Chapter 12

BEATRICE WRAPPED HER ARMS AROUND MAL, her cheeks turning red as they swayed to the music. Mal continued to smile, ignoring the world around her as if it was just the two of them.

"So, you enjoying the party so far?" Beatrice asked, biting her lower lip.

"Actually, yeah. But I'm a bad dancer, so be careful."

The couple giggled.

"Maybe, but you're getting better. Here comes the spin." Mal carefully took the read's hand, and waited for her to spin to the music. Beatrice made her dramatic move, then slid into the other's arm as if she was a professional dancer. Mal was impressed.

"Wow, where did you learn to dance?"

"At camp when I was really young. My mum made sure I knew how to slow dance because you never really know when are you going to be asked to dance."

"Your mum is right. I certainly wasn't expecting a dance tonight."

At a fair distance, she spotted Arjun and Malia dancing, their lips formed into wide smiles as Arjun led a few steps. Mal thought they were also great dancers.

"I seemed to have lost you at some point here, was everything okay?" Beatrice asked with curiosity. Mal turned to her, taking her eyes off the other couple for a few seconds.

"Yeah, I was at the garden. Speaking of which, something weird happened back there. So we were in that gazebo and-"

Before she continued her story, they heard the sound of the music stopping. The audience turned around to look at the reason, and was met by the sight of Juliet and Eric, their expression slightly scared, but could hide it nonetheless.

"We would like to apologize for the inconvenience, but something came up. The hall must be cleared now. Please pause at the gate to take your gift before you leave." Juliet spoke while trying to hide the lump in her throat. A few people started whispering in the audience, but were quickly silenced as Eric took his turn to speak.

"We apologize once again for the inconvenience. We hope this isn't the last time for a gathering like this, but you never know..." his voice trailed off, staring into nothing at a distance.

Even though they didn't say anything else, the people took turns to grab their things and leave. Mal let go of Beatrice's torso, giving her an apologetic look. Beatrice nodded, then walked away to search for her mother.

Mal waved at her friends with a frowning expression, including Bryce, then glanced around the place to search for her siblings and mother. She spotted them at the other end of the hall, talking about something, which she assumed was about what the Melrose's just did, then she walked slowly towards them.

"Come on, kids, let's go." Nawal muttered, leading them out of the house, towards their parked SUV.

As they walked towards the car, Mal's siblings began to whisper about what had just happened.

"Maybe they were just tired with having so man guests around their house-" Luna reasoned, but was interrupted by Rajwan.

"Or maybe they found a dead body!"

At that moment, Mal turned to her brother and casted him a glare.

"This isn't funny, Rajwan." she gritted her teeth as she warned. Rajwan's expression faded into a guilty one, biting his lip.

"Sorry, Mal. I didn't mean to upset you."

Mal rolled her eyes, and entered the car. Nawal entered as well, then as soon as they were all inside, she closed the doors and turned the AC on, leaving them to think in silence.

What had just happened?

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