The Target

Chapter 4 - Reunion

But something else greeted her this time."hello, princess."

Her head shot up. Reclining on one of the couches in the sitting room were her dad and Rizwan.

"d..dad? you came back!", she found herself grinning; something she hadn't done in a while.

Her father and brother came forward and hugged her. And then she lost it. She started rambling; for some reason, everything she's been holding back came rushing together at the sight of her family.

"i..i..i thought you had work, and that you wouldn't come this vacation. And Rizwan, you said you were going to stay at the hostel for preparing for your exams. You guys could have told me you were coming, I had lost all hopes of seeing you this year. Please dad, take me to California with you. I cant take it anymore..",she was sobbing now. She hated breaking down; but she couldn't help herself. " its horrible here. Amir gets himself into all kinds of trouble and I have to save him. But he tortures me, guys...he locks me up in my bedroom and starves me for days. He doesn't have a job, he comes home drunk and beats the hell out of auntie. Please, take me away from here, please."

"well i am here to take you away, Sarah.",said a rough, stern voice from the corner of the room.

Sarah rubbed away the tears and looked in the voice's direction. Standing in the far corner, melting into the shadows was Mr.Mathew, Alan's foster father.

"wh..what?", Sarah stammered.

Mathew started to speak, but Sarah's dad cut in. "its OK,my darling. I am so sorry you had to go through all that. Your grandma,aunt and cousins returned to their old house. You don't have to worry about Amir or anything else now, dear."

"but...but what's Mr.Mathew talking about?"

Rizwan spoke up for the first time, " there's a lot of explanation to be done, sis. Even me and dad don't know the full details. We just rushed here on getting a phone call from Mr.Mathew saying that our lives are in danger, and that you needed us."

"I really don't understand. Our lives are in danger?", Sarah asked, perplexed. The only thing she could thing of that would be 'dangerous' to her would be the giant spiders hiding in the dark corners of the  house.

Mathew walked to the couch and sat down heavily. He was a huge man, but muscular in a way; more like a retired army man. " oh Sarah... always so naïve. You cant be seriously saying that you didn't realize anyone was following you on your way here?"

Sarah thought about that that. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize she was being targeted. Or is Mathew lying?

She shrugged."look, I am not an old man like you; I don't get paranoid. So instead of needlessly insulting me, why don't you start by giving some answers to us?"

She expected her dad to scold or something for being rude, but he didn't say anything. Sarah thought that he also wanted some answers.

"well, fine. You want answers, I'll give them to you. But trust me; once you know the truth about your mother, you'd wish I never told you anything.", said Mathew with an evil smirk.

Sarah never was that fond of Mathew, now she was despising him with every ticking second. Who the hell does he think he is?

"mom? What does she got to do with all this?", rizwan asked loudly.

" oh well, this whole sticky situation was her creation in the first place. Now all of you, sit down and be quite. We don't have much time. And don't interrupt me when I am talking. I want to get ever with this soon."

Sarah, her dad and rizwan scooted to the nearby couch and sat down. Sarah couldn't help but think of how unlucky she was. She finally got her family back, but now her life was supposedly in danger.