The Sweet Nothings || ✓

'WE ARE PLAYING BLOOD FOR BLOOD'

Lana enters the meeting hall with her heart filled with dread.

All the way back to the gang house, her mind kept going over the conversation with Sarah.

She had looked through Sarah's file herself and had not found anything that could relate her to Xavier.

And now she finds out that Sarah and Xavier are cousins.

How was she supposed to explain this to Nany Lily and Nana Phineas. She sat down infront of them across the table. Puffing out air from her mouth she started, "Sarah is-"

"Xavier's cousin. We know. But she doesn't know anything." Nana Phineas states. Lana stares at them.

"How did you-"

"We went through all the files again. Just to be sure. And then we talked to Sarah. She called you infront of us." Nany Lily says.

Lana nods and then looking at them, speaks, "So what did you have to tell me?"

Nana and Nany again share an incomprehensible look. Sighing, Nany stands up and moves to the computer. But instead of doing something on it, she picks up a thick hardcover book from beside the computer and comes to sit back down.

She puts the book on the table and opens a page towards Lana. Lana notices that it's not actually a book. It was an album. A hand made album.

The book was opened to an ancient looking couple and Lana could see the slight resemblance of Nana Phineas with them.

Lana looks up, not understanding where this was headed.

Nany starts to explain.

"Andrea, the couple you see on the page are your great- grandparents. Mamma Eliza and Papa Harper." She pauses.

"This is from where it all began." She turns over the page to reveal a family picture. Lana could recognise Mamma Eliza and Papa Harper. She could also recognise Nana Phineas but the other boy looked unfamiliar.

That's when Nany Lily starts to speak again.

"So, long time back, in Chicago, the family of Oberains' prospered. And Mammy Eliza and Papa Harper lived happily. They had one son, named Phineas but due to some complications, Mamma Eliza couldn't have more kids. So on Papa Harper's request, they adopted another boy- Dean." She points to the unfamiliar boy in the picture and Lana nods.

"Everything was good. Both the boys loved each other alot, like real siblings. And Eliza and Harper too never showed any difference between them. Both of them were loved equally." She turns the page over to reveal more pictures of the family.

"But then Mamma Eliza got sick. And died. Everyone became unhappy. She had been the light of the house. And now the corridors of the Oberain mansion remained dark only. And then the will that she left behind was revealed. By this time, both Phineas and Dean were engaged. Phineas with Lily and Dean with Natasha." Lana watches as Nana's hand reached forward to take Nany's.

Nany continues. "The will only provided money and property to Phineas and not even a penny to Dean. And it wasn't taken well by him. Though Phineas was ready to share, Dean was consumed with rage. He left the Oberains'. And that was when we realised that he was actually behind the money all this while. Papa Harper started getting ill too. That's when Phineas got to know that Dean was conspiring the murder of Papa Harper for revenge." She paused.

"Phineas tried to protect Papa Harper very hard, but then one night some people of Dean snuck in and murdered Papa." Nany squeezed Nana's hand and continued.

"Phineas was outraged so he directly approached Dean. During the fight, Natasha got killed by one of Phineas's men. Not wanting to stand Dean anymore, that very night, Phineas shifted to Italy with his wife and son." She pauses to look at Nana and then flips over the pages to reveal Lana's father, Arthur with Nany and Nana.

With a jolt, Lana remembers that her father had been ill since a long time. She made a mental note to go check up on him soon.

Nany continues.

"We had expected him to do something but Natasha's death had left him grieving. The family name that he had taken up- 'Forbes Kingsley' had seemed to vanish from the surface of the Earth. And in all this while, we had nearly forgotten about him." She paused.

"But recently, Phineas got a message from Dean." She took out a paper from the album which was sticking out and handed it to Lana.

Lana read it.

______________________________________
'Why don't you check up on your family Phineas? You know, see if everyone is okay.😉

Regards,
Dean.

P. S I am having fun. What about you?'
______________________________________

And attached to it was a picture of a ring. A ring that Lana had always seen on Maia's finger.

The family ring.

Lana looks up wide-eyed. Nany explains again.

"We followed up on Dean's family. Dean had a son, Jason, who married a girl named Alessa. They had two children. Hazel and Charles Forbes Kingsley." Nany paused, to let Lana register the information as she handed her some more papers containing all of theirs pictures.

Lana gulped as Hazel's picture came up. And then Charles'.

Lana frowned. He looked familiar. Very familiar.

Where have I seen him? Lana thought to herself but came up with nothing.

Looking up, she sees Nany shifting back in her chair.

"Which means Andrea, that all this while, you have had Dean's grand-grand daughter, working in your inner gang. Giving her all the information she needed." Nany states.

"But how does Xavier have anything to do with Dean?" Lana asks, completely dodging the accusation that Many had just made. She would think about it later. Not now.

"Oh. Jason has a best friend, Seamus Black who works for Dean too." She answers. "Xavier is his son. Xavier wasn't stalking you for himself Andrea. Being Seamus' son, he works for Dean too." She explains.

Lana was confused.

How is it coming down to me then?

"Then why does he want me to come to him? What is he getting from me? Or from Maia? Isn't he after you?" She asked, growing impatient.

What is this?

Nany smiled sadly at Lana.

"We are playing Blood for Blood Andrea." She paused.

"And you are the pawn." She answers and silence settled.

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Hi Readers!
The story is still building up. Kindly bear with me. And do keep reading. It's going to get better and better now.

Till then, please vote, like and comment.

Loads of love,
Mia.