A few hours ago, on the pavement, behind the subway station:
Mantisha was biting her lips nervously. She felt like she was truly unlucky today. Never in her dreams she thought that she would encounter such dangerous people in the most awkward manner altogether.
First it was Albert, second it was that mysterious man Matteo, and to her dismay, the third one was another ticking bomb waiting to be exploded, Nick!
Mantisha sighed in desperation. God knew how much she tried to shake that blue eyed man off but he was just too persistent to go away.
When she went to the antic section, he just appeared in front of her from nowhere and continued to bug her. No matter how hard she tried, how much she avoided him, he just continued to smile in a mischevious way and followed her everywhere, trying to strike conversations.
Two times she even attempted to run away but there he was, insisting to give her the ride home.
Neither could she tell him to scram, nor could she take his offer. She had a hunch that somehow he knew her identity and today, appearing all of a sudden in front of her when she just ran away from a date, seemed too much to be co-incidental.
Even if he knew her identity, she could not possibly give him her address, right? That would only confirm his doubts or worse, his purpose of approaching her.
Besides she had not sorted out her hallucinations and sudden changes of visions. She could not understand why some of the people she met thorough out these last two months becoming a trigger for her. Was she going crazy? Or it was again something from her childhood trauma, which kept spreading shadows on her rationality.
Mantisha bit het finger nail. Rich people's society, people with ulterior motives, moreover her own mind made her scared to her guts. She just wanted her and her mother to live a quiet, peaceful life with not much interferences, and complications. Were those too much to ask for?
She swore to herself that once she returned, she would start preparing for moving out. But that needed some other precautions and money. Bur she definitely would in a month or so. She could not risk her or her mother's safety again.
But her immediate action should be her mental health, and she was determined not to sacrifice her years of hard work, sweats and tears to go into vain. She must score well and prepare her thesis paper well and get into the list of doctoral candidates.
Seeing Matteo's persistence, she thought of giving him Judy's address and told him that she live there with her. Just when she was thinking of giving him the reply, someone called Matteo from her back, and when she turned, her head started spinning.
It was Nick!
With a lady coming from his back, her eyes gluing over Matteo, both of them greeted him politely. But to her surprise, she saw a flush of hatred brushed past Nick's face when he looked at her.
He was quick enough to hide that. But the lady beside him did not even bother to do that. She just simply looked at her with visible hostility in her eyes.
Sensing their hostility, Mantisha did not even bother to greet them. She looked at them and blinked innocently. Like she did not know them at all.
Though Mantisha feigned ignorance, she had identified the lady beside Nick instantly. She was none other than, the famous Nicole, Adi's niece and Nick's one and only beloved sister.
Mantisha sighed. She did not provoke her, nor did she meet her earlier. Yet she looked at her like she was going to cut her into pieces and fed the dogs. What did she do to deserve such a hatred, she could not understand!
So when she saw three of them stood there like statues, looking at each other and kept being silent, she just pretended to be uninformed and looked at Matteo, smiled brightly, and said,
"I see you've some guests who expect to talk with you alone. Now it's time to go back. Since we are just acquaintances, came here separately, met accidentally and completed our tour for today, no need to send me back. I will go back on my own, you can discuss things all you want."
Saying this, she wanted to ran away. But when she was going to pass Matteo, he grabbed her arm and pulled her near him, bent down and murmured beside her ear in a husky voice,
"Hide your tail all you want Cara, I would like to chase it too."
Straightening his back, he told with a playful smirk,
"See you soon, Tesoro."
Mantisha was stunned at his comment. She felt intimidated under his deep gaze. She looked at him in a daze, only to see his blue eyes fixed on her, gold rims shining.
She did not dare to look back at the expressions of that sister brother duo. She could feel one was frowning in displasure and irritation, while the other one was glaring at her.
Though she almost fled away from there, she thought it was somehow good that she met them. Atleast that Matteo stopped mentioning to drop her home today, and she got time.
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