NINETY-ONE

DYLAN'S POV

I spent a lot of time at work, familiarizing myself with the children's hospital paperwork. Although I had plans to take Anisha out, I was forced to change them after receiving a call from my father, ordering me to 'report' at Clear Opal Manor; and Pete along with me.

Soon after 6PM, I asked Chris to drive me to meet them. Seated on a chair chair, my mother had her legs in a pedicure machine, with her eyes closed. When Iris led me in and I greeted her, she did not move an inch. She and I had not spoken since the time that I had quizzed her, which was just the previous day. Iris looked at me and said, in almost a whisper, "you can wait in the family meeting room. Is sir Pete with you?"

"He's not here yet," I responded calmly.

"Oh, I think sir Pete should come too. Is he working tonight?" Iris spoke.

"I'll check on him," I answered as I headed towards the family meeting room. It was a room that we had used since childhood. As far as I could recall, the room had always been decorated in pure white. It had pure white leather chairs surrounding a pure white wooden table. The walls and curtains were white too, and in a corner of the room stood a water dispenser, which, of course, was also white. We always used it for discussions which my parents would have with us, or sometimes when they wanted to inform us of a new development, such as the opening of a new clinic or hospital. My mother always made such announcements very formal. Or sometimes we just used it to meet as a family and each person would talk about how happy they were with their life; any challenges, any areas that they needed help in, and so forth.

Lazily, I hung the phone, after Pete had confirmed that he was on the way, and I slowly pushed the huge white doors. To my utter surprise, my father and sisters were in the room! I had not expected that! I thought it was going to be only me and my parents.

"Dylan!", Arianna nodded at me.

"Hello sis. Hi Ciera. Dad!" I greeted them all. Arianna, as usual, stood up to give me a hug, but her hug was less violent as her usual ones. I mean, Arianna was always over energetic with me. Whenever I met her, after a brief separation of even two days, she would literally throw herself at me. I always made sure my arms were empty and ready to carry her weight, for if I was not careful, both of us would end up on the floor. And of course she would be talking while doing so. On that day, however, she gave me a very peaceful hug which ended as soon as it had started, and she shyly walked back to her chair.

Ciera just gave me a small smile and went back to scrolling her phone. That was how Ciera had always been, so I did not worry about it. My dad nodded and smiled. At least his smile had a bit of warmth in it. Feeling a bit uneasy, I took a seat next to my dad, and I sat facing Arianna.

"How's the work coming along at the children's hospital?", my dad asked.

"I'm loving it. Its challenging, I must say, but I am handling it well."

There was silence. We must have stayed silent for about seven minutes or so, but it seemed like an eternity. Soon, the door was pushed open and Iris popped her head in. "Sir Pete is here," she whispered before ushering Pete into the room. Pete greeted us all and he took his seat next to me.

"I wasn't expecting you to arrive this soon. Were you coming from work?", I asked Pete.

"No, I was at the Rockridge mansion. I was with the old man" he smiled.

"Oh, how is Hayden?" my dad asked with a huge smile.

"He's very well," Pete smiled back.

Just as he said his last word, the door was gently slid to the side, and in walked Iris. She remained standing in the doorway, and in came the queen of the Clear Opal Manor: Shimmer de Milo; my mother. With a face devoid of any expression, she scanned the room before slowly walking and sitting in the chair next to dad. My dad gave her a peck on the cheek, and brought his hand to hug on to mother's chair. Iris slowly placed an ice bucket in front of mom, and she neatly placed the ice tongs in a tray.

"Thanks Iris, you may excuse us," mum said, and Iris gave a slight bow before she disappeared out of the room.

My father cleared his throat and said, "we won't waste a lot of time. We all have work to do, I guess all of us would be at work now, if it wasn't for this urgent meeting. We all know what happened on the night of the handover dinner. Anisha, one of our guests, was almost raped here, by Logan, a cleaner at the hospital. I won't go into further details; we all know the story. The reason why we are here is, Dylan here, has the guts to disrespect his mother to the extent that he is accusing her of arranging for Anisha to be raped. Dylan?"

