Fatal Alliances [✓]

15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

MALIA

"I'M SCARED OF WHAT MY FUTURE BRINGS."

I stopped stroking my best friend's hair, her head now frozen on my lap. I'd been too wrapped up in my web of illusions to pay her sufficient attention all this time. Imaani was so still, I didn't realise that there was a glazed look in her eyes. She pushed herself off my lap, scratching her swollen eyes and getting off the bed altogether.

"What do you mean?" I asked softly, though any words of consolation were stuck in my throat. She didn't need to say much else to direct her conversation. I knew there was more to whatever was going on in her head, because just as I kept the things I did for fun hidden from her, she did the same with her everyday reality.

Silence followed my words and it was very quiet for a moment. All that could be heard were the sounds of street bargainers and the sizzling of hot food being cooked. It felt like it had been quiet like this with the rare cacophony from the buildings and surroundings around us for a long time now. Though the reality was, it had been like this for a few days only.

After Alberto had left all the mess behind in the underground restaurant, Mateo had managed to calm me down and have me seated with a drink in my hand in a matter of minutes.

He had waited until I'd sipped the still water and stopped the dazed expression in my eyes from consuming me for some reason. He appeared nonchalant and patient even, before letting me speak on my own accord, though my first words or rather command was that he buy me pricey champagne to really get me talking.

"Ruhi Chandra's my mother, dead mother actually." I admitted to him. "You already knew that though, considering you've done your research on me."

He only stared at me before taking a seat across from me, motioning for someone to come and fill up our glasses. There was a sense of quiet around us, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

"She died some years ago, when I was barely 17." I explained, "It was so sudden, and I was still considerably young, it was when I first met Imaani too. She was always there to confide in and it helped having someone to talk to, but it wasn't long before I had to change to another place of study, because naturally I didn't belong there. We still kept in touch, though. She took a liking to me."

Mateo bowed his head, indicating that he was paying attention, before encouraging me to continue. "Zara, she left us behind, I guess that was her way of dealing with it. I drowned myself in keeping myself busy too, finished my studies and started working. But life still didn't feel as fulfilling as I'd wanted it to. Until last year."

"What changed?" Mateo curiously enquired.

"Baba pulled out the albums one night," I smiled softly, "We'd just watched Crime Patrol, because he has this weird thing for it, said it reminded him of back home. And we'd finished eating the dumplings we'd gotten from this family friends takeaway. I told him I'd be going back to my apartment, but he'd insisted it was too late. Said it wasn't safe and I could go in the morning. Told me he'd make us some chai, and I was rummaging around tidying his office shelves, and he grabbed a hold of the album. The one that had pictures of Ruhi Chandra."