Gemini

Chapter 3.1

A/N: You know the drill guys. It's a bonus chapter. You can read it or skip it.

I know I am late, but I had loads of work going on. I am sorry.

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Sweat trickled down her spine by the time she made her way home. The evenings were not merciful in the summer as they had been in the rainy season. At least, this season would not get her shoes wet and her socks soggy.

Anita shook her head. Why would she think about shoes and socks? She no longer went to school. She had just taken her final exams last March, and she was waiting for her results. This meant she had finished her schooling. No more shoes. No more socks!

Giggling to herself, she shifted the groceries bag to her left hand and raised her hand to ring the doorbell. But then she paused. Had she forgotten something?

Was it milk? Or was it oil? She shook her head. She did remember getting all the things on the list. What was she forgetting?

Ignoring that little whisper in the back of her mind, Anita rang the doorbell. But the one to open the door was not her mother or her father.

It was a woman she had never seen. She was extremely beautiful, rivalling all the actresses she had seen on television. Her black hair was curled and her brown eyes gazed into hers inquisitively.

The woman's lips curled as she turned back and said, "My, my! You have a daughter, Athulya?"

"Huh?" another voice questioned. This time, it was another woman who was seated on the sofa opposite the television. But she was the opposite of the woman before her. She had pinned her hair into a professional bun and had coldness between her brows. While the other woman could pass for an Indian, this woman looked like a foreigner, specifically someone from Europe.

When the woman opposite her moved, her mother came into her sight. But her mother was not smiling at her. Rather, she was glaring with her clenched fists.

An alarm rose in Anita's mind as she finally remembered what her mother had told her.

She had asked her to go to her grandmother's house to deliver the groceries and stay there until she called Anita.

Anita winced as she came in and kept the groceries silently on the table. The three ladies were watching her every move in scrutiny. While one woman was amused, one glared at her, the last one was indifferent.

She cleared her throat. "Amma? Should I make tea?"

Before the woman who opened the door could say anything, her mother snapped. "No! Now, go to your room and stay there-"

"What's the use?" the woman who was sitting said. There was a mild French accent. "We already saw her, Athu."

Athu. Only her father called her mother that. No one else dared to call her mother by that nickname.

Who were these two females?

"Danielle!" her mother shrilled. "Pretend you did not see her."

The other woman closed the door and took a seat next to Danielle. "But Athu.... We did see her. Why did you hide her from us? Are we that dangerous?"

"Kayal, after what happened all those years ago," her mother said. "I won't trust anyone."

"Priscilla wronged you!" Kayal said. "Not us."

Her mother smiled bitterly. "Twenty years ago, would you have stood with me?"

The two women were silent. Anita could hear the neighbour above scolding her son in this awkward silence.