ONE HUNDRED IN FIFTY-TWO

DYLAN'S POV

Although I was extremely busy at work, something urgent had to take me back home. I could have easily sent Chris to collect it, but I chose to use the opportunity to go and see Anisha, even if it meant seeing her for just a minute. I rushed out, and with Chris driving me, we were at home in a short while. Just at the entrance, I saw my mum's limousine driving out, and she waved happily at me. I waved for her driver to stop, and he obeyed. They reversed a bit back and I lowered my window to greet mum.

"Come out and greet me," she said while she stepped out of her car, at the same time telling her driver to excuse us.

She gave me a casual hug and shrugged back into her car seat, for the car door was still open. Immediately she winked at me and me, not understanding what the wink meant, stared at her blank, but smiling.

"I see you have put up a huge painting of that girl." She spoke.

"Her name is Anisha, mum. Why won't you ever use her name?" I had realised that my mother usually referred to Anisha as 'that girl' or when she was angry, 'that orphan.'

"Does it matter? Tell me, what are your plans with her? Is she the woman of the house now? Why is her picture hanging inside? I was shocked when I saw it."

"Is the painting beautiful?" I asked her, hoping to get a positive answer. She tossed her head sideways slightly, and seemed to be in deep thought, then frowned before asking me, "why does it look like a painting done by our family artist? Was it him who painted it?"

"Yes it was him," I told her the truth.

Her mouth dropped open in shock, with her lower lip hanging. Immediately I knew that I had done or said something wrong. She patted the space next to her seat, and I sat inside the car. After giving me a stern look, my mother took in a deep breath and said,

"You wasted a lot of money on that painting! Was it necessary? This girl is not your wife, Dylan. And the chances are very high that she may never be your wife, yet here you are, spending millions on her!"

"What do you mean, mum? I thought you were starting to warm up to her?" I asked in all earnest.

"And so? Do you really think you can spend the rest of your life with some girl who drags you to a no-name shop to buy lousy , probably expired ice-cream? You, Dylan, the only son of Roderick and Shimmer de Milo, had to go and queue up with those peasants to buy some terrible ice-cream? And that girl of yours even got into a fight with the lady who sells in the shop! I saw some videos circulating!"

"You don't know the full story mum! That lady is her sister in law, and she has never liked Anisha since the first day! And no; they did not fight."

My mother looked at me with wide eyes, seemingly very shocked by the news that I had just shared.

"Sister-in-law? I wasn't aware that Anisha had a sister in law!!" she said.

She asked me a number of questions and I told her about Lisa and her husband too…all the few things that Anisha had already told me about Gareth and Lisa, I shared with my mum. She just commented that she was not surprised that Anisha's own family had failed to accept her. I did not know what she meant; and honestly; I had no desire to ask her.

Realising that I ended up spending too much time chatting with my mother, I asked her to excuse me and I quickly headed towards the door. By then I was sure that the people that I had told to wait for me at work were wondering where I was, because I had taken slightly more than the expected time to get back to the hospital.

In the hallway, the sight of about five or six maids standing together wide-eyed and looking scared was enough to tell me that my mother had done or said something. Frankly, I could not think of any other reason why they looked that way.

"What happened? Why are you all standing there looking so fearful?" I asked them. None of them answered, but instead they quickly dispersed with whispers of "good afternoon sir."

"Where is Mrs Silva?" I could not help but call out after them.

"In the main lounge," one of them whispered before she disappeared into the next room. I rushed to the main lounge, pushed the door open and saw, in a corner of the room, Mrs Silva hugging Anisha closely, and she was crying.

"What happened?" I asked.

Anisha, startled by my voice, raised her head to face me, and she wiped the tears off her red slightly swollen eyes. Mrs Silva stood up, greeted me politely before exiting the room.

"What happened, Anisha?" I held her by the hand and let her to the sofa, on which I sat and pulled her in to sit on my lap.

"It's nothing," she forced a smile.

"Is it my mother? What did she say?" my heart kept telling me that whatever it was, my mother had something to do with it.

"She blames me for taking you to the ice-cream shop. She saw those trending videos and all, and she is not happy that I exposed you to the life of commoners."

"The life of commoners? Did she say that?"

"No, not really. She...she just said your status doesn't allow you to go to those kind of places, and therefore blames me for taking you there." She started to smile and added, "it's not a big issue, I agree with her anyway. We shouldn't have gone there."

"It is a big issue if it makes you cry until your face is all puffy like this. And the maids I saw; they were all looking like they had just seen a ghost. What else did mum say? Did she say a lot of staff?"

Instead of answering the question, Anisha faced down and one huge teardrop fell. She quickly raised her hand to wipe off the other tear which was about to fall from her other eye. I hated it when she cried. I wanted her to be always happy, and although my mother at one point acted like she was willing to accept Anisha, I must have been a fool to believe her. Evidently, she had not yet accepted her. And I knew my mother very well, so I did not need much effort to imagine what she could have said or done. She had a way of saying hurtful words, and she was good with her choice of piercing words. I knew it. And seeing Anisha and the tense atmosphere in the whole mansion, anyone who knew my mother could have easily known that she had given one of her best performances.

I assured Anisha that I was going to talk to mum, and she looked at me with;

"She is your mum, please don't get into fights with her. I would suggest if you do talk to her, please don't end up ruining your relationship. I wouldn't want to be the cause of your fights."

"I need to hear from her what the issue is, and if I talk to her, I may convince her to change her attitude towards you. She will have to like you, because I have no plans of giving up on you," I told her.

"I understand but if you are to do so, please don't talk to her now. Things are already tense between me and Mrs de Milo. If you do anything now, it will only worsen our relations. Please just leave it until later," Anisha looked at me with begging eyes.

What did I do to deserve such a sweet girlfriend. Although she did her best to smile, I was convinced that she was not happy, and it became more difficult for me to leave her in such a state. But still, I really needed to go to work. With my dad as the Group CEO, I knew that if I missed the deadline for the work which he had given me, I would really need a solid excuse. In the end, I asked Anisha to come along with me. My plan was to go and finish off the document that I was working on, and then leave the office.

The three of us, together with Liam, left the house and went to the hospital. In a short while I was done, and we drove over to the Woodruffs to drop off Liam.