Peace. That's the first thing that comes to mind when I'm talking about that night at his house. Sleep comes to me almost instantly. I'm so burnt out by all the talking that we did, plus all the crying that happened that I almost fell right asleep. The good thing is, he didn't come and stab me to death in my sleep. That's one thing that I'm grateful for. And that's one thing on a huge list of other items.

After brushing my teeth, I follow the smell of breakfast wafting through the air. After waking up, the one thing that everyone looks forward to is a nice plate of breakfast in the morning. Whether it be toast, cereal, pancakes, waffles, or any other delicious food, it's always the best way to start off your morning.

When I get to the living room, I see Arjun cooking eggs in a pan, waiting for them to get solid enough so that he has the opportunity to scramble them. He hears me walk into the kitchen, and after scrambling the batch that's in the pan, he turns around to see me standing there, in my pajamas, probably with the worst bed head ever.

A smile creeps up on his face, and he says, "Hey, good morning."

"Morning," I greet, as he pours the eggs onto a place with a few slices of toast.

"How did you sleep?" he asks me, as he goes over to the coffee machine to check on the coffee. I nod.

"Great, actually. The bed was super comfy, so thanks for that. How about you? The couch isn't that comfortable," I inquire, as he shrugs.

"I'm used to it. I didn't lose that much sleep anyways. Oh, how do you like your coffee, by the way?"

"With a lot of dairy products, and no sugar." He raises an eyebrow and then opens the fridge. He takes out a stick of butter and then cuts a pad from there to put in the coffee.

My eyes widen, and then I say, "Woah, butter? I thought you were going to put in some milk!"

He gives me a slightly sassy look, and then says, "Well, dairy products are a really wide spectrum. Specify next time." I roll my eyes at his smart ass remarks. Taking that into account, Arjun takes a milk jug from the fridge and pours some milk into the coffee.

He sets it down on the counter, and then points to the other side. "There's a stool over there. You can sit down and we can talk, if you want," he offers, as he places the plate of breakfast and the cup of coffee on the ledge.

I walk over to sit down on the stool and enjoy the breakfast that he made me. "Hey, can I ask you a couple of questions?"

Arjun cracks another few eggs in there, and says, "Of course. You can ask me anything."

I give him a slight smile, and I ask, "How can you afford all this? Last I checked, San Jose is NOT a cheap place to live. For someone who got out of jail on a murder charge, this is pretty luxurious."

Arjun gives me a slightly amused smile, and says, "There's a program where they help ex convicts get back up on their feet. I joined that, and I found a job that doesn't really care about my criminal past. It's a pretty decent paying job, plus I have a lot of savings in my bank account." I nod, out of understanding, and shove a forkful of eggs in my mouth.

Immediately, the flavors of the ingredients added melts on my tongue, which causes happiness to fill me from all corners. As soon as I finish chewing them, I ask, "Also, can I call you, 'Dad?' If that's okay with you?"

Arjun's eyes widen as he waits for the eggs to cook a little bit on the bottom. He comes a little bit closer to me, and says, "That's so touching. Yes, I'm more than okay with that. I didn't expect that you would become so comfortable around me so quickly."

I give him a slight smile, and say, "I don't know, I feel like I can kind of trust you. But I don't want to be hurt."

Arjun raises an eyebrow at me, and then comes a little bit closer to me. I tense up a little bit, because my trust level isn't that high yet, but he just puts his hands on mine, which are folded in front of me.

He looks at me deep in the eyes, and says, "I may have hurt a lot of people in the past, and I may have been hurt a lot of times before, but I will never hurt you, and on day one, that I swore."

I raise an eyebrow, with a smile on my face, because that was super smooth as well. My dad may be a lot of things, but he's got charm. Arjun raises an eyebrow, and I just chuckle a little bit. "Damn, trying to butter me up, hm? It's working."

He smiles, as he puts a bunch of the pans inside the sink. "Well, I mostly speak the truth." When he says that, the question I've been meaning to ask him slaps me in the face again. It's about my mother's death. He's the one person who would know the most about my mom's death, because of the fact that he was convicted of it. I need to ask him so that I can put some things to rest.

"Hey, Dad, can I ask you something?"

He turns around, after closing the faucet, and says, "Yeah, of course. What's up?"

I let out a huge sigh, knowing that this may be somewhat dangerous to ask. "What do you know about my mom's murder? Were you the one that did it?"

Arjun, when I say that, looks a little bit hurt, but somewhat understands where I'm coming from. He knows that he was literally convicted of the murder, so he can't really pull that card on me right now. "Ashmita, if I'm being completely honest, I don't know much about your mom's murder. And I'm telling you right now. I didn't do it."

I raise an eyebrow at him, not knowing whether to believe what he's saying or not. I may be a lot of things, but I don't believe things straight off the bat. How would I know that he's not telling the truth right now? Even though it hasn't happened in the past couple of hours, how would I know that he's still not planning to kill me?

All these questions are conflicting in my head right now like a really bad sword fight. "How do I know if you're telling the truth or not? I don't know whether or not I should believe you or not. I'm sorry, but it's the truth."

Arjun looks a little bit disappointed at me, like he expected better. I don't know if I can still trust him to the full capacity to tell me the truth or not. "Okay, that's fair. I probably should've thought that one out before you came here. But, let me tell you this. I had an alibi for the day that your mom died. I was at the grocery store, shopping for things, when she was stabbed. I didn't do it, and if I did, I would've killed you right now, at this moment. You just have to trust me," he says.

I raise an eyebrow at him, because I don't know if he's still telling the truth. I don't know if I have to dig through the stack of statements he's telling me in order to find a lie in there. Ignoring the fact that he may be lying, I ask him, "If you didn't murder my mom, then who do you think did it?"

Arjun looks at me, slightly helplessly, and says, "That's the problem. I don't know."

Well, that just made it a lot more complicated that it's supposed to be. If I don't have a list of suspects, then it's going to be really hard to decipher and narrow down who had a larger possibility of committing the crime. "Ashmita, I know that Mason has your mom's diaries. Your mom always told everything to that diary. I always used to joke with her about it. One day, someone's going to see the diary on the desk and then know exactly what to do in order to get us bankrupt. Look in there, and I'm not lying to you when I say that she wrote down almost everything in her diaries. I assure you, you're going to find something. But that's where I need your help. I need you to reopen the case."

My eyes widen when he says that. Me? Reopening the case? That's almost impossible. I'm not even a detective at this point. How the hell am I supposed to reopen the case for her? I haven't even graduated college at this point. How is there a guarantee that I'm not going to screw this up? "Arjun, are you crazy? I haven't even graduated college."

"Ashmita, you have an advantage. You have so many people at your fingertips that you can ask. And you're entering this with a relatively clean slate. You know exactly who to ask and what to look for. And believe me, I know that you can do it. Even though I've known you for only a few hours, I can tell that you have the ambition and intelligence to solve the case. So what do you say? Will you bring the right person to justice?"

I consider all my options at this point. I don't know if there's many reliable people I can ask to help me in my journey. I don't know if her diaries are going to be enough. I don't know if the information that people can give me is going to be enough.

But, in the end, despite these odds, I say, "I'll do it."

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Ooooh, this is getting interesting! Do you think Ashmita's capable of reopening the case? Let me know in the comments.

Don't have much to say today. Hope you guys liked this chapter!

Please vote/comment/share/follow/message if you like my work! See you all next Sunday with a new chapter of TSOC! Have a great week!

Love you guys, and stay safe,

Shree