Dangerous Entanglement

Episode 10

/Hannah POV/

I drove for thirty minutes from Miami to my parents residents at south Florida, my dad had acquired the five bedroom mansion over there since my grade school day. And subsequently, it had gone under some renovation and refurbishment touches over the years, but the classic design is still very much obvious. I drove into the lawn alighted the car and walked to the rear door on the right, just on the chair, I had dropped a bottle of white wine, its mother’s preference of wine.

It is still about an hour to dinner when I got home, just about to closing the door of my car, I head the front door open.

“Hey Hannah, I’m glad you could make it” My dad was out to welcome me, he spread his arm wide open in a way expecting me to run up to him in an embrace, but I was a big girl now, I’m sure going to give him a hug eventually, but it’s not going to be like a child whose father just came back from war.

“Good evening dad” I greeted as I lock the car from the key button. He was wearing a grey sweater that had a zip at the middle from the neck down till the chest.

“Good evening Hannah, I can see your mother was the only one you factored when deciding what to bring along to dinner. I smiled, climbing the 3 step stairs onto the veranda, walked up to him and gave him a soft shoulder hug. I allowed him to have a number of pats on my back before I released myself from the hug and we walked inside the house together.

“Honestly I would have betted my money on hazel being here and you not able to make it for one reason or another, but here you are surprising me with coming earlier than expected” he mentioned as we stepped into the house.

“Welcome Hannah, I wasn’t expecting you this early” my came out from the kitchen with a hand towel in her hand stating.

“That is what I was just saying to her to” my dad complemented my mom’s statement as he sit on his large single sitter cushion at the center of the house.

“And see, she had only you in consideration when bringing in gifts” He had said to her wearing his glasses to resume reading the papers.

“Oh!  Thank you darling, I’m sure saving this wine for a special occasion” she grabbed the wine and went back to the kitchen.

“Come get some pies which I made, it’s supposed to be dessert but you can have it” she declared as she moved into the kitchen.

I just sat myself on the couch directly opposite the television, I remembered how I and hazel always fight on what to watch, we never had same taste about anything, he preferred documentaries and action dramas, but I was more of the crime and horror dramas. He has always being rebellious from his early days.

I noticed my father had started to look up at me through the top of his glasses, I knew what was coming, he is going to start a conversation, and I really didn’t want any of that. I know I can’t run away from conversations that night, but I wanted it to be as minimal as possible. I stood up and started walking out of the living area.

“I’m going to check my old room” I announced as I exited the living area through the lobby and directly on to the stair hall.

I climbed up and went straight to my room situated down the hall, it was opposite that of hazel. Both our rooms were located so our windows can face the main street. I pushed the door open and went in, to my amusement, the room had been kept very clean and everything is place in a well organized order.  My awards were all there on the shelf, still arranged according to how they were received in the ascending order of the years. From awards gotten from sports to awards earned in academia.

I opened the drawer under the dressing mirror, pulled out some albums, the baby album which was the smallest was the one on top of the pile. The cuteness I possessed as a baby fascinates me, and I began to wish I still had the freedom I had as a baby, no insecurities, and no worries about trying to impress anyone or prove myself to anyone. I went ahead to check year books of my high school days, there are my girls, we just stopped communicating, actually I stopped communicating because I still see them on i********: and f*******: hanging out, I used to get invited some years back, but I guess they get tired of me not honoring the invitations.

About fifteen minutes to dinner, I heard voices downstairs, and the first thing on my mind was Hazel is here. I quickly arranged the stuffs back, and I head outside to the living area.

“Hey Hannah, long time no see” Hazel greeted immediately he sighted me coming out of the stair hall.

“Yeah brother, it’s really been long” I responded to his greeting trying as much as possible to wear a smile,  moved close to him and we went into a tight embrace, something we haven’t done in years, even back when we still leave in the same house, we hardly go into an embrace.

“This is Jane, my fiancée, I proposed to her last weekend” Hazel had said introducing his fiancée to me, realizing from the embrace we had to hold her around the waist. I noticed he was introducing her to not just me but the whole family.

“This is my sister Hannah, she followed my dad into the agency” Hazel continued with the introduction as he gestured towards me with his right hand as the other hand was still at Jane’s waist.

“Hello, nice to finally meet you, have heard quite allot about you”. She said sweetly stretching her hand to grip mine.

“Oh really” I responded passing a suspicious look to my brother who’s eyes are keen on Jane, wondering what he had to say to her about me.

“I hope they are the nice things” I added, trying to play along because I believe she was just playing me the normal tape when it comes to such scenarios.

“And these are my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hills” He introduced my parents who are now standing together, my mother who was resting her head on my father’s chest to portray that happy couple picture with my father complementing the picture by having his hand around her waist.

“Welcome to the family my dear” Mom had said excitedly with a very large grin on her face.

“Thank you Mrs. Hills” I wonder why I got irritated by her grin, even though I was really happy for her and my brother, jealousy I guess.

“Alright everyone, grab a sit while I set the table, I will be done in ten minutes.” Mom announced and disappeared into the kitchen.

Dad led the way and sat on his single cushion chair while Jane and Hazel sat on the large double sitter couch. I headed to the kitchen to help my mother, I could feel the joy and appreciation in her that I came to help, not because she needed help, but because she longed for that mother daughter activity and bonding.

My assistance made the table setting process much faster and in no time mom went to announce that the table is set and they could come sit and have dinner. The main dish was pasta and chicken source, mother true to her words left out my white wine and brought another drink. I didn’t mind, I only brought the wine not to have come empty handed as courtesy demands.

Though the mood in the air was a happy one with family love and togetherness, but a good psychologist who’s good at reading the mind through the eyes can actually see the pain, lack of satisfaction and fulfilment I get from my job and life entirely. For my brother and father, you can actually sense the bad blood between Hazel and my father, this bad blood started when Hazel has refused to go into the agency, my Dad brought all hell on him, but he never budged, he was adamant about his love and passing for business and stock broking. Father had stopped his allowances and other benefits but hazel didn’t care as he was already making some dollars from the internet space, something I never get to understand how it works up till today.

All though, he’s still struggling in the business, he is doing very much well for himself. But he still have a long way to go before he can be named successful.

“So THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, how’s the stock market treating you?” Dad asked gentle, but everyone sitting knows he was only trying to tease Hazel sarcastically.

Hazel looked up at him with red eyes, but my dad who knows all eyes are on him at the moment didn’t even lift an eyebrow as he focused all his gaze on the pasta.

“And here comes the duel again, as expected” I thought to myself silently as I try to make sure I also focused on my food.

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