Mistakenly Eaten

89. More Fun!

“Selena?”

The girl immediately turned around as she heard her name and opened up her arms leaping ahead and pulled Martha in for a hug.

“Mo…”

The girl had barely opened up her mouth to say anything when Martha leaned in to her ear and whispered lowly.

“Don’t say a word, right now.” She warned the girl, who frozen entirely, scared to hear her mother’s words.

“But…”

“Just stay quiet.”

With that Martha broke the hug and turned the girl around.

“What happened here?” she asked Fiona, who huffed in exhaustion, remembering the horrific moment that she had to face just five minutes ago.

Flashback of just five minutes ago…

Althea and Fiona both made their way out of the house, having decided to spend the day in the garden and spend their time until lunch by hanging out around the lawns of the mansion. But they had barely opened up the door of the house and had just stepped out when Selena stood in front of them, with her hands resting on her hips and an eyebrow c****d up.

Fiona’s eyes widened with shock for a moment, as she recognized Selena and only wondered what could possibly bring the girl unannounced on the island, that also during a time when her visit should’ve been the last thing to happen, since Althea and a fake cooking competition was being organized at the island.

“Umm… have we seen this one before?” Althea whispered in to Fiona’s ears, who shook her head, pretending to be as oblivious of the situation as hers and took a step forward, in an attempt to confront Selena and know the reason behind her visit on the island but before she could’ve said a single word, Selena yelled out loud, pointing her finger at Althea.

“You! You must be the nuisance. I haven’t seen you before, so I am pretty sure that you are the one…”

“Stop!” Fiona immediately clasped Selena’s mouth with her palm and prevented her from speaking anything further but Selena only shrugged her hand off her.

“Don’t tell me that you are also scared of her?” she asked Selena, who widened her eyes and shook her head vigorously, afraid to open up her mouth in front of Althea and reveal that she knew Selena, who seemed like an intruder to Althea and she needed to pretend that just like Althea, Fiona was also an outsider of the island and couldn’t reveal to Althea that she knew about Selena, without postulating a plausible excuse and yet another story about who Selena was.

“What? What have I ever done to you? Do I even… do I even know you?”

Althea asked, with a scoffing expression, wondering what she had ever done to offend Selena, someone that she had never even seen in her life before that moment.

“I don’t think so.” Selena held her hands over her hips and c****d, “But I think I know you. You are the nuisance, the irritating little thing, that’s been the bothering everyone around the house.”

She pointed her finger at Althea, further taking her by surprise, over how Selena was so freehandedly accusing her of something that Althea was completely oblivious of.

“Excuse me? What have I even done? Would you please elaborate what do you know that I have no idea, that have caused such a commotion to everybody and how do you even know I have disturbed people around the island? Were you even on this island? What is going on?”

She looked at Fiona, who immediately stepped in between Selena and Althea, extended her arms on both sides and pushing the two away from each other, trying her very best to handle the situation but she had zero to little idea on how to make Selena understand the situation without revealing the entire truth to Althea and partially even Fiona was confused about why Selena was putting her finger of accusation right on Althea, whilst according to Fiona, Selena must have zero idea about who Althea should be.

Everything was confusing for the three women.

Before Selena could’ve said another word, Martha walked out of the house and called Selena out.

The girl turned and rushed towards the mother, hugging her.

She was about to call her ‘Mom’ but Martha spoke up in her ear, preventing her from speaking any further.

Selena shut up and Martha turned her around towards Althea, who had bewilderment expressions smudged all over her face.

“This girl… Martha, do you know her?” she asked from the supposed judge, who nodded her head.

“She… she is…” Martha turned to look at Selena and found a tripod case hanging on one side of her shoulder. Martha groaned lightly, understanding that her daughter had ended up jumping on the island right away from wherever she was shooting the said documentary for which she was trekking all across Europe.

“She is part of the camera crew.”

“Huh? Then why was she so angry at me?” Althea asked and Selna looked at her mother, wanting her to explain the situation to Althea on her own terms and later on, she was going to explain her side of the story to her mother.

“Because we called her here because of you.” Martha told her.

“Me? What have I done?”

“Carl and his camera crew can not capture you enough on their cameras because, they previously worked, under Selena’s orders and this year, she was on a hiatus and had decided to not participate in the documentation process but since Carl and his were not just doing the job good enough, we had to call the main director of the show back.”

