Puzzle point Dinner

"Which should I start with?" Brant asked. "The hectic part or the interesting part?"  He added.

"The interesting part"

His parents answered in unison.

He raised his head and stared at his parents.

"Mila Rivers is alive."

Mr White was about to pick up the glass in front of him, but his hand froze in mid air. 

The angel of silence made a solid stand in the room.

All the heads at the table turned to face their father. Surprised or fright, or both was discernible on his face.

Mrs White and Brant interpreted his look to a it-is-hard-to-believe-that-my-best-friend's-family-member-is-alive look.

The girls were nonchalant about what was happening and they went back to digging into their meals.

The twins were just babies when the accident occurred while Brenda was not even an idea at that time.

"How is that possible?" Mrs White was the first to recover from the shocking revelation. She looked from her husband to her son.

"I saw her." Brant said.

"Where? It can not be, I saw the bodies." Mr White said in an almost raspy voice.

"I met her face to face." Brant said, staring at both parents.

"You probably just met someone like her and you thought she was the one." Mr White waved him off with a scoff.

"Where did you meet her honey?" It was Mrs White who asked this time.

"Who's Mila... whatever?" Brenda asked.

"He probably was just hallucinating." Mr White laughed off.

"She works…." 

"I made sure they were dead." Mr White said unconsciously, cutting in on Brantley's speech, causing Brant to pause.

The whole room went silent again.

He stared at his family and saw the horror on their faces, then it dawned on him what he just said.

"I mean…" he started, "I had to investigate thoroughly to be certain that there were no survivors." He said again, this time, sounding worse than the previous.

"Hmm, Dad, are you listening to yourself right now?" Shella, one of the twins, asked with a mouthful of food.

"I was trying to help, I know how it sounds, but trust me, it is not it,ok?" Mr White chuckled nervously, with a pretext sad look.

"He was a good man and I wanted to find someone to repay all that he had done for me." Mr White explained.

"We understand honey."  Mrs White said softly.

Brant stared at his parents, especially his father.

Maybe his father meant the opposite of what he just said, but there was absolutely no remorse written on  his face, like that of someone who was actually mourning. There was more of  fright...as if he met his nemesis.

He remembered what Mila said, about coming to take back what belonged to her father. He shook his head trying to get rid of her voice, why should he believe anything she says. She definitely is not the same Mila he onced was friends with. She basically introduced herself by screwing him.

"Brant…?"

"Are you Ok son?" Mrs White called again.

"Uh huh." His mother's voice brought him back to reality.

"Your father was asking you a question."  She said,

"For the umpteenth time." Shailene, also known as 'the troublesome twin', concluded.

Brant shot her a piercing stare, causing the teenager to giggle, before he looked at his parents again. 

"You were gonna say where you saw her." Said Mr White.

"Oh! hmm... I met her at a hotel the other day." He lied smoothly. "I had a dinner meeting there." He quickly added.

"Does she work there or was she there to see someone?" Mr White asked.

"To see someone, I presume." Answered Brant.

"And, how were you certain it was her? Did you talk to her or you just assumed her to be Mila Rivers because some stranger looked like her? Mr White did not stop bombarding his son with questions.

"Hold up, how would you even recognize her, she was just a kid...both of you were kids and should all have metamorphosed drastically by now… it was more than twenty years ago huh?" Mr White continued, giving no room for Brant to respond to any of the questions.

"Also did you…"

"Honey?" Mre White cut her husband off.

Mr White took a deep breath and stared at his wife, then at his children. 

Everyone at the table had stopped doing what it was that they were engaged in.

They all had their eyes glued on their father, each with different facial expressions in response to their father being extremely nervous and talkative for the first time.

Except Brant….  He furrowed his temple and stared at his father. Something was not right with his father, but what? He could not quite put his finger on it.

"Look at me," Mrs White used her free hand to support her husband's chin, turning his face so that they could face each other. "You tried your best honey, you did everything you could."  She whispered softly, while rubbing her palms on her husband's chin soothingly.

"Whom are you guys talking about?" Shella asked again. She was ignored the first time, but this time, her questions caught everyone's attention, and to an extent, caused the tension among the grown ups to subside.

"Mr Melo Rivers was dad's boss/partner, but he lost his life alongside his entire family in a tragic fire accident about 20 years ago…" Brant explained.

"Mila Rivers was the youngest daughter of the family." Brenda concluded.

All eyes were on her. All of the other people in the room could not hide how stunned they were. Everyone had the same question in mind but nobody voiced it out.

"I googled it." She said nonchalantly, turning her phone to show her screen to everyone.

"Oh!" They all acknowledged in unison.

"But, if she is alive, why hasn't she shown up all this while to at least claim her shares?" Asked Brenda.

The whole family was aware that she was the smart one, so it was nothing new getting all this from her.

"That's the reason why your brother could have mistaken someone else for her." Said Mrs White.

"Probably." Brant confirmed and immediately went back to his meal.

He knew that he needed more insight on the whole Rivers family story. Somehow, his gut told him that her existence and whereabouts needed to be a secret.

"You said that you met her at a hotel, did you talk to her?" His father asked again.

Brant nodded.

It was like a bright light lit up on his dad's face.

"What did she say? Did she say that she was Mila?" He asked in concern.

"She walked off, I... I followed her but lost her as she stepped out of the hotel restau." He lied again.

"Oh!" Disappointment was evident on his father's face.

"Maybe she lost her memory, I mean, we should eat instead of turning this dinner into a puzzle solving showroom." Talkative Brenda said.