Sanit turned to Dipan, "man have you got a huge house. No its literally a mansion."
"Come in," Dipan urged, unbothered by the comment, "don't stand in the sun for long."
"I want you to meet my father Sanit." Dipan said once they were back in the dining hall, his hands resting on the huge doors, "I think it'll be helpful for all of us if you do."
Dipan's father was Doshan Malik who led the Dogren group of Industries based in three different continents.
The man had begun as an oil baron, succeeding his father before diversifying to more lucrative markets like arms and defence. Wherein he didn't waste his time to dip his toes in black market manufacture.
Which meant Doshan was a shady man. No doubt about that. And he was wily.
"I'm assuming you've heard of him."
"Who? Your father? Not really man," Sanit scratched his head, "why? Is he important?"
Dipan only had himself to blame for assuming a lot of Sanit. "Dude, you will get it in time. Let's just say he deals in arms and makes money off it."
"Is that bad?" Sanit asked.
"Usually a red flag to whoever hears it but you probably don't see it. So it's kind of fine I suppose."
Dipan led them to the office room which was a posh and well decorated room, with three chairs and a table surrounded by shelves of books, trophies, photos, and a drinks cabinet.
"You sure are rich Dipan." Sanit gave a low whistle as he examined a polished cabinet.
"That's one good reason to stick with me then, eh?" Dipan walked over to the chair behind the desk and rotated it mindlessly, "dad doesn't stay with us here. He has made it a habit to stay somewhere near where he works. Almost always. His way of trying to get my sister and me independent he says."
"My mom visits us sometimes but she can't stand dad at all so she makes plans beforehand. Weird I know."
"I wasn't judging." Sanit said with a side glance.
Dipan took a long sigh as he looked around the familiar room.
"Anyway he should be around here soon."
They waited for an hour till he finally entered. Sanit stood up, his eyebrows raised. Both at the man and the figure behind him standing awkwardly.
'Hi,' Piya mouthed to both Dipan and Sanit.
I don't know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn't this.
☆
Doshan was a paunchy man, a bit fidgety you could say too and he was shorter than his son.
He had a balding head and eyes sharp like an owl which bore through a person when he stared in their direction.
He wiped his face with a kerchief, clearly flustered from sweating too much and glared at his son.
"Dad are you alri-"
"Boy you must be out of your mind to go out to those damn places again. Do you want to end me right now?" his father shouted as he walked to the desk and immediately Sanit stepped away towards where Piya was standing.
"Dad I'm-"
"Quiet!" he shouted and sat down on the chair, a bit of color coming back to his cheeks as he rocked back and forth.
"'Will go and prove everyone wrong about Inborns' it seems, bloody fool!"
Just when he seemed a bit calming he resumed again.
"Aren't you afraid for your life, child? What will I do without you?"
What have I walked myself into? And why is she still here?
Piya conveyed vaguely with her eyes that Dipan's father was the reason.
That creepy robot probably snitched.
Sanit could only look back and forth between father and son like an invisible soul in this terse exchange before he was finally addressed by Doshan.
"You—you must be who saved my boy."
Sanit jerked his gaze towards Dipan who seemed to be looking elsewhere.
What did this guy tell his father?
Through the corner of his eye he could see Piya hiding a smirk.
"Uh not really, I mean I was just–" he began, a little flustered but was interrupted.
"Are you really an Inborn then?"
"Kind of I mean.."
Doshan looked at his son with annoyance, "is your friend always talking like this?" he turned back to Sanit, "hey, don't be indecisive. Give me a straight answer."
Sanit nodded. But the questions had stopped.
"You know what it doesn't matter." Dipan stepped forward as he spoke to Sanit, "my father is hiring now. Are you by chance, looking for a job Sanit?" Dipan asked with big expressive eyes of eagerness..
"I am?" Dipan's father questioned but was barely heard.
A job?
"What kind of job?" Sanit asked.
"Security. Dad usually deals with all sorts of grime and needs his sides covered along with his investments. Are you up for it?"
"Does it pay well?"
Doshan suddenly burst out laughing, "what rubbish is this? Dipan don't tell me this is your way to show that you're ready for bigger things? Bigger responsibilities. Because it isn't working at all."
Dipan turned to his father with a hurt look, "no it's not like that dad, I'm being serious. He can work for us. He's got it."
Doshan eyed Sanit up and down, "I don't doubt it but too much of anything isn't good. I want a chained mongrel not an impulsive cur."
Sanit felt the hair on the back of his neck rise up in fury. "I'm right here old man, say that again."
Doshan sat back as Dipan hurried to Sanit, "dude, chill out."
"You see what I mean Dipan, and you want me to hire him?" He shook his head and rubbed it with his hands, "besides don't you have college to go to? Like this obedient girl?" He pointed to Piya.
