𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 | ✔

• Chapter 1 •

Third Person POV:-

The little girl danced on the table as her mother and the other employees closed the restaurant for the day. 'Fusion-o', the restaurant owned by Kira Hayda, was nestled in the hills of Darjeeling in India. The rain softly battered against the glass windows, the hazy monsoon weather with the lush greenery surrounding the area proving Darjeeling's name as 'The Land of Celestial Thunderbolt'.

Kira was in the back discussing with her assistant to give the leftover food to the orphanages nearby. She suddenly felt two soft hands grabbing her white Kurti. She turned around to see her daughter, Talia holding on to her clothes while also moving her feet to the rhythm of Marshmallow's 'Happier'.

"Hi honey, having fun?"Kira asks her daughter. Talia nods her head and shows her the soft toy rabbit she had received from her mother this morning.

"I named him Mr. Whiskers, from the movie Mama. The white rabbit who fell in the hole.", Talia says with an adorable voice. Her blue eyes which she had inherited from her mother sparkled under the dim light. Kira smiled widely at her daughter's cuteness. Even her assistant, Diya was enamored by Talia's charm. She had the whole restaurant wrapped around her little finger.

With naturally blonde hair, baby blue eyes, and dimples that popped whenever she smiled, all the regular customers and tourists gushed over her cuteness.

(LOL guys, that sounded a bit rhyming, but oh well 😋)

She had not only inherited her mother's blue eyes but had also learned her passion for justice. The little girl hated when one of the customers was being mean to the waiter or vice versa. She would go over to the table and stomp her foot to draw attention, curtesy to her small height, and then proceed to 'scold' the preparator, telling him or her of the punishment of being bad and of the monsters under the bed that eat bad people.

By that time, the preparator embarrassed for being 'scolded' by a preschooler, would have hightailed it out of there, not having the heart to harshly scold a little girl or in fear of ruining their reputation. This at least happened twice a month due to all the tourists, which served as entertainment to the regular customers.

Thus, the restaurant which had been slowly been gaining popularity, suddenly became a rage among teenagers and adults alike, due to the shenanigans of Talia, and the restaurant fondly became known as the 'The Angry Baby's Lair' among the locals. Kira had even thought about changing the restaurant's name.

"The movie's name was 'Alice in Wonderland, sweetheart.", Kira says softly holding her daughter's hand and guiding them both out of the restaurant as the last of the employees leave. Talia waves all of them goodbye. They reach her blue Vento and Kira helps her daughter in the seat and then buckles her.

Going around the car, she opens the driver's seat door and gets's in. Starting the ignition, the blue Volkswagon drives out of the parking lot, the gravel crunching under the tires. At once, remembering her mother's previous words, Talia starts rambling on about her favorite characters in the movie.

"Mama, Tidee, and Tidum the best!", She says throwing her hands up in the air and not being able to pronounce Twiddledum and Twiddledee, "They're soooo cute."

Kira laughs at her daughter's antics while driving the car, "My daughter is cute too."

Talia's eyes immediately widen in horror, "But I am your daughter, Mama", the 4-year old says not realizing that her mother was in fact referring to her.

Kira chuckles and says, "I only meant you, baby, you are my only daughter, my little angel. I love you hun bun."

Talia nods, satisfied with her mother's answer. They both fall into a comfortable silence, with Talia fiddling the stereo. Suddenly, her mother lets out a loud gasp as the tires skid across the road. A sudden impact hits the car, jerking Talia from her seat. Talia lets out a shriek as she sees her mother's head hit the steering wheel followed by a sickening crack.

Kira stares at her daughter as her eyes start to get heavy. Pain laced with love for her daughter is all she can feel. Slowly she lets herself succumb to darkness but not before uttering a last, "I love you, Talia"

Talia screams and cries as she tries to understand why her hand is bleeding or why her mother isn't opening her eyes.

"Mommy, wake up", she says shaking her mother's hand, "Mommy you're hurt. It's wakey wakey time", She says remembering the mornings when her mother used to wake her up using the same sentence.

Talia sobs not knowing what to do, continuously shaking her mother's hand. She suddenly feels two large hands grab her and the sound of the seatbelt clicking. She turns around to see a man with a sympathetic look on his face. There are two people standing behind him. A woman and a child.

The man stares at the crying girl with pity. He looks beyond her, at her dead mother.

"I'm calling the emergency services", his wife says to him.
The man nods and gently bounces the girl in his arms to make her stop crying.
After a few minutes, police vehicles and an ambulance arrive.

The wife looks as she sees the dead woman being loaded into the stretcher and at her husband who was talking to the police officers while trying to console the little girl.

The ride to the police station was a blur to Talia as she kept asking the officers about her mother. After a few minutes, she sees her mother's assistant, Diya rushing towards her.

"Aunty Diya where's mama?", the girl says crying.

Diya who was also crying scoops the girl up in her arms and says, "Mama is in heaven now"

"Is she happy?", Talia says after a few minutes thinking it over. She remembers her mother telling her that when people are sad they go to heaven where Angels can take care of them.

Diya gives her ex-boss's daughter a tearful smile and nods, "She's very happy. But she misses her daughter."

"Was mama sad with me?"Talia asks.
Diya let out a gasp, "No honey, it was just her time."

Talia frowns not understanding what it means. A police officer then enters the room in which they were sitting. He looks at Diya and asks, "Where's her father?"

Diya frowns, "Her parents are divorced"
"Do you know where he stays?"

Diya suddenly remembers that whenever she brought up Kira's husband, Kira would always look in the distance and would always refuse to take Talia to him. She racks her brain trying to remember any small detail. And then it clicks.

"New York!"

Hiya guys!

So here's the first chapter. Please don't be silent readers. Leave some comments here and there. It will mean a lot to me and will make my day.

Hope you guys liked the chapter.

Love you all! 😍