Martha postulated her lie, very carefully, as she took long and subtle pauses in between her words, forming the next word that came out of her mouth with great intricacy and care.

“Oh! Well, I do shake a bit when I am cooking and Carl had complained one too many times that I always get out of the camera frame but I am just trying my best to cook up within the given time.”

Selena held an eyebrow above the other, as she looked at her mother and only wondered what she was talking about and then she looked back at Althea, who seemed quite poignantly polite and pliant and not some one who would be that potent and resilience as she assumed her to be.

But according to Selena’s calculations, she must be the one who was a commotion to the entire island, since she was someone that Selena was interacting with for the first time and was well aware of everyone else on the island.

She was also informed that the person behind the entire disturbance on the island was also a young girl that Selena had never seen before. So, it was simply a given fact that Selena was ought to act offensive towards Althea, but her mother’s patience was indicating that there was more to the matter than Selena knew of.

“Oh! Well, then it would be fun, I guess working with an expert like you. I will make sure to not to be a nuisance for you as well. I guess I ought to apologize to poor Carl, who had to bring in the big guns for me.”

Althea chimed lightly at Selena and spared on final glance at her face. Her skin, slightly tanned and her features were mostly East Asian, with her eyes stretched and mono-lid, with her nose also being flat resting over her thin lips. Her cheeks were slightly puffed, that complimented her round face, which had certain freckles resting over it.

“You are very pretty.” She complimented Selena and waved her one last time, before grabbing Fiona’s arm and led her down the garden.

“Let’s go where we were supposed to be.”

With that the two ladies left and Fiona spared one last glance towards Selena and Martha, shrugging at the two with confusion and Martha gestured Fiona to keep Althea busy and only heaved a breath of relief, only when she saw that Althea was out of her sight.

She then grabbed her daughter’s arm and pulled her inside the foyer.

“What are you doing here?” she asked her daughter, who shrugged aimlessly.

“I missed you too, Mom!”

Martha bulged her eyes, as she heard Selena refer to her, with her regular title.

“Be careful, Don’t call me there here.”

“Whoa! I get it, that you were mad at me for going on this trip across Europe but don’t tell me that you have disowned me and reversed back my adoption process.”

She snickered, making Martha squint her eyes at her daughter’s niggard humor.

“Nobody likes those stupid Gen z jokes of yours.” She reminded, her daughter, who only smiled shamelessly and hugged her mother.

“I missed you so much.” She pulled her mother in for a hug and pecked her cheeks.

“But what the hell was that, that you said outside to that young lass, who by the way, in my opinion is pretty hot and at first, I did assume that might trouble around the island because many men would find it hard to focus with her on the island but…”

“First tell me what are you doing here? didn’t you say that you wanted to go on the trip to catch a break from me and your father? Now what are you doing on this island, chasing after us?” Martha retorted back at her daughter, who too ashamed to admit that she missed her parents, decided to tell the truth right away.

“Serena called me.”

“What? How? Salva has everyone’s phone and even he left the island this morning. So, how can she call you?”

“I don’t know but she did. She called me told me that you were in trouble, because there was a girl on the island, that had intruded and was causing disturbance to everybody. You guys wanted to kick her out but Nicholas took pity on her and…”

“Wait! Are you sure, Serena said all of this to you? How could she even call you to begin with when Salva had taken everybody’s phone, in order to make sure that nothing on the island gets leaked out of here and this very thing happened and…”

“I have another phone that I had hidden from everyone else.” Serema’s voice cooed, from down the hallway, making both Martha and Selena turn towards the source of the voice.

Serena took careful steps towards the mother daughter duo, staying steadfast and making sure to not to startle off the two, with the information that she was about to provide them with.

“I am sorry after our fight yesterday, I got very sad and since I was triggered because of Fiona getting closer to Althea, I wanted your daughter to come to the island, so that you would somehow understand my situation as well, when you would see for yourself how your daughter has grown up and is now spending summers out there backpacking across Europe.”

Martha groaned in agitation.

“You i***t! I wanted Selena to go out with her friends.”

“Wait! What?”

Both Selena and Serena, the rhyming name duo, asking in unison.

