THE MYSTICAL MIRROR (THE MISTRESS OF MAGIC)

CH-3 THE PALACE OF BEAUTY

"Wow." I stare at the huge building lit up with silver and gold lights.

I hear a sound of a click next to me and find that Phoebe is already texting her friends about it. "They're gonna be so freaking jealous," she murmurs.

I see Aunt Claire running at us and tightly hugging Mom. "How was the plane?"

"Mostly good." Mom replies with a smile

She picks up Coco and pets her. "I haven't seen you since forever." She hands her to me and then hugs each of us. "You guys look tired, we better get you in soon." She nods towards the building.

"We're staying here?" Rachel asks her.

Aunt smiles and replies, "Well, it would be really stupid to let you stay in any other hotel when your Mom and Aunt own a palace."

Phoebe instantly looks up from her phone and looks at Aunt with her mouth agape. "So, you're telling me that our family owns this huge palace building? Oh my god, we're rich, so rich."

Mom raises her eyebrow at her and asks, "This is what you take from this?"

"What? It's true." Phoebe answers back.

I, however, am still confused. "Wait....how did you....when-"

Aunt, seeing me struggling for words, chuckles and says, "I'll explain everything on the way to the entrance. You guys, go ahead, we'll catch up to you." Mom nods and walks ahead with my sisters.

"Why did you send them away?" I ask her.

Her face instantly turns serious and her emerald eyes, which a second ago, were gleaming with excitement, now become still.

"Cause this is a touchy topic." She warns me.

This was going to be about Dad. I just know it. Aunt Claire must've realized that I am the only person out of us who doesn't start crying, feels depressed the whole day, or screams at the person who brings up the subject of Dad.

Aunt clears her throat and starts speaking. "About three years ago, I got a call from Selene, telling me about one of Kris's designs. He had told your mom, that this was going to be the best building created by him. But because of the accident, that couldn't happen."

"She wanted us to bring his design to life, and she asked me to be an investor. I, by this time, had saved a pretty good amount of money and had connections that could make this happen. So, I flew out of your dad's friend Matthew to be the head engineer for this project. Do you remember him?"

"Dad's best friend from Oxford?" I confirm.

She nods and continues with the story. "Selene communicated with me and Matt through video call. She, being an interior designer and remembering the conversations she had with Kris about this building told us about how the inside would look like." She sighs. "Carry, I hope you understand that a part of him is in that building. It's like he created it himself."

I sigh and nod. "Well, it does look like something he would've made. It's magnificent."

She hugs me tightly, and says, "We better catch up to your Mom."

We walk to the others and reach the entrance.

I look up and see words written in silver against a golden background-'Palais de Beauté'.

"What does it mean?" Rachel asks Aunt Claire.

But before she can answer, Phoebe replies, "Palace of Beauty."

*

Ok, so the inside looks hardly anything like the outside. While the outside is mainly gold and silver, the interior is dominated by colours-Red, Green, White, and Blue.