After Rain ✅

[ eighteen ] rain

After Rain

Chapter Eighteen

Aislyn stared at me from across the table we sat at. I was glad she took time off and came to meet me when she was so busy. But even if I was grateful, her sitting there and asking me a million questions about things that should had remained buried, unnerved me.

''Ronnie thinks she should go to London, to try to find Kieth.'' I told her, remembering the conversation I had with my sister in the morning. Ronnie had been crying, it was the first time she cried ever since she suspected that Keith was missing. It had taken me an hour to talk rationality to her and tell her that going there was a really bad idea.

''I am shocked at your parents behavior, its like they don't even care that your brother might be missing.'' Aislyn said, taking a long sip from her coffee.

I snorted, ''I am not surprised at all. My mom has always been clueless about what went with our lives. She had always been aloof. And my dad...''

''Why do you think your dad is involved in this matter? I think you need to explain more to me.'' And so I did. Starting from the time he first got the job at Mrs. Marshfeild's hotel, how he was suddenly earning a lot of money and how we shifted to our house and things started to change.

''The night, he was yelling at Keith. One moment, he was making plans for California and the next moment he was packing his bags.''

Aislyn sat up straighter at that, ''Obviously it all ties back to the incident with the hotel fire. I am sure your brother and Maleeha found out something about the fire that they shouldn't had. Its possible that Mrs. Marshfield didn't want it to get out and asked your dad to make your brother leave.''

''I figured the same thing,'' I told her, the confusion from that night was still painted in my mind clearly, ''Keith decided to leave when dad talked to him later on. We don't know what he said to Kieth but Ronnie says its possible that it had something to do with us or our family.''

''Meaning he blackmailed his own son?''

I nodded, ''Kieth went to London. He talked to us every now and then. But now that I think about him, I rarely saw him talking to our parents. The problem started when he stopped calling at all a while back. His messages were weird, like someone else is writing them.'' Aislyn nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. She has brought several things with her; articles with Lee's face plastered on them. Some of them were also from the fire. She must have find them on internet.

''I am failing to connect some things but I have some suspicion. The first question is; what did your brother and Maleeha found out? And why did they got involved in that case in a first place?''

''When I went back to our house to look for the bag Keith had that night. I found this note there.'' I reached my pocket and showed it to Aislyn, she ran her eyes over it and they widened,

''So they were working together on something and things got so dangerous that he asked Maleeha to stop it and move on.''

I had thought about it a lot, ever since I had found out that Jalaal Nasir was missing and that Lee found out something about that incident, it all made me lead to one thing.

''Its possible that it wasn't just Lee and Keith and that one more person was working with them. Someone that actually caused them to get involved in the case.''

''Jalaal Nasir? You said that already, but why are you so sure about it?'' Aislyn asked, running a hand over her chin,

''Lee had messages on her phone from a boy. She was seeing someone and she didn't tell me about it. Back then, she said she had her reasons. Jalaal Nasir is the only option I can think of; I think she didn't tell me because I would have known about everything if she did. About how she and Keith had been connected and how Keith had to leave because of what they were doing.''