EIGHTEEN

DYLAN'S POV

Although I tried to encourage Anisha to talk, she refused to ask her question. In a bid to break the ice, I decided to be the one to ask her more about herself.

"Tell me about yourself, about life at Olga, and what you're doing now."

"I…I don't know what to say. There isn't much," she smiled and twisted her fingers shyly.

Before I could say anything, Anisha proceeded to say, "my family…I have a sister. She is a friend and a sister, my virtual twin. She and I were born less than a week apart, and we both grew up at Olga."

She stopped talking and ran her fingers through Liam's hair, her hand visibly shaking. After clearing her throat, she went on to say,

"Ms Meyerton raised us. We…we call her mum sometimes. My sister and I were both…..umm…dumped…we were dumped by our mothers, and we …we…." She stopped.

"Are you comfortable talking about this?" I asked her in concern. The last thing I wanted was to hurt Anisha in any way, by making her talk about issues that pained her.

"I am. I wanted to say, Valentina..my friend's name is Valentina…her mum left her, and so did my mum. We grew up together. She and Ms Meyerton are the only family I have." She became silent.

"OK. I know Ms Meyerton from the days we used to visit Olga Children's Home. As for Valentina, I don't think I know her."

"They hardly ever used our names at Olga," Anisha spoke in a low voice. "I was 0028, Val was 0029. Everyone had a number."

The way in which she said it made me feel very sorry for her. "Why would they use numbers instead of your real names?" I asked.

"I have no idea," Anisha shrugged her shoulders and smiled a little.

My mind went back to the many years ago, when I saw her with a nametag. Every child at Olga Children's home had a nametag, and on each was scribbled a number.

"I…I thought you were very unfriendly. People say the deMilos don't talk to people." She stated shyly.

I could not help but laugh at what the lady was saying to me. Of course it was not news to me, I knew that people had anything and everything to say about our family, some of it true and some not true.

"Well, we do talk to people," I smiled and went on, "The thing is, when you are well known, people come up with many different stories about you. I for example work with kids, I am a pediatrician. How on earth would I not talk to people when I have to mingle with parents of sick children all the time?"

"Oh really? You look too young to have qualified as a pediatrician. I thought it took some time, I mean…" she stopped talking, seemingly lost for words.

"It does. I was talented in school; a bookworm if you want." I chuckled. "I skipped some grades, so I started my first degree at a very young age." I explained.

"Oh OK. So do you deal with anyone, even the less privileged? I mean, do you have a class of people that you work with?" she looked at me and when I looked back, Anisha quickly evaded my eyes, choosing to look at Liam's hair instead.

"I don't really do much of that. My dad's vision had always been for us to run some businesses of our own. I was supposed to become the CEO of the de Milo Children's Hospital."

"And then what happened?" she asked.

"Kidnapping happened," I laughed and Anisha laughed along with me.

"I read something about the new CEO of the hospital."

"Yes that's me," I smiled.

"Your dad wants you to run businesses?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at me. She looked so cute that I wished she could do that for the rest of her life.

"He does. My older sister Ciera, an optician by profession, is already in charge of one of the family hospitals, the Roderick Eye Centre."

"I know the Roderick Eye Centre," Anisha uttered in a low voice.

"Yes, Ciera is the CEO of that one. And my younger sister Arianna is yet to finalise her PhD in Education. Her dream is to own and run a High school offering the best quality education in Lakeworld."

"Oh, I thought your whole family was in the medical field," she was shifting the child in her arms and after making sure that he was sleeping comfortably, she raised her eyes to look at me. Since I had been staring at her all the while, our eyes met and Anisha quickly looked away.

"My mum and Arianna are not in the medical field," I explained.

"Your mum too? I have always thought she was a doctor," Anisha sounded shocked.

"She is not a medical doctor, as many people think. She's the GCFO of the de Milo Group of Hospitals."

"What did she specialize in?", Anisha sounded as if she was beginning to gain some confidence.

"She holds a PhD; two of them actually. One in Business Administration, and another one in Finance."

"That's nice," she smiled.

"And now you can ask me what you wanted to ask me."

With eyes fixed on the ground, and in a very low voice, she finally asked, "how…how did you know my name?"