After a round of interrogations about C, Melania and Ruby finally looked at others, only to find them looking at them horrified.
"What? Why are you all looking at us like that?"
"Because you were so busy chatting with your daughter-in-law that you forgot about them." Sophie answered from the back. She was leaning on the door frame. It was evident from her posture that, she was standing there for a long time before she spoke out loud.
Melania guiltily lowered her head. Sophie came forward and then sat down.
"When did you arrive?", C inquired.
"When my mom decided to pull your girlfriend into the house and start chatting with her daughter-in-law."
C was overwhelmed with warm emotions listening to Sophie calling Ruby Melania's daughter-in-law. This is his family, he told himself.
"Thanks", he said in his deep magnetic voice, but it came out a bit hoarser than usual.
"There is no sorry or thank you's in a friendship. Have you forgotten?"
C managed to give a slight smile through his tears. Melania was looking at them surprised. She could not understand why they were being emotional.
C and Sophie communicated something with their eyes, which only they could understand. After that, Sophie looked at Ruby and winked. She turned towards Melania and said, "Tell us the true story, mom."
"How should I start?"
"Start by telling us whatever you know." She sat down in front of Melania. Natalie and C took their positions beside her. Elliot sat beside Natalie, Benedict beside Giselle. Ruby naturally sat beside C. William and Edward shared one couch, while Max and Jose sat together in another couch. They had already made sure to arrange the couches in a circle so that they could sit comfortably and listen to Melania.
"Anyone else is going to come?" Ben asked Sophie.
"I don't think so. Susie is busy, while, Grandpas are busy tackling that matter. Even I need to go after this conversation." Sophie answered almost immediately.
"Martha, Aaron, and Daniel was not the only ones who hurt you. It would be better to say that they are not the only ones who planned to attack you."
Everyone listened to her attentively.
Melania continued, "Actually, that day when you was attacked, in the morning, I was passing by Martha's room when I listened to her conversation with someone."
"With whom?" Elliot wanted to know. He was clenching his fists hard, while Natalie was rubbing her fingers over his knuckles to soothe his temper.
"I don't know. She was talking over the phone." It was hard for Melania to narrate those events six years back. Those days are still vivid in her memories. She tried hard to forget them but couldn't. She could forgive anybody who hurt her, but they had hurt her baby girl. She was beyond angry. But she was frustrated, since, she could not take revenge with her own bare hands.
She was getting carried away in her thoughts when, Natalie interrupted her thoughts saying, "And then?"
"I heard her speaking to someone about killing you. She said that she would not disappoint the person by leaving you alive. Exactly what happened after that I don't know, because I left the place instantly. I could not bear to think that anybody would try to kill you."
Everyone was drowned in their own thoughts. Edward said slowly while shaking his head, "Something is wrong. Things are not adding up."
"I know." Melania said and then continued.
"That night I saw our old housekeeper enter the house through the back door and Martha was discussing something with him."
"I left the house in order to inform Grandpa Tan, but before I could reach there I was attacked."
"You mean? It's that person?"
"I'm absolutely sure it's that person."