WARDROBE

Shamim eyes his sister and continues his call. "So baby what were you saying?"

"This idiot!" Ella whispers and picks up her slippers to hit but stops by herself for no reason. "Just know you aren't going to taste the food."

"Let me assist you." Abdullah offers.

"You always do that. Let one of them do it this time around." Ella says pointing to her girl friends and brother.

"But Ella we are visitors now." Asma whispers cutely.

"Who are you acting cute for?" Ella asks with a small laugh.

"You of course!" Asma replies pointing at her.

"Whatever." Ella says waving her hand. "Let's go to the kitchen Abdullah."

"Alright." Abdullah says and they walk to the kitchen together.

Asma and Darifa looks at them as they walk into the kitchen.

"They will actually make a very sweet and lovely couple." Asma whispers cutely again.

"Stop talking like that." Darifa says brushing her with her elbow gently. "You sound like a baby."

"Really?" Asma asks and laughs gently.

Shamim ends the call and joins the ladies on their couch. "I think Abdullah says he is shooting his shots this evening." He says quietly.

"I hope he doesn't get rejected terribly, she is most likely to reject him but I hope she does it nicely." Darifa hopes.

"I wonder why she has no interest in guys at all." Shamim whispers and remembers what he heard the other time, so he decides to ask more about it. "Asma, you were saying something about someone being adopted earlier. Who is it?"

"Yes." Asma smiles. "I was referring to Ella, like you know your step mom adopted her."

Shamim stops for a while and try to think back again, for the past ten years he had known Ella and Lola, no one has ever mentioned the fact that she was adopted. Moreover, if she was adopted, that means she is not even blood related to him at all. All this while, he had believed that they were from the same father. "Are you sure about what you are saying?" He asks again.

"Of course." Asma says and looks at Darifa. "Don't you know how she got admitted in the school?"

"Yes, I do." Darifa nods. "Due to some reasons, your step mom adopted her and married your father, I think after having a failed marriage with her ex husband."

Now it is getting out of hand, Lola was married before? And Ella was adopted? It is just too much for him to take in at once. Did they all lie to him right from time? "Ohh, that so true, can you believe I almost forgot that. We are so close to that extent."

"I really love the kind of relationship you all have, no one will ever know that neither your father nor your step mom gave birth to Ella." Darifa expresses herself not knowing the absolute damage she is causing.

"Yes." Shamim nods with a smile trying to hide his real emotions and mood. "I will go in, I need to get something upstairs." He says and runs upstairs to his room.

"He really loves and cares for Ella a lot." Asma whispers.

"I really do love their relationship too." Darifa adds with a smile.

"What of your girlfriend? How is she doing?" Asma asks.

"We are actually on a break." Darifa replies sadly.

"Why?" Asma asks already looking worried.

"Her parents are having a really tough time accepting the kind of person she is, they don't want to believe she is who she is. They don't want to believe she is always attracted to girls not boys, and she can never have a thing a boy." Darifa replies sounding very sad.

"Did you both have a talk about it yet?"

"Of course we did, but no positivity yet. So we decided to go on a break for a while. Maybe, we just need that space to sort things out in our head."

"It's not going to help the situation. It's only going to worsen it."

"I know." Darifa says and nods. "But that is the only conclusion I can come to, right now." She smiles at her friend. "Being different isn't easy."

"I understand that and I feel your pains, but you have to always make yourself happy no matter what, isn't it?" Asma asks.

"Yes." Darifa nods and water drops from her eyes.

"Come here." Asma says and embraces her friend tightly.

Instead of going to his room, he heads straight to Ella's room. He gently locks the door and takes a close look round the room. "Is Ella really not my sister?" He asks himself and opens her wardrobe. His alleged sister had always warned him not to touch her wardrobe so he thinks that something must be in her wardrobe.

Shamim opens Ella's wardrobe and starts searching carefully, but couldn't find anything significant. All he saw was a small ribbon box. "What is this? Did she get a gift for Kim or Kylie?" He asks himself and opens it. To his greatest surprise, he sees a Diamond necklace with a name initials on it 'ES'. He takes a closer look at the necklace, he has never seen Ella put it on before. Shamim also tries to guess what the initials could mean, then something whispers to his ears. "Ella Smith!"

Ella had told him few days ago, that the 'Smith' she uses is the surname name of her foster father. So did her foster father manage to get her a diamond necklace with her name initials on it and she decides not to ever mention it to him or even use it? And she decided to hide it? Shamim asks himself, still can't bring himself to come to a conclusion.

He drops the ribbon box to its original spot and walks out of the room, walking straight to sitting room and acting like nothing happened. If he wants to get to know the truth of all, he has to keep calm and find out everything one after the other without trying to act rash or do anything funny.