Anika woke up to an insistent knocking.

“Come in.” Her voice was groggy.

A young girl peeked in and slowly walked inside with a shy look.

“Hello.” Anika smiled at the girl.

“They asked me to help you get ready, madam. Neelamma will start to receive people in an hour.”

Anika found that odd.

“I don’t need help in getting ready. I’ll be out in thirty minutes.” Although her mom and stepdad were doctors, and she and Myra grew up with nannies and maids, they weren’t accustomed to people offering to help them get ready for a simple meeting with family.

The girl stood uncertainly for a few seconds before she nodded and left.

Anika stepped down from the bed, slowly looking around the room. She had been too tired to notice the details before, but now she observed everything. She had slept on a traditional four-poster bed in a large room with high ceilings. The walls gleamed with the antique oil paintings with various subtle pastel colors.

The antique clock against the wall indicated it was eleven fifteen. Sabitha and the girl whose name she had forgotten to ask had told that her aunt received her guests at noon. She found the appointment system to be odd within the family members, but didn’t want to read too much into it.

Pulling her stuff out of the suitcases, she quickly got ready. She gave herself one final glance in the mirror before stepping out of the room.

She had chosen to wear traditional clothes out of respect to her grandfather, even though she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the slightly revealing clothes. Growing up in the West, she was used to wearing leg-baring or even shoulder-baring clothes. But the traditional clothes, although modest when it came to shoulders and legs, usually showed a good amount of bare midriff. Maybe the next day, she could wear her usual. She was quite relieved to see Sabitha in cotton trousers and a blouse that morning, indicating that people weren’t very conservative with the dressing.

She walked towards a window and took in a breath of fresh air to calm her nerves. The hint of greenery she had seen on her way from the airport was replaced with an endless brown landscape.

Outside the window, she could hear the noises of bustling activity. There were vague hums of excited conversations. Curious and oddly nervous at the same time, she took another deep breath, and walked out from her room.

The first thing she saw was the indoor balcony which ran along the inside of the house, overlooking the center area. She walked to the railing and looked down to the ground level, to see if anyone was gathered inside the impressive-looking living area.

It was mostly empty with only a couple of maids cleaning the various antique pieces adorning the room. To one side, she saw a large dining room where Sabitha was speaking to an elderly man in a wheelchair.

That must be Grandfather.

Anika hurried down the stairs, her shoes making enough noise to indicate her arrival. Sabitha looked up and nodded to her in acknowledgement with a dispassionate look.

Taking a deep breath, Anika ignored the growing discomfort that threatened to envelop her, and kept her eyes trained on the elderly man in the wheelchair.

“Hello, Grandfather,” she greeted quietly, feeling her heart tug at the gaunt and shriveled face of her father’s dad.

The man in front of her must have suffered greatly, having lost both his sons and his wife in an accident. She could even understand to some extent, why he had shunned his son’s wife and daughter during his grief. Her aunt had mentioned that he had lost his voice after his paralysis attack many years ago.

At the moment, he was watching her with a confused look on his face.

“That’s Anika,” Sabitha explained to him softly. “Uncle Yashwant’s daughter.”

Sabitha’s words made her grandfather’s eyes come alive.

Anika couldn’t make out whether it was with happiness or anger. Her mother had told her a few years ago that Anika’s father’s family was not happy about their eldest son marrying a girl they had not chosen or approved. It was one of the main reasons why they did not want Anika or her mother to visit them after his accidental death.

“I’m here to see you, Grandfather. I hope you are doing well.”

Her grandfather grunted in response.

A few minutes of awkward silence ensued. It was shattered by the sound of a heavy door creaking open.

“Send her in!” A familiar voice of a woman boomed from above, resounding loudly within the living room.