“Wow! I thought I wanted independence and freedom but your words are not making me feel any better now.” Selena emphasized and Serena also jumped in.

“And I thought you were sad because you missed your daughter and getting her here would make you feel my pain and help you realize why I was being so envious and irritated by Althea.”

Martha groaned in agitation, as she walked ahead and sat on the staircase, taking a breather.

“Call me a bad mom but I really wanted you to be gone.” She told Selena, “I mean, I did know that I was going to miss you and I was also a bit sad that you were moving away from me and getting a life of your own but if I am being honest, deep down somewhere, I just simply wanted you to have a life of your own because looking after you, your father and I lost our own spark and with you gone and us coming on this island, I realized that we can get back our spark but even here on the island, all your dad does is worry about you and keeping this place organized in the absence of Alejandro.”

Selena softly smiled, walking ahead and sat by her mother, extending her arms around her and hugging her.

“I should’ve observed that you and dad were falling apart from each other and I should’ve been more there for you guys. I am sorry about that. but now that I am here, I promise to make sure that you and dad get back your spark and relive your days from when you two fell in love on this very island.”

Martha hugged her daughter back and witnessing the warm moment between a mother and her adoptive child, she sensed that she also needed to take good care of her own bond with Fiona and instead of blaming it on Althea, she needed to work on it her own self and understand that Fiona was growing up and she needed to be a woman of her own at the same time while carrying the love and respect for her mother. But she was a woman of her own and perhaps, Serena would’ve realized that, if she had a man like Martha did in her life.

Serena sighed simply and moved towards her room, walking away and leaving a mother and daughter behind to talk things out, realizing that she needed to sort things out with Fiona on her own, instead of putting the blame on somebody.

“So, who is that chick and what was that lie that you just cooked up about me being a camera director?” Selena finally rose the question that had been bothering her and a sense of realization dawned on Martha, who shook her head, suddenly remembering that she needed to inform Selena about what was happening on the island.

“Oh! Yes I need to tell you something important but you have to make sure that you never, ever tell anybody about this that has not been on the island lately. Especially Rachel and Alejandro, they can not know that we all are cooking up a huge lie to make another woman cook food for Nicholas, that is curing him.”

Selena nodded, understanding through her mother’s grave expressions that something somber was happening on the island, that was being orchestrated only to help Nicholas recover.

Once Martha had explained everything to Selena, she took in a deep breath, culminating and comprehending the entire information that her mother had just bombarded her with.

“Wow! So much is going on. I can’t believe that Nicholas refused to eat anything at all and suddenly whatever this girl cooks, he just eats it without a question. Why does he even depend on her food?”

“Apparently, he had her pasta once when he was dating Cheryl and for Cheryl, he actually sacrificed that pasta and let her have it. That was how he knew that he loved Cheryl and perhaps, his mind needed to be a little selfish to have that girl at the island at any cost and have her prepare meals for him. and actually I once tasted somethings that she prepared and her food is really very delicious.”

“So, is she sone sort of sous chef?”

Martha shook her head, “The poor girl was entrapped by her uncle in to some debt ring, that she had taken for her sister’s college tuition fee and that bald bastard was forcing her to work for him at his restaurant as a waitress.”

“What? Why was he being so mean? That girl is so pretty and deserves the whole world.” Selena’s heart melted with sympathy right towards Althea, that came from the core of her heart, after knowing how she was bonded by responsibility and relinquish by some antagonist in her life.

“Well, I guess that’s the reality of life but honestly, that girl is also kind of frustrating. She wouldn’t take up the job of being a private chef when Salva tried to offer her. So, that’s why we had to continue the lie upon which we brought her to the island. And I only wonder why was she stuck working at her uncle’s restaurant for a petty sum of money when she couldn’t earned better with her skills and paid off her sister’s college tuition fee.”

“Jeez! That’s just too much effort. I think I was better off when I wasn’t here.” she admitted nonchalantly and Martha shrugged.

“Your dad still doesn’t know that you are here. You can go if you want.” She offered and Selena chimed with happiness as she tightened her hold around her mother’s shoulders.

“You are the best mom in this world and you have always sided with me whenever it came to letting Dad agree with letting me go wherever I wanted to. But you know what, it is about time when I stop being so selfish and actually think about my parents as well. You and Dad are having a little trouble in your paradise but you don’t have to worry anymore. You don’t have to worry. I am here and since I know that my Dad is a little slow, I will make sure that your spark reignites with him.”

