Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 1: You Absolutely Have to Come

It was a spring afternoon. The sunlight shone bright and warm, and there was a gentle breeze in the air.

Shehnaaz Gill, wrapped in a thin fleece blanket, was asleep on a red European-style velvet sofa next to a bay window.

She was in the penthouse apartment on the 28th floor of Apartment C, in the Malad precinct.

The room was silent. Suddenly, a
phone began to ring.

"The rain falls softly, my hometown is overgrown with grass and trees. I hear that you are still alone..."

The ringtone, "Fireworks Cool Easily" [1] woke Shehnaaz from her afternoon nap.

She gave a start, but didn't feel like picking up the phone.
She continued to lie on the sofa motionless, her eyes still
closed. She was feeling lazy.

"The rain falls softly, my hometown is overgrown with grass and trees. I hear that you are still alone..."

The phone continued to ring. Whoever was on the other end was calling her phone over and over again, and was clearly not going to give up.

It was no longer possible for Shehnaaz to pretend to be asleep. She reached out a finger, unlocked her phone with a lazy swipe, and said, "Hello."

Arti Sinha's sweet, melodic voice sounded from the other end. "Sana, you absolutely have to come over tonight! You're my best friend! It's my birthday today, and tomorrow we'll both be taking the final test for our post-grad admission. It's a double celebration!"

Shehnaaz laughed and said, "I haven't forgotten. Your house, it's in Dexin, isn't it?"

Malad precinct consisted entirely of apartments. Andheri, on the other hand, was the villa precinct.

Shehnaaz usually stayed at a penthouse in one of the Malad apartments but her guardian, Sidharth Shukla, also owned a villa in Andheri, and it was currently vacant. If she
used the villa, it would save her a lot of the hassle involved in attending Arti's birthday celebration.

"That's right. I'll send the address to your phone." Arti was standing on the balcony of her villa under a parasol.
Her eyes were fixed on the azure sky. On her pearly white ear was a shell white wireless headset.

Sweet, honeyed words continued to tumble out of her dark cherry lips. The words, irresistibly charming and bewitching, were in complete contrast to the twisted, vicious expression
on her face.

Kashmira Sinha stood across from Arti, watching her silently as she nursed a cup of cappuccino.Once Arti was off the phone, Kasmira shook her head disapprovingly. "Arti, are you really doing this?Shehnaaz... it's not like she's done anything to you, right?"

"What do you mean she hasn't done anything?!" Arti laughed coldly before walking away in a huff. "Big Sister, surely you can't be this naïve?! Before Sana transferred to our college, I was the top-scorer in my faculty! I was the faculty princess! Then she appeared, and took everything from me! How dare she?! She's just an orphan girl! How dare she pretend to be one of us, the rich and the beautiful!"

Kasmira set her cappuccino down and followed Arti into the house. The two sisters stood before the French windows, whispering conspiratorially.

"Okay, fine, I know you resent her, but don't forget that Shehnaaz's parents are both dead. She has no relatives, not a single one. She needs her scholarship and the money from
working part-time just to get by. We are leagues above her.
Can't you just grin and bear it?"

"I did, for two years! But not this time." Arti's voice had gone very, very low.
She extended her left hand: on her middle finger was a pear-shaped yellow diamond ring. There
was a tiny protrusion at the top.