"I hate college actually," Sanit pulled his arm away from Dipan.
"I share the same emotion for you too boy," Doshan chuckled, "trying to influence my boy with your power. I see through you all day."
What? What's he talking about?
"My son has a dream. It's more like a nightmare for us really the way he goes on and on about it. To see inborns rise high up miraculously to the top."
"And you might've just rekindled a dying fire," Doshan said with a frown.
Sanit stared at the man then at his son. There was obviously some sort of tension between the two. And he had just got into it.
"I've no idea what you're talking about, but I certainly know one thing."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"You're nothing like your son at all." Sanit said with a crooked grin and Doshan's smile dropped.
Then it seemed like a sudden flash of lighting had dropped on the man as he turned to Dipan.
"By god you nitwit, did you even feed him anything?"
The three of them, Sanit, Dipan and Piya stared at the man strangely.
"He–he didn't ask." Dipan defended weakly.
"Imbecile!" Doshan picked up a paperweight to mock a throw at his son, "go and ask the kitchen to make something soon."
Soon after they had an awkward lunch which was made even more worse by Sanit's wolfish manner of eating.
Piya had given up on college and sent a text underneath the table to her friend as she picked on the one timid variety of fish among the several laid out for them.
"You're supposed to throw the bones out," she muttered to Sanit who had been swallowing bones and meat of the fish altogether.
He paused mid bite and eyed her, "really? But it's really crunchy with it."
Piya rolled her eyes and sat forward, "have it your way then," she carefully peeled back the skin as she saw him from the corner of her eye chowing down in a manner that was strangley sincere to him, "strange boy."
"I'm feeding you well boy," Doshan said as they ate slowly, "but I'm not entertaining my son's half baked proposal to bring you in."
"We're eating dad," Dipan muttered.
"Oh forget them, tell me how was your day na?" Arpita's cheery voice rang up as she cozied up to her father.
From what he had seen, Sanit could clearly tell she was the favorite among the siblings. But there was a strange camaraderie between them instead of a war.
It was like each understood their father's sensibilities in a different way. Even now when she had seen her father criticize her brother's thinking she had deftly changed the topic to avoid embarrassing him in front of outsiders.
"Why am I even stuck here?" He heard Piya say under her breath and grinned.
"My fault probably."
"Oh you think?" She added sarcastically.
☆
An hour later Doshan had left leaving the four of them together to talk about things.
"I don't want him staying here," Arpita began, "he eats like an animal and probably behaves like one too."
"I love you a lot sis but I didn't ask your opinion. Sit the hell down."
"No," she folded her hands.
"Alright fine then stay standing," Dipan turned to Sanit, "you're not gonna reconsider?"
Sanit craned his neck, "look you helped me a lot. Thanks for that. But clearly I'm not welcome. So why bother?"
Dipan paced the room restlessly when his father suddenly stormed out while talking on the phone.
"Dad? You're leaving? What about what we discussed?"
"Not now Dipan," Doshan grumbled while leaning in to kiss Arpita's forehead, "I'll see you both later."
He eyed Sanit for a brief second at which everyone tensed up for a moment before Doshan spoke into his phone and walked out.
All of them followed behind him and Sanit got a glimpse into the man's other side.
Waiting outside of the house was a convoy of black Benz G-Wagons all of which had least three men out of it in sunglasses and tight fitting suits with weapons strapped to their sides.
"You see now why I didn't just rush past him when he stopped me," Piya whispered.
Doshan got into the middle one before they all did and they moved out of the compound in a dust cloud.
The four of them stayed silent for a while. It was mostly the siblings enjoying the look on both Piya and Sanit's faces.
"Right," Piya spoke up, "that's my cue to finally leave."
"I'm going with her." Sanit said and turned to Dipan with a grateful look, "thanks for helping me."
He looked down at his borrowed clothes, "I'll return them as soon as I can."
Dipan waved him away, "don't bother. Keep it."
He watched Sanit trudge along a little sadly at how things had gotten out of hand before yelling behind him.
"You should find someone or something to ground yourself in Sanit! My dad says a lot but he's not entirely wrong."
Sanit paused and turned to walk backwards with a lopsided grin, giving a thumbs up,
"I'll try. By the way, what do you know about the dark faction?"
"What about them?" Dipan titled his head.
"You know," Sanit had stopped and rocked back and forth, "like where they and their group is mostly found and what they do."
Dipan scratched his head and replied,
"From what dad tells me they have a big presence in East Britain. Search it up when you get home. And I added my number to your phone so don't hesitate to call if you change your mind dude."
"We'll see," Sanit ran up to keep pace with Piya who had already left the compound by then.
"Are you mad at me?"
"No," her response was terse so he didn't prod on that further, instead wracking his mind to speak on something between them.
"Oh right," he brightened up as he walked in front and turned, "what's East Britain?"