I've been emailing Arjun for the past several weeks. Sometimes, it's not even about the case. We just like to talk about random things. Sometimes, when Mason isn't home, and when I'm not working at the internship, I get on call with him. We talk about our random opinions, joke around, and I'd be happy to say that we've gotten a lot closer over the past couple of weeks if it wasn't for one thing. 

Fear. 

Mason would absolutely slaughter me if he found out I was talking with Arjun like that. He'd hang me out by the window and lecture me for a solid three hours. Initially, with each call and email, a tad bit of guilt would start to eat me up a little bit. Initially, I felt like I was betraying Mason because of the fact that they hate each other and that if you were to lock each other in a room together with a fork, it would end up lodged in either of them with lots of blood around. 

But, when it comes to the reasoning behind the hatred, that guilt seems to dissolve. I wasn't betraying Mason. I wasn't doing anything to betray Mason. He's the one who fed me lies about the hatred towards Arjun. He painted him as a terrible father and one that left his wife when he found out she was pregnant. 

The latter was true, but the circumstances were all lies. He was the reason in which I couldn't see my real dad growing up, and he is like the weed killer that prevented Arjun and I's relationship from blooming into what it is now. Now, it's my turn to try to build up that relationship into the best that I can before Mason catches me and then skewers me. 

 On top of talking with Arjun for the case and all that jazz, I have something else that I have to look for. Any YouTube videos in regards to the case. There must have been something on YouTube covering the case. YouTube is something where you can find anything if you look hard enough. Well, except for anything blatantly against the law, but I wouldn't know about that. 

The internet is filled with lots of dark things, and there's always a dark side to everything. In my mom's case, everything seems to be dark, and it doesn't look like it's going to lighten up any time soon. Which makes it harder for me to investigate without feeling disgusted or really sad.

"Ashmita, can you taste this? I want to see if it has enough salt," Mason hands me a spoon with a little bit of sauce. I take the spoon, blow on it, and then taste it a little bit. Surely enough, the salt is perfect, but it just needs a little bit of a kick. 

"The salt is good. Just add more pepper. In terms of spice, it's kind of lame," I say, to which he lets out a little chuckle. 

"Damn, brutal. Alright," he says, as he grinds in some black pepper. He stirs around the pepper a little bit, and then puts the lid on top of the pot. 

He turns towards me, wipes a little bit of sweat off, and then puts his hands on the countertop. "So, what's been going on at the internship? Learning new stuff, having tons of coffee, wanting to strangle your boss?" I roll my eyes. 

"Mason, not all bosses suck. I know you had a boss that sucked horse balls, but mine's actually really cool. He'll let me off early if I need to, like when I need to go for an emergency. Thankfully, that hasn't happened, but I have a feeling that Nathan is going to get injured somehow and then I'm going to have to run down to his school to tend to him." 

Mason raises an eyebrow. "The most severe thing that has happened to him was that he almost broke his ankle. That's it. He's not as accident prone as you were when growing up. I had to disinfect your wounds every couple of days. I don't know, it confuses me." 

I jump off of the countertop, making sure I don't hit anything hot. "That explains my high pain tolerance. Unlike Nathan, who screams bloody murder if he's out in the sun too long." Mason rolls his eyes, and then places a hand on my shoulder. 

I walk over to the couch to sit down and watch whatever piques my interest, and Mason follows. "God, I'm tired. I hate getting old, to be honest. You just feel like nothing in the world is fun anymore." 

I raise an eyebrow. Of course, this has happened to me several times. Like, over time, my birthday has lost its fun. It's just a reminder of me getting old and that one day, I'm going to be sitting in a chair, with gray hair, wondering where the time went. "But, you still have my graduation and wedding. And Nathan's graduation and wedding. You're a dad. There's so many things that you should be excited for." 

Mason looks at me, with a slight smile. "Of course I'm excited for your graduation. I mean, after so many tears and stress, you've made it. That's a huge milestone, Ashmita. We'll definitely do something nice. I'll take you out for dinner, we can go take a vacation, or we can go on a big day of shopping. Whatever you want. You choose," he offers. 

