"Please tell me Mason cooked up some Lebanese food. I'm starving," Usha says. She sounds like she hasn't eaten in three weeks and she just wants something that will fill her stomach and rid her misery.

I raise an eyebrow. "Didn't you just eat lunch like an hour ago?"

"Yes, but it's your dad's Lebanese food!" That I kind of can't argue with. Mason's cooking is 5 star restaurant level, so I'm not surprised that she wants some of it.

I open the door to the house, and say, "You're so weird sometimes."

"Can you blame me? Your dad's cooking will make Gordon Ramsey jealous!" Can't really disagree with that either. I mean, the Lebanese food that Mason and his mom cook are seriously so good.

"Well, I'm glad you think that way, Usha." Mason walks down the steps to greet Usha, and the only thing Usha greets him with is a huge smile.

"Hey, Mason! How are you doing?" she asks. Her smile is cheerful, and the smile that Mason has is almost cunning.

He shrugs. "Eh, I'm okay. Nothing too special going on. How about you? How's your sister doing?"

"Stressing about college apps. She really wants to get into USC, but she doesn't know if she's up to it."

Mason shrugs. "I mean, it really depends on the workload. I went to Cal Poly, and I did fine. She's going to be fine. Now, what were you saying about my Lebanese food? Would it really make Gordon Ramsey jealous?"

Usha nods a little bit, and says, "Yeah, it would. It's delicious."

Mason smirks his signature smile that causes most middle aged women to want to flirt with him. "I've got some leftover manakeesh that I made last night. I'll get you some. Sit down and make yourself at home, how about that?"

Usha gladly nods and sits down on the couch. Mason grabs some food from the plate sitting on the countertop, while I go and get some water from the sink. "Hey, Usha, so what do you think about Chris' new tattoo? I think it's kind of badass, right?"

Usha crosses her legs, and says, "It kinda is, isn't it? I mean, I never expected him to get one. He's not the type of dude to get one."

Mason brings the food over to Usha, who gladly takes it and thanks him. "If you need anything else, just shout. I'll be here," Mason assures, as he sits down on the couch next to her.

"Hey, Usha, can we go up to my room? I need to talk about something." The tone of my voice indicates that it's kind of important, and if she says no, then I won't be the happiest.

She nods, gets up, and then Mason calls, "Try not to make a mess, okay?"

"Gotcha, Mason," she calls back, and then we go upstairs to talk about things that Mason doesn't really need to know about. We go upstairs, and then I shut the door so that no one decides to listen and hear about what I'm going to tell Usha about.

"So, what did you want to talk about? If it's about the bracelet, then I told you I'm sorry already. I already paid you for it," she asks, and I roll my eyes. That was a while back, and it was a silly bracelet. I may as well get another one from my local jewelry store.

"No, it's not about the bracelet! I want to show you something!" I open my dresser, and take out my mom's diaries. I put them on Usha's lap, and open them for her to see.

Usha looks at me, and says, "Okay, it's a bunch of notebooks with Gujarati stuff written in it. What's so interesting about that?"

I scoff. "It's my mom diaries." I say it in a hushed whisper just in case someone's lingering around my room.

Usha's eyes widen. "What? Where did you find these?"

"I was cleaning out the closet and I found these hidden in a box. Mason never hides things. He's always honest with me about things like this. Plus, I was reading articles about my mom's murder, and things didn't add up for me. It was like an instinct. I was planning to just read these for my project, but I don't know if I should just have a look to see her perspective of life before the murder."

Usha sits back a little bit, studying everything that I just said. She takes the diaries, and says, "What doesn't seem right to you? Like, what exactly bugged you about the case?"

"Well, for one, it said he admitted to stabbing her over 40 times. And 7 of those stab wounds were to her neck. First of all, who actually counts like that? Second of all, why would you stab someone in the neck 7 times? After two or three, you're pretty much dead. What would she have done to make him stab her that many times? From what Mason told me, she was an angel. I don't know, something just doesn't add up."

Usha sits back a little bit, and just studies my observations in a little bit more detail. As she's studying me, I notice something. The day Arjun decided to come back, he said something. Something about what he said bugs me, and it decides to come back into my memory right now. "I had a perfect excuse for leaving, and you know it too." Something about that is suspicious. What would be his motive? Even if it's not a valid motive, why would Mason know it, and not tell me?

I convey this to Usha, and she says, "Wow. Nothing's adding up, huh?"

"No, it really isn't. I'm just so torn, because I don't know if I should start investigating or not. Because I know he's already been convicted, but I don't know if his confession is correct or not. Or if he's lying about it. Because nothing adds up at this moment."

Usha finishes up her food, and says, "It's up to you at this point. I have no say in what you want to do. You can open up the case again if you want to."

I stare at the books in my hand, and then back at Usha. The memories of my mom being stabbed to death only a few feet away ring in my mind like church bells. I take the diaries, walk over to my dresser, place them inside, and slam it shut. "I'll think about it," is all I say to Usha, as my thoughts about the case are shut away along with the diaries inside.

*************

"Yes, Mason, I'm checking for the package in the mail," I say over the phone, as I walk over to the mailbox.

"Okay. I'll be home in about 20 minutes. Traffic is a nightmare, I'm telling you."

"I get that. See you soon, okay?"

"See you soon." I hang up, and I stick the key into the lock. After opening the mailbox, I hear a voice behind me say, "Ashmita."

I look over, and lo and behold, it's none other than Arjun. My mouth falls open in a state of shock, as he stands there with a somewhat guilty look on his face. I grasp my keys a little bit tighter, just in case I need to scratch him.

The only thing I can manage to say at that moment is, "Get away from me."

Arjun's eyes widen. "Please. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to kill you. I just need 5 minutes." He places his hands on my shoulders, to which I tense up at his contact. Almost instinctively, I push him away, fling his hands off, and slap him across the face. I stare at him, as shock rides his face from me slapping him.

"Don't touch me," I say, in a low, dangerous voice.

He bounces right back up, and rubs the side of his face. "I deserved that, huh? Anyways, you're right. I shouldn't have touched you. But please, just give me 5 minutes. I promise, you're not going to regret it."

I raise an eyebrow at him, while studying the look of plea on his face. Somewhere in there, I see something that I never thought I'd ever see in someone like Arjun. Genuity. Somewhere in that plea filled face, there's a  sprinkling of genuity in there. Something about it just makes me curious to hear his side of the story.

But, I know that I have to be extra careful with him. So, I take out my phone, and go to the timer app. "What are you doing?" he asks.

I set it for 5 minutes, and say, "You got 5 minutes. And your time starts now."

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Ooooooh, more drama when it comes to Jyoti's case. And now we have Arjun in the mixture. Do you guys think that Ashmita shouldn't have given Arjun any time to explain himself? Let me know in the comments.

Hey everyone! How's it going? How's everyone doing in the quarantine? I'm bored, and I've been studying because school's gonna be super fast paced when I start. Ugh.

Also, I applied to be part of the Wattpad Stars program. We'll see how that goes.

That's all I got. 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 The Secrets of Confessions! Have a great week!

Love you guys,

Shree