Shattered Relations | Aru Shah AU |

XXV

ARU
Kara seemed sad. She twirled the telephone cord around her finger, and gave Aru a tired smile, her features rippling with the dancing lights acting on the thick glass between them. 

Aru cleared her throat. "How's prison treating you?"

Kara traced her fingers on the ledge where she was resting her elbows. "It's okay." 

"...That's it? No explanation on why you called me here?" 

"I can't tell you, not right now," Kara said, in a pained voice. 

"Then when?" she demanded, raising her voice. A guard standing there shot her a sharp look, and she lowered her voice again. 

"Look, Aru, when are you and Dad going back to Atlanta?" 

Aru frowned. "Tonight. I managed to convince him to push back our flight a few weeks—he wasn't very happy about that, but got silent when I told him why."

Static crackled on Aru's end of the line as Kara exhaled. "He doesn't want to meet me, does he?" 

Panic seeped inside her when she saw that Kara's eyes glistening with tears. 

"No," she mumbled.

Kara sighed once more, before drying her eyes. "I understand." Her tone got more brisk and business-like. 

"When you get back home, I want you to dig through Mom and Dad's room—find every piece of mail that got sent to her." 

Kara's words from two weeks ago echoed in her head once more. Don't you find it suspicious that she was receiving threatening letters the weeks preceding her death?

"I get why, but... you don't really think that Mom's death was planned?" She stumbled on the words. 

Kara stared straight at her. "Remember when I asked him to get me files on Mom's death?"

"Yeah?" 

Kara tapped her nails against the worn wood. "I found a huge paper trail; nonexistent anywhere else. It was a payment to one of those corporations, to get you off the grid." 

"...You think the Dormitator could have used that?" 

"Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, those corporations could also be used to cover up certain messes. Remember when you were captured?"

"Vividly," she muttered, and although she hadn't met for Kara to hear it, she definitely had, given the way her sister cringed. 

"...Anyway, we'd screwed up a shipment of drugs coming in, and we were going to contact one of those companies to take care of that mess, cover it up." 

"Sweep it under the rug?"

"Exactly."

An alarm rang, as Kara sighed. "We can't talk anymore." 

A warden came up, and said something that was muffled by the glass. 

Kara returned to the call. "Good luck, Aru. Stay safe. And..." She looked her straight in the eye, her eyes slightly teary, "I love you."

So much pain. She's caused you so. Much. Pain. 

Mini's scream tore through her thoughts once more. 

"I... don't believe you. I'm only doing this for Mom." 

And with a click, she set her receiver down, and turned her back on her sister.

————

Dark clouds rolled underneath them. Aru snapped her window shade shut. She pushed the cotton earplugs deeper into her ears, before pulling out her phone. 

Her mobile data didn't work on the plane, but she'd signed up for the plane's Wi-Fi, and with her unlimited texting plan, she opened her text thread with Mini and Brynne. 

Yo, she wrote, before cringing. What kind of conversation starter was— never mind, they'd already replied. 

Mini had written, Hi; while Brynne wrote back, Hey. 

I'll need your help. 

Nothing on either of their ends, until Brynne sent, With what? 

She took a deep breath, and wrote, It's... complicated. Can I call you guys when I land? 

Simultaneously, their texts popped up, identical in nature: Sure.

————

The carousel had three bags left on it, and none of them were Aru's. By this point, she didn't even care, but her dad still dragged her to the information desk, and the both of them painstakingly filled through the forms. 

As Aru wrote down her contact details, she spied a black coat, and with terror, her mind jumped to Lenguine. 

But, her vision cleared, and she saw it was just a man who was running late for his flight. 

She exhaled out of relief, and begun writing down her address, when an incoming group call from Mini and Brynne popped up. 

"Dad, could you—?" she began, but Suyodhana just sighed. "Fine," 

"Thanks," she whispered, before accepting. 

"Aru? What was that text you sent?" Brynne's voice was harrowed. 

Aru glanced back. "I... have something to tell you two," and, with a deep breath, she recounted whatever Kara had told her, in short. 

Aru glanced at her father nervously, who was still sorting out forms, and saw that somebody had called him. 

"Hello?" she asked, upon receiving silence on both ends of the line. 

"Yeah, we're here." Brynne said. 

"So... will you guys help me?" 

"Of course we will!" Mini announced. 

"Same," Brynne agreed. 

I've got allies, she thought to herself. People I can trust. 

Not just allies, her inner voice told her. Friends. You've got friends.

————