I cleared my throat and looked at everyone, one face after the other. My dad's face showed that he wanted answers. From him, I moved my eyes to look at Ciera. It was difficult to tell what could have been on her mind. She scrolled her phone a bit before staring blankly at me. I looked at Pete; and he seemed a bit regretful; I am sure he regretted that we must have never involved mother's name in all the mess. Arianna's eyes were full of sympathy. I believe the sympathy was for me. Lastly I looked at mum. The moment our eyes met, I lowered my gaze, but not fast enough to not notice that tears were threatening to escape from the corners of her eyes.

"Dylan! you need to explain yourself!" dad said.

"I'm sorry dad. What happened is, Logan mentioned that Raelynn sent him to drug and rape Anisha. Now there is a video of it all; where he states that Raelynn was involved. When Pete and I asked Raelynn, she was the one who mentioned that mother was involved in all this. I'm sorry if I hurt you, mum…"

I failed to finish what I was saying, for my mother started sniffing and crying profusely. Dad comforted her and called on Iris to bring in a box of facial tissues. Arianna stood up to hug and comfort mum, but Ciera did not move an inch.

After crying for what seemed like an eternity, mum started to speak amidst her cries, "D…Dylan, I raised you! I ….I raised you, and today you…you h…have the guts t…to raise your f…finger to accuse me o…o..of such a horrible act!!" she started crying afresh.

"I'm very sorry mum." I could not help but feel very bad.

"Dylan, you are the first of our children to hurt your mum this much. None of our children, including you Pete, who we consider our son, have ever made Shimmer cry; yet here you are, breaking her heart like this. You are our son, Dylan. Shimmer and I obviously expect better from you. For a moment I am starting to ask myself, did I make a hasty decision by handing over the Children's hospital to you? Are you even mature enough to handle it? Dylan?"

I raised my head and was at a loss for words. My throat suddenly felt dry and I did not know how to respond. Dad then continued, "Pete? You're like a son to us. The only reason why I did not call Hayden here today, is because I want to protect you. I wouldn't want him to ever know that you were involved in such a nasty thing! Accusing your own mother…I tell you Pete, Shimmer is just like a mother to you, is she not?"

"She is a mother to me," Pete whispered.

"She's a mother to you. You do know that your mum, Janine, and Shimmer here, were best friends since the age of thirteen. When I met Shimmer, she and Janine were so close that some people thought they were relatives, or even siblings. And then Hayden met your mum. The four of us became best friends. Hayden was my best man at our wedding, and so was I his best man. You know this, boys! The ladies as well, they were the maid of honour for each other. When Shimmer and I see Pete, we see a son. The same with Hayden; when he sees you and your sisters, Dylan, he sees his own children. You all know that! Pete, son, you have disappointed me."

"I am very sorry, Mr de Milo. I'm truly sorry," Pete spoke a bit louder than the previous time. His voice carried a lot of regret, and he sounded truly sorry.

"Shimmer, don't stress anymore. The police will soon get hold of Logan. I'll take you for a short holiday, to relax. You've cried too much these past days. And you even have nightmares!..." before he finished talking, dad's phone rang.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. There's no way I can ignore this call. It's that overseas surgeon…." He began to stand up.

"Go on and answer it, darling," my mother encouraged. With that, dad answered his phone and swiftly walked out of the family meeting room. The door clicked shut, and there was dead silence.

INSIDE A HOSPITAL WARD

A man shifted, struggling to raise his shoulder off the bed. He opened his eyes and realised that he was in an unfamiliar place. A hospital; that much was able to tell.

Deep pain shot through his head, and all his muscles ached. He tried to move, but his own limbs felt heavy for him.

He remembered, as if from a dream, his sister talking to him, telling him that Zuri wanted him dead. And she did say something about an injection, did she?

And again, as if coming from a dream, he thought he heard some two people talking about the death of Evangelista. Was it all a dream? It felt so real…he could swear that it actually happened; but he was not too sure about it.

He closed his eyes and waited for someone to walk into the room, so that he could get the facts concerning the apple of his eye, Evangelista Bassard.