ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE

DYLAN'S POV

"Dylan…" Anisha's frail voice came, and at the same time she opened her eyes.

"I'm here," I stood up from my chair and went closer to her. She seemed very shocked to see me. When she called my name, she must have just called without expecting me to be there. "I'm glad you're awake, my love. It is good to have you back" I hugged and kissed the beautiful woman, and my heart was at peace. The word 'joy' could not explain what I felt at that time. I was extremely happy. She woke up. She finally did open her eyes, and she called my name.

"You're really here, are you not? Dylan? Where am I? Are we in Hallowcave" She tried to sit up but winced in great pain, and I helped her to lie down.

"You still need to rest. Lie down."

She faced the ceiling and tears formed in her eyes. In a short while the tears rolled from the corners of her eyes, wetting the pillow. I gently wiped them off and I felt great pain to see her crying like that.

"She didn't want me, Dylan," she began to speak. "My own mother did not want me. She wanted me dead!" Her voice was very weak, and I could hear the pain in it; both emotional and physical.

"Anisha, don't think much about that now. Focus on your recovery. How is your shoulder? Is the pain too bad?" I asked her.

Totally ignoring my question about her shoulder, Anisha proceeded to speak, "I cannot stop thinking about it, Dylan. When I was sleeping I kept having nightmares about a woman murdering her own child."

"Give yourself some time. I think it will be proper to heal first, and then you can get time to talk to her. For now, let's not talk about her. Have you thought about getting a DNA test; just to verify that indeed she is you mother?"

"She is my mother. There's more than enough evidence. But anyway, a DNA test won't hurt. You know Dylan, when I left Amelia's house; I felt very lost and empty. I wanted to die; I felt like the world is against me. That truck could have killed me; it's a miracle that it hit only my shoulder. I never saw it coming. I was just running blindly….And I had too many questions. Look now, Amelia has a daughter, Tessa. I don't know how old Tessa is, but then Amelia raised her. Which means she loves her. She loves Tessa. If only she had managed to hold on to me for a few years; she would have managed to raise me as well. She left me alone at that home." Tears clouded her eyes.

"Don't stress yourself," I really did not want her to talk about that, but it was inevitable. Of course that was the issue on her mind, and she needed to talk about it.

"Let's not talk about this anymore," she said.

"OK, we won't. But Anisha, I want you to know that you have me. Even if you may feel like the whole world has deserted you; I will stand with you."

"Thank you," she sniffled and smiled through her tears.

Oh my dear Anisha; it was heartbreaking to see her in such pain. I decided to quickly change the topic…

"Would you like anything? Anything at all, something to eat? To watch? Anything?" I asked.

Anisha smiled and looked at me. "To look at your beautiful face all day. That's what I want." She said.

"Beautiful? You think I'm beautiful" I frowned.

"You are." She let out a low chuckle.

"I thought the word was handsome. So now I don't know, should I thank you for the compliment…is it even a compliment?" I shrugged.

Anisha laughed a little and again she meant to sit up, but she winced in pain and returned to her lying position.

"You keep forgetting that you're not well."

"It's you who's making me do this" she said shyly.

"How?" I asked her, and she turned her head away to face the other side. I just laughed, feeling happy that finally she was starting to smile.

My phone buzzed and I checked to see that it was Chris. I excused myself and went outside to receive the flowers that I had asked him to buy. The blue calla lilies. And a lot of fruits, because I knew that Anisha was a big fan of fruits. I walked back in and she gasped in happiness.

"Oh! I love the flowers! Please bring them closer; put them on that table nearby, I want to see them close to me. Thank you so much!"

Happy to see her happy, I sat down and fed her the fruits. Of course she refused at first, but I gave her no option. Although the basket was filled with various types of fruits, Anisha kept requesting for strawberries, until they were all finished. I quickly asked Chris to get us more.

"I also got you some books to read. And I brought some instrumentals played by some of the world's best musicians. I know you love music." I told her.

She brightened up and smiled sweetly at me. The smile just melted my heart; I swear I would have wanted to grab her and kiss her right there; but then I had to control myself.

"Dylan you're the best! No-one has ever shown me that much care before."

"You are very important. You're a smart, beautiful lady, you are very important."

As if the phone was against us, it buzzed again. I checked to see Pete requesting a video call. Him and Arianna wanted to say hello to Anisha. The call was brief, for although Anisha tried to act strong, Pete and Arianna could tell that she was forcing it. Her voice was weak and she kept trailing off. They ended the call and promised to call again later.

I did not realise that it was already time for the visitors to come. Ms Meyerton and Valentina came in first, and Anisha was more than happy to see them. I excused them for a while, and when I came back, they were heading out; then in came Amelia and Tessa. I also meant to excuse them, but Anisha asked me, "Dylan please don't leave me."

I looked at Amelia and she quickly faced down to avoid my gaze. Tessa stood very close to her mother, holding a small cooler bag.

There was awkward silence in the room. Anisha would not even look in the direction where the mother-daughter duo was standing. She instead read through one of the books that I had brought her. Amelia broke the ice,

"How are you feeling? Is your shoulder getting better?"

"Fine!" Anisha answered curtly.

"Would you like anything? I can…" Amelia tried again

"I have everything I need." She said. The tension was so extreme that it felt like a thick cloud hanging above us all in the room.

No-one said anything. There was dead silence, except for the time when Anisha flipped through her book as she turned a page. The silence continued, growing weirder and weirder as the clock ticked. Probably not knowing what else to say or do, Amelia announced that she and Tessa were leaving.

"I know that they serve you food in here, but I brought you some butternut fritters. I made them myself. I hope you like them." Amelia spoke in a pitiful voice, took the cooler bag from Tessa and placed it on one of the tables in the room.

Anisha, who had seemed like she was going to totally ignore Amelia, suddenly threw the book aside and faced Amelia. With a cold voice she spoke,

"Well if you must know, butternut is my worst food! I hate it! If you were around when I grew up, you would have known that. Go talk to Ms Meyerton, if you need to know more about me; otherwise you will spend all your time and efforts preparing for me gifts that I hate! You better talk to her soon before you kill me with your poison. You tried to kill me before; and you still have plans to accomplish that again? Leave me alone."