Say You Love Me [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: TABLES ARE TURNED

Something he had never seen in her before. Something he had never imagined could be part of her. Rhea Ivy Cooper had always been one to avoid risk and passion. She was one who walked on secured paths never going out of her way. Never to be deterred in whatever she believed in.

And now when he looked at that sparkle in her eyes, he could swear that she had something in mind. It was not the expression of her eyes. No, the tenderness, the affection, the intimacy had always been there when she looked at him. It was something he could not define.

Frustrated, he blamed it on his lovesick imagination and looked away afraid that he might get the wrong idea once again. When Rhea asked him about his health, he responded politely and nobody seemed to notice the tension between them. Or if they did, they were all pretending otherwise.

Finally, most probably fed up with his lack of response, she stood up and walked towards Zoey to inquire about her health.

“Zoey,” he heard her say. “Why haven’t you informed me of the accident?”

Zoey refrained from any reply and looked at her with a blank expression and Adam had to suppress a howl of laughter. If he knew anything about Zoey, she was still pissed off with her best friend moving away without informing her. And Rhea had some gall to ask them why they haven’t informed her of their predicament.

“Mom,” said Rhea and everybody in the room froze. She was addressing Aunt Selena who looked as stunned as everybody else when she heard the noun. It was the first time that Rhea was calling her mother. Adam could remember how Aunt Selena would pester her to call her that way when Rhea was seven years old. But Rhea would never ever comply only saying grumpily that her mother was dead and nobody could take her place.

So, it was a quite a shocker for everyone. Aunt Selena looked on the verge of tears now but she tried a brave smile towards her daughter. Adam on the other hand was puzzled. What had brought that sudden change in Rhea? Was it possible that the three weeks away from them all had shown her the real meaning of family bonding?

Adam doubted that because she had moved to New York once and it had not brought any change in her. There had to be something else. Something deeper.

“How come you haven’t informed me?” she was saying in a plaintive voice and it was the first time ever that she was asserting some rights over them. It had happened in the past when they did not press her for attending the family events like she had skipped Uncle Ash’s birthday last time. She would never say anything about it and even if Aunt Selena had wanted her elder daughter around, she would just complain about how she missed her.

But with Zach it was different. If the latter had skipped a family event, Aunt Selena would never hesitate to phone him to give him a good piece of her mind. And Adam had deduced that even Aunt Selena had noticed the barriers that Rhea had built around her which said that they could approach but there were certain limits.

“I’m sorry,” Aunt Selena was saying. “I forgot to call you. We were all so panicked when we got the news yesterday. I was expecting the worst. And even the police said that it was a narrow escape,” and her voice sounded like she would break into tears anytime.

It was true. He and Zoey had spent the whole morning answering the police about how everything had happened. It had been suspicious especially since the truck driver had disappeared without any trace after the accident. The police was still trying to locate him and they had asked Adam to be in the country if they needed him. There was after all somebody’s death involved.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Rhea was comforting her. “I just got the news and took the earliest flight available. It was the longest flight of my entire life; Matt only told me that there was an accident – nothing else.”