Chapter 25 Unwelcome

Vanessa had just finished her chat with Aida and was retiring to bed. It seemed they could not get enough of each other. It was late, undoubtedly she missed her sisters, but somehow, Aida's presence helped her forget about them. Vanessa's mind suddenly drifted to Raymond. 'The gift! I should thank him early tomorrow morning' she thought. Somehow, she couldn't shake off the feeling of having seen that necklace before. She picked the necklace up and stared at it for a while, yet she couldn't remember where she saw it. She put it under her pillow and walked to her washroom but she felt the presence of someone in her room. She hurriedly left the washroom only to meet an empty room. She creased her eyebrows, for a second and screamed;

"Aida!"

****

Aida couldn't stop smiling. Everything in the room gave her a 'delicate' feeling. From the numerous spot lights embedded in the walls of the room emitting baby pink lights, to the large cozy bed covered with peach colored comforter, the dapper lamp on the right side of the bed, writing desk at the far end of the room, the soft woolen carpet covering most part of the room, the paintings on the wall, to the warm bathroom, everything screamed delicacy! She drew closer, to have a look at paintings on the wall. There were numerous paintings on the wall yet one particular painting caught all of her attention. It was a painting of a family of six, The Brown Wilson family, was neatly and thinly scribed beneath the painting. It was easy for her to identify Vanessa, because she hadn't changed much. Somehow she felt she's met all of the people in the painting before. She just couldn't shake that feeling off. It was hilarious because the date on the painting was 24th November, 1990, and that was years before she was born. As she stared at the painting, she heard a soft thud on the door, she guess was the washroom. Was it her imagination or someone was already in the room? Could it be that something in the washroom just fell? That could be the case. She walked towards the washroom, before she could turn the knob to unlock it, someone shouted;

"Don't!"

*****

Mary's eyes were fixed on the clock hanging lazily on the wall. It was twenty minutes past midnight. Raymond had bolted out of the house two hours ago without any explanation. She knew Raymond was a soldier and that alone made her nervous whenever he left in such a hurry. She kept praying her son would return to her, safe and sound. That was the least she could do, hoping for the best while expecting the worst. Just then she heard a soft thud on the door which made her heart race. She knew whoever was behind the door was not Raymond. Could it be that her worst nightmare had come true? No, she wasn't going to be pessimistic. She was never pessimistic, so why was she acting that way, she wondered. She braced herself and slowly dragged herself to the door and unlocked it. The sight before her was what she hadn't anticipated. She's never anticipated that!

"Anthony! why are you here?" Mary asked, with eyes wide opened. She secretly felt relieved it wasn't what she had expected. But Anthony there meant only one thing, catastrophe.

"Is that how to greet your son you've never seen or met in eight years?" Anthony asked wearing his signature smirk.

"Is that not enough reason for me to ask why you are here?" Mary asked sternly.

"My dear mother, where did all your courtesy and hospitality go?" Anthony asked still smirking.

Mary tried to slam the door but Anthony had already anticipated it and pushed the door wide open with greater force and entered the room.