Martha smiled softly, pecking her daughter’s head and at the same time, Anthony walked inside the house, entering through the main door.

His feet froze, the moment he saw his daughter sitting in the staircase with his wife.

“Selena, what are you doing here?”

He asked, filled joy that he didn’t had to have his daughter tracked throughout the entire Europe since she was there in front of him, but at the same time, he felt frustrated and agitated by his spies, who couldn’t inform him that Selena was going to come to the island.

“Well, since you won’t stop having me followed by your men and actually focus on things that need your attention…” she stated, walking towards her father, “… I decided to show up at your door and stay with you guys for the remaining days on the island. So, that you can focus on what is more important to you.”

She hugged him, as he also embraced her longingly.

“Well, but things are quite a bit ablaze here on the island.” Anthony informed her and Selena only held his hand out at him.

“You don’t have to worry Dad, Mom has told me everything. And now that I am here, I will make sure to take care of everything in my own way.”

She smirked, looking at her mother and winking at her deviously.

“I have heard that there is a chef on this island, who has the tendency to cure a person with her food?”

Anthony chuckled, “Why don’t you go and meet Nicholas and see the truth with your own eyes. I bet he must be having his morning meal by now.”

Selena rushed towards Nicholas’s office and flew the doors open, only find the man sitting on his desk and having his morning breakfast.

The moment the doors opened so abruptly, he looked up to see who had dared to come in without a knock and the bite that he had prepared with his spoon, left hanging in thin air, with his mouth hung open, as his eyes landed over at Selena, who walked up towards him.

“What the hell? What are you doing here?”

She encircled the table and reached up to Nicholas, hugging him feverishly.

“I was missing Mom and Dad, so I decided to show up here only find out that a lot of amazing things are happening on the island.”

She informed him, deciding to hide the little mishap that had occurred on Serena’s part.

She snatched the spoon away from Nicholas’s hand and took a bite off his plate, making him feel a bit obnoxiously irritated, since he believed that everything cooked by Althea should only be tasted by him,

“Wow!” Selena gasped in sheer awe, as her taste buds were replenished with the most deliciously enticing flavors that she had ever tasted.

“Now I get the fuzz about doing all that just to keep the girl on the island.” She told Nicholas, making him c**k an eyebrow at her.

“What? Mom told me everything and also, at first I thought she is just good on the eyes but no she is good on the mouth as well.”

She nudged Nicholas, making him cough up a bit in slight awkwardness as well. He had tasted not just the girl’s food but the girl herself as well. That’s why Selena’s words sounded so entrapping to him.

“Anyways, do you plan on staying on the island or just like the past few years, you just popped up unannounced to remind every body about your existence on every family event and then completely vanish from earth’s surface for the next entire year.”

Selena snickered a bit, understanding how everyone in the entire family found her manners of staying aloof and disconnected and even absent from the family text groups, to be extremely fractious.

“I actually plan on staying for a while and besides, I will be covering up your cook chick with my camera. I ended up running in to her this morning and having no idea who she was, I also ended up arguing with her a bit but Mom arrived quickly and being a better chef in lying, she cooked up a false truth that I was a director but here to shoot the girl more clearly. By the way, I would love shooting the girl more closely with my camera. Did you see the curves on that thing?”

Nicholas c****d at Selena, who was like a little sister to him and such a lousy language from her, was not something that he would enjoy, despite of knowing that she was bisexual.

He still believed that there should be a straining veil between siblings that should never be torn off, no matter how much close the two get and with Selena being ten years younger yet ten times wilder in adventures than him, he always had to make sure that she never let loose herself in terms of familiar matters and acted as a guiding light for her.

“What? You can’t tell me that you never imagined about tapping that thing.” She shrugged in her defense, making Nicholas shake his head.

“I always tell you to stay respectful, specially in front of me.” He found it slightly irritable that Selena was not being respectful towards Althea.

“Ugh! See that’s why I always believe that Lucas is more fun. Anyways, since I am here, it will be fun.”

She winked, walking out of the room, leaving Nicholas wondering, hoping and praying that the girl doesn’t create more trouble than there already existed.

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