

Avery smiled as the spice box reminded her of her house. They had the same one there.      

She opened it and looked for the salt. “Here it is!”she said as she found it. “Hand me a teaspoon please”she requested, opening her palm.      

One of them placed a spoon in her hand and she dug it in, taking a small amount of salt.      

She grabbed the spoon closer and inspected it. She looked at it for some time and said “Call all the family here” she ordered, looking angry. None of the maids could reject her command so they scurried off, calling all of the family members.      

“What is it that you called us all here for, Ms. Emelcourt?” James asked as soon as he arrived with a deep scowl on his face.