I smile, and then lean on his shoulder. "I just want to stop time and process everything. It's all going by too fast." 

I can feel Mason smile again, and then his arm goes around my shoulders, while he plants a big kiss on my forehead. "I do too. Trust me."

As Mason cooks dinner downstairs, I'm reading through her diaries. So far, it's just boring stuff about her life with me growing up, as I either give her a headache or make her squeal with pride. It's nothing in between, and to be honest, it's kind of boring. There's nothing about Hungarian, or is there anything about their identity. 

I've been reading these diaries in more detail than I read my textbooks in high school, and it's not only tiring, but frustrating. If I don't get anything out of those diaries, then I'm on the verge of giving up. I'm just so close to being done with everything that I can't process any more information. I feel like my head's about to explode. 

As I'm taking notes on anything and everything that could be important, the door immediately swings open. When I hear the swing of the door open, my heart drops to my stomach. What if Mason catches me? What if it's Sarah and she tells Mason? What if it's anybody and they tell Mason? 

It's Nathan, and he's standing there, with a book in his hand. "Yo, Ashmita, can I borrow-" he starts, but then when he sees the diaries and notebook in my hand, his face changes from neutral to surprised and even a little bit shocked and confused. 

He looks at the diary, then his gaze shifts to the notebook in my hands. "What the hell is that?" he asks, as he comes closer to me. He closes the door behind me, as I bring the diary closer to me. 

"None of your business, Nate. Nothing to worry about," I say, as he comes closer to me. 

He brings the diary out of my arms a little bit, as he stares in confusion. "What is that? Hindi? Wait...." he says, as he stares at the Gujarati writing in the pages. "Ashmita, what the hell are you doing in your mom's diaries?" 

I raise an eyebrow. "How do you know about them? You wouldn't know unless you were snooping around in Mason's things." 

Nathan gulps a little bit, and then he looks down at my notebook. When he sees the words such as "murder, wounds, Mom, knife," his eyes widen. He looks at me, with a slight look of disbelief, and then gulps a little bit more. "You're-you're investigating your mom's murder again?" 

I remain silent, as he continues to look around my room to see if I've posted stuff around. "Ashmita, don't tell me that you're interacting with your dad." 

I don't know how he figured it out, but it could have been either by the murder or the fact that my face is indicative of someone who's extremely guilty. Nathan's eyes widen again, but this time, they're engrossed in horror. 

His jaw falls open a little bit, as he stares at my guilty and slightly ashamed face. "You can't be serious! Ashmita, he's a criminal! Do you know what kind of crap you're getting yourself into?" 

I let out a sigh, and say, "Dude, he's probably innocent. So many things don't add up. I'm telling you. You just have to trust me." 

Nathan isn't convinced, and then he crosses his arms. "Ashmita, I can't trust this when you've been roaming around with a convicted criminal. He could be feeding you with pure lies, and you won't know that." 

I put the diary down on the bed to address one thing that would kill me. Mason. He'd absolutely slaughter me if he found out that I'm looking through my mom's diaries. "Nathan, don't tell Mason, please," I beg, but Nathan raises another eyebrow.

"Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to hide the fact that you're probably in danger! Ashmita, I may have covered for you several times, but this one is huge. I can't lie to Mason about your safety. He'd kill us both." 

I look deep into Nathan's eyes again, so that I can really convince him. "I'm serious. I will be fine. I promise, I will not get into anything shady, okay? Just please don't tell Mason. He'll kill us both." 

Nathan, although still unsure, finally seems to relax a little bit. "Fine. I won't tell him. But if you get into some shit, don't blame me." With that, he walks out of the room, closing the door behind him, leaving me with that thought to ponder on. 

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Ah crap, Nathan's onto her, isn't he? Do you think he poses a risk to this whole thing? Let me know in the comments. 

Hope you guys liked this chapter!

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Love you guys, 

Shree