And Then It Rained (Sequel to Rain Again; Stand Alone Book) (Completed)

Chapter Eleven: The Scandal

Taking a day off, Victoria remained cooped up in her room and in bed all day.  

As Antelmo was at work, the apartment was silent other than his pets making different noises from the living room. During the first nights in this household, Victoria had a hard time sleeping or sleeping peacefully without waking up startled by the weird noises of animals. Now, she had gotten quite used to it. 

The entire day, she drifted in and out of sleep and kept on checking what news they were digging up on her and her family. 

Her father had never liked dirt on his impeccable reputation and always took care of any bad leak in the media. 

But this was much, much more enormous than any mere leaks. 

Victoria was in a state of absolute terror about what he would do or not be able to do with this one. 

What if he failed to diminish this scandal? What would happen then?

Petrified memories of her father's wrath surfaced from the back of her mind. Those memories gave way to other regretful ones involving Victor. There was no explaining to that guy how much of a coward she was and why she had to be that way that she hurt him. The fact he was nowhere around the notion of forgiving her was clear from the way he had reacted and all that he had said. It was well apparent from the look of absolute loathing in his eyes.

Lost in the torment of the past and the darkness of the present, the need to eat anything stayed far away from her mind the whole day. After returning from work, Antelmo knocked on her door, asking about her well-being. 

"I'm alright, Ant," she gave a feeble reply. Honestly, she was anything but alright. 

She was not having a good feeling about the consequence of the scandal.

All day, her colleagues from work and even Victor's staff—especially Ellie called her and asked how she was through texts. Not having the mental energy to talk to anyone yet, she had been in a state of silence—muting her phone, at least for one day. Although she was deeply thankful for having such good-hearted people in her life who cared for her, they were worried about her.  

Even though she was always hiding from the monsters of her life, she acknowledged she had God-sent well-wishers and friends who made it a little less lonely and painful.

From her bed inside the room, she heard Antelmo making dinner and eating. Every so often, he had also been talking to his pets. The weird guy. When she listened to his room door clicking close after some time, signaling he was off to bed for the night, she got out of her room and headed to take a shower. 

Pulling off the knee-length t-shirt she bought two days ago to wear at home, she started the water. It was when she noticed that the tiny cuts on her toes had begun to seep out blood again. Sighing, she took out the disinfectant and some bandaids from the bathroom cabinet and sat down to clean the cuts. 

Last night, after returning home from the party, she had just washed her feet to remove all the blood and wrapped some tissue around them. 

But stopping blood from cuts made by glass shards is the most difficult.

Now, tending to them on her toes, she recalled how she had run out of the venue in a state of dread after seeing those journalists and paparazzi around them. The open-toe heels couldn't shield her from the sharp shards of the glass Victor broke.

In India, glass breaking is mostly connected to bad luck or the presage of something horrible. 

With her aunt as a dominant character in her family—a force who stayed elsewhere yet controlled the household, Victoria had listened to many such omens. The omen related to glass-breaking was one of them. She had no idea if there was any truth in it. However, the foreboding feeling in her stomach originated based on logic.

Beyond doubt, she knew her father and scandals were not a good combination at all. The scary fact was that Victor was now involved in it.

A shower did calm her body. But It did nothing to compose her haywire mind full of dark and negative thoughts.

So, seeing that just half an hour was left to sunrise, she grabbed her camera bag and quietly got out of the house. Before clicking the main door shut, her eyes fell on Antelmo's red-eared tortoises. It felt creepy that they were all looking in her direction, and the way they were waving their front legs in the water seemed a lot like they were telling her not to leave. She said to herself that it could also be possible that they were simply waving her goodbye. Then she mentally smacked herself. In her current turmoiled state of mind, she had started to behave like Antelmo, believing that the tortoises were talking to her.

She got out into the windy outside. The swipes of wind on her face felt like the cold, parting breaths of a dying night until it would rise like a phoenix only moments later on the east. 

While she walked down the pavement in slow, rhythmic steps, startling her, the door of one of the cars parked at the roadside opened in front of her. 

Victoria halted dead on her track.

Her father's calm face stared at her from inside the car. It warned her of a storm, a strike, a demolition.

"Get inside."

In terror of the uncertain, her entire form froze.

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Word Count: 1538

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Hello everyone,

Here was another update of And Then It Rained. I hope all of you are enjoying how the story is moving forward. Are you truly?

Ben thinks the party scene was based on the button lol... I must share with you that I always laugh when writing his scenes or dialogues. I enjoy writing about this guy. 

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Love,
Lara.