Chapter 35 - Tinge Of Jealousy

Jimmy asked "what happened grandpa, your story was very exciting and interesting, why have you stopped and why do you look sad?"

Michael and James too turned sad then Anthony continued, "all girls used to take advantage of us, nobody were seriously in love with our passion or were interested in us, they just wanted to spend the weekend at our place as we had all amenities, they took advantage of us".​​

Jimmy, Rachel and Daniel laughed at once and all three grandpas had pale expressions on their face.

Daniel thought to improve their moods, "Grandpa James Can I see your paintings?"

James said in an excited tone, "Rachel, take Danny and Jimmy to my art gallery room and show my paintings, be of some use to your grandpa." Rachel pouted but stood up to lead Daniel.

Jimmy pretended to have gotten a call and he excused himself and went to the lawn to attend it. He wanted to let Rachel and Daniel spend some alone time together.

Then James asked MIchael and Anthony to follow him to play billiards.

Rachel and Danny went to the art gallery to view the paintings, all the paintings were well organised and James' creativity and amazing skills was reflected in his art.

Daniel was mesmerised by the collections of grandpa James' paintings, he was very impressed.

Daniel thought that he not only displayed his paintings but also collected some of the best paintings from different parts of the world. His attention then fell on a painting with a girl holding flowers in her hands having an innocent look, it didn't seem like a painting but it was like a live scene happening in front of his eyes, the girl looked vulnerable with a lot of emotions on her face.

Rachel saw him observing the painting and stepped towards him as he was staring deeply at the paint and called him "Daniel! What's the matter, why are you so quiet and you seem serious."

He said "Look at this painting, there is a deep abyss in the eyes of the girl in this painting, so many emotions can be seen on her face, your grandpa beautifully expressed feelings of this girl in the form of art. He is a great artist, I already admire him a lot. He loves painting a lot it seems."

Rachel was moved by his observation.

"Yes, he never revealed his pain, and used to go to his art room to paint. Sometimes he used to spend hours in this room, after coming out he used to look more relaxed, painting was his way of coping with things."

Daniel then said in a serious tone "painting is the best form of therapy when we feel lonely where we can put all our creative skills and expressions in the form of art"

Rachel asked him "Today I got to know you also paint, I am discovering new things about you whenever I meet you. I was really surprised to know this."

Daniel replied "it was started as a timepass but I have really developed interest in drawing when I was in eight grade"

"What! In the eight grade?"

"Yeah, I wanted to impress someone from my biology class, I tried to do my best in drawing, as you know there are many images in biology subjects, they were a practice for me and that's why I developed interest in sketching and later painting."

"Just to impress someone? I don't think any teenager would make biology related sketches to impress a girl, something is fishy."

He felt shy for a while and regretted telling her he liked someone, he wished to change the topic so he asked "your grandpa was a great artist, I want to paint along with him some day."

She laughed at him and said "don't change the topic, who is she? because of the one you developed the hobby of painting."

He hesitated at first but revealed that "I had a crush on my biology teacher, she used to pat on the head of the students if their drawings were perfect. She was so gorgeous, I have never seen anyone as beautiful as her in my life. My goal was to get a pat from her and wanted to impress her"

He looked adorable when he was describing the past.

"So you got the pat you desired?"

Hearing her question, Daniel pouted and shook his head, "Never, by the time I improved she quit the school suddenly, she got married and transferred to other city is what I got to know later."

Rachel tried to hide her laugh but couldn't control it and burst out laughing, after calming herself she saw Daniel was pissed and was glaring at her. To soften his mood, she consoled him, "It is common to get a crush on the teachers at that age, one of my friends used to have a crush on our mathematica sir. Don't feel embarrassed." she again tried to control her laugh.

Daniel let her be. Then he suddenly remembered something and he decided to ask her, "Rachel, can I ask you something?"

Rachel "Yeah, sure"

"You said you complained against Andrew to the cops"

"Oh yes, I did. The Head of the police department is my childhood friend, so I was able to comfortably tell him what happened, he checked the records and we got to know in some town they murdered some other old rich man, they disguised themselves and Andrew is probably not even his real name, anyway I did make a complaint, let's see."

"Then, did you tell them about the second attack?"

"Actually I did, he is a close friend so there was no need to hide anything from him. We just need to hide this from grandpa for the time being, I'll tell him later about this incident."

"Ok" Daniel nodded and felt a tinge of jealousy hearing about 'her close friend' although he wanted to know more, he hid his curiosity and after observing other paintings, they went back to the living room.

When they reached the living room they were surprised with what they saw.