Page 62 of Born in Sin (Phoenix #3)

The chandelier in the center of the restaurant winked, light fracturing from it and streaming through the room. All around them, tables filled and emptied, people laughing, talking, and eating the fancy yet delicious food that was being served to them.

And yet, Celina sat in a pocket of frozen silence. Her father and mother ate quietly, neither making eye contact with the other. The tension at their table was a direct contrast to the laughter that spilled from the others that surrounded them.

“So,” Celina’s father cleared his throat. Hope rose inside her as she waited for him to say more. “Do you want dessert?” he asked finally.

Celina’s hope deflated. “No, thank you,” she murmured. She noticed he didn’t ask her mother the same question. It was pretty clear her mother noticed too.

“What plans after this, Celi?” he asked now, patting his mouth with his napkin.

“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I haven’t thought of much beyond passing my exams.”

“She’s interested in the arts,” her mother interjected, clearly fed up with being ignored.

“Are you interested in the arts, Celi?” her father asked, keeping his gaze on her.

“Theatre, if I’m being honest.” She spooned in her last bit of rice as she thought it over. “If I really need to pick something, it would be acting.”

“Acting,” her mother snorted. “Fancy being the next casting couch scandal?”

Her father said nothing, but he looked disappointed in her ambitions.

“Or I suppose I could be an English teacher,” she muttered. “And spend the rest of my life making people miserable.”

A faint smile flitted over her father’s face as he signaled for the bill. Her mother looked livid but then there was nothing new in that. The waiter brought the doggy bag to their table, and her father paid the bill, scrawling his signature on the slip.

They got up from the table in silence, walking out of the restaurant and waiting on the pavement for the valet to bring her father’s hired car around.

“Dad?”

He glanced at her. “How long will you be here for?”

“I fly out tonight, Celi,” he replied, regret coating his voice. “But listen, once your exams are over, come to Dubai, we’ll spend some quality time together.”

Tonight. She nodded dumbly, fighting tears and refusing to look at her mother who was quietly simmering in her anger and outrage on the side. The car arrived and they got in, making their way back to Crestwood in the simmering, toxic, silence.

Her father stopped the car outside the main school building. Her mother shot out of the car with a muttered goodbye and stomped off in the direction of the teacher’s quarters. Celina bent at the waist to kiss her father’s cheek. “Bye Dad,” she murmured.

“Bye Celi.”

He put the car in reverse and turned it around to face the gates once more. She stood back, waiting to see him leave, a small part of her, the child in her, still hoping he’d stay.

“Bye darling,” he said again and then he was gone. The red of his taillights disappearing into the night.

Celina made her solitary way back to her room, crossing a few children who’d gotten special permission like her to spend the evening with their parents. She made it all the way to her room without a single person acknowledging her or asking her why she was sad.

Her roommate was propped up in her bed reading a complicated looking research textbook. It made Celina’s head hurt just to look at the cover.

“Hey Celina. Your friend dropped a note for you while I was down at dinner. It’s on your desk.”

“Which friend?” Celina frowned.

“The guy you’re always hanging out with.” Her roommate pushed her glasses up her nose with one finger and went back to reading, already dismissing Celina and her trivial, brainless issues.

Virat? Excitement surged through her tempered with disbelief. When she’d told him she was going out to dinner with her parents, Virat had told her that he was spending the evening with Amay and Ishaan. They were celebrating Ishaan’s win of the academic achievement trophy.

This couldn’t be Virat. She walked briskly over to the desk and picked up the note.

‘Chem Lab at 9.’

She let out a little squeal which had her roommate glancing at her annoyed.

It was Virat! She looked down at her watch.

It was 8:50PM. Thank God for her parents and the dinner from hell, they’d come back in time for her to meet Virat!

Graduation was done and now, he had no more excuses.

That must be why he was calling her tonight, so they could talk.

With one last glance at her room and her grumpy roommate, Celina left the room, shutting the door behind her.