My Dark Scientist

34 | In the airport lobby

E L L O R A

"Hey lil' Queen."

I turn around faster than lightening at the weak, soft voice.

"Papa..." I whisper before rushing towards him.

Mum had left shortly after I came downstairs. Only for a few minutes though, thankfully. But those two minutes in one room with Mr. Langdon and Marshall was pure torture. Nobody had uttered a word, yet the air was thick with tension.

Mr. Langdon was staring blankly at a distant wall without a word. Marshall tried to make small talk with me, blatantly ignoring the presence of the other man in the room. It definately was a wrong decision to bring the two men in one room.

I squat down infront of papa and lift his frail hands up from his lap to hold them in mine.

"Heard you were going to your dream trip? Congratulations Lil' Queen."

"Yes papa. Isn't that amazing?" I say trying to ignore the dark thought about the circumstances I am going in. "I still cannot believe I am finally going to the institution. Real life experiments. Can you believe that? Totally can't wait. Enough about me, now. How are you?"

"Would have been better if you had come to visit me yesterday." He says weakly, his frail hands trying to grip mine, but failing.

My smile falters at the reminder of yesterday night. The thousand pair of hands....

Thankfully papa distracts me right away, "Now, wouldn't you introduce me to the young lad there?"

Quickly snapping back the smile on my face, I point at Marshall, "That's Marshall Blackwood."

"Ellora's fiance." Mum points out as said man walks up to papa with a smile probably to shake hands.

"Ah, Blackwood." Papa exclaims, his eyes shinning with a twinge of a far away memory. "Lucian's son."

I am genuinely taken aback.

Noticing my confused expression, mum offers, "Lucian Blackwood was...er, your father knew him."

I don't miss the hesitation in between, and I find it strange, because mum never hesitates. I don't give much thought to it, as realisation strikes me.

So that is how mum got hold of the billionaire computer genius that Marshall is. No wonder she got the appointment with him so easily.

Marshall comes forward to shake papa's hand.

That is immediately a plus five for Marshall in my book.

"Lucian Blackwood?" I say the name out loud, a frown etched on my brows. "Why does it sound so familiar?"

The room burns with silence, as I stare from mum to papa to Marshall. None of them answers.

Mum's face is hard, while papa's expression turns...blank? Marshall simply looks like he is contemplating what to say.

Finally mum breaks the silence. "He was a famous personality like Marshall. You must have read about him on the news."

Well, now that she mentions, I do remember vaguly, the name 'Lucian Blackwood'. Though that was years ago. I don't remember anything clearly.

"Yes, that must be it." I exclaim, too lost in thoughts to notice the grim silence that has fallen in the room. "But that was so many years ago. Where is he now?"

When no one replies for the next whole minute, I finally come out of my stupor. There is a heavy tension in the room, at the mention of Lucian Blackwood.