As soon as Fareeha's car pulled onto the motorway, Angela pulled out her work phone. Her brow furrowed and she bit her lip as her thumbs began tapping on its screen. After a couple of minutes of typing Fareeha reached out with her right hand and waved it up and down in front of the doctor. To her amusement Angela didn't stir or even notice what Fareeha was doing. She simply continued to stare intently at her phone as she typed.
Fareeha dropped her head and leaned her chair back as she closed her eyes. Sleep wouldn't be coming anytime soon, but there wasn't really anything else to do. If it had just been her in the car then she could have turned on some music but she didn't want to distract Angela from what she was doing. They were hundreds of kilometers from Geneva so the only thing to do was to clear her head and wait for the hours to slowly roll by.
A hand jostled her shoulder and Fareeha jerked awake, her seat belt keeping from sitting all the way. She paused and looked around at her surroundings. There was a beeping coming from the console and the car had come to a halt. "I think we're here." Angela said as she pointed out the window at the small brick house they were parked next to. "Is this where you live, Fareeha? I thought you would have lived closer to Geneva since you work there."
"Geneva's a really expensive city and it's cheaper to rent a place out here." Fareeha said with a shrug. "My commute's not so bad if I eat in the car. I only have to go to work when someone schedules me so it's not like I'm making the commute every day."
"That makes sense. I never liked a long commute myself so I got a place near the hospital when I was living in Zurich." Angela said as she tapped on the console to make the beeping stop. "Anyways, let's get your stuff inside."
The two of them undid their seat belts and got out of the car before each of them grabbed a box. Fareeha balanced her box against her hip as she dug her keys out of her pocket. Once she found the right key she pushed into into the deadbolt and twisted to unlock the door. She pushed it open and headed inside, Angela just behind her. "Just put them here." Fareeha set her box down on the floor and took a moment to glance at her house.
There was a small patch of tile just beyond the front door and past that was a thin dark gray carpet. A tan sofa and pair of armchairs sat opposite a flat screen television. There were a couple of paintings hanging on the wall as well as pictures of an older woman and man. Before Angela could say anything a mewing sound came from deeper inside the house. A cat with ample white fluff on its chest and black markings around a pair of bright blue eyes ran into the room and straight up to Fareeha. It continued to meow as it rubbed against her ankles. A bright smile crossed Fareeha's face and she reached down to pick the cat up. It meowed again and pressed its head against her arm as it went limp in her embrace. "Oh, you missed me didn't you?"
"Fareeha?"
Angela and Fareeha both looked up at the sound of another woman's voice. The woman from the portrait was standing in the same doorway that the cat had come from. She had stark white hair that had been combed to both sides on top of her head and braided into a ponytail in the rear. Her skin and eyes were the same color as Fareeha's but there was a tattoo of black ink beneath her left eye shaped almost like a curving sword.
"I thought you were going to be gone for another two weeks..."
Her voice trailed off as she looked at Angela. "Angela Ziegler?" Her gaze swung back and forth between the two of them before her eyes widened suddenly. "Oh! Oh."
As word of Angela's invention had begun to spread her life had changed. Before that she had been highly regarded as a surgeon but that only brought one a small amount of recognition in certain medical circles. Once nano-biotics were announced she had become an international celebrity. Everyone was talking about her and everyone wanted to talk to her. News sites, news channels, talk shows, podcasts, morning TV shows, social media sites. In only a few days she had received hundreds of interview requests from all over the globe. At first it was exciting but then it became overwhelming.
She had had to close her public email adddresses to escape the deluge of emails she was receiving. Photographers descended on Zurich. Many of them had camped out in front of the hospital where her trials had been done. Others would follow her around the city, hoping for a choice photograph. A few even went so far as to lurk outside her home. Eventually she had packed up and slipped away into the night to Geneva.
The attention soon began to fade as the media moved onto the latest and greatest big story. That didn't stop the occasional stray photographer from trailing her at times however. It was at that point she was browsing a certain kind of website and stumbled upon a certain kind of fetish video. Angela had watched it all the way through, enraptured by what she was seeing. As soon as the video had ended she had restarted it immediately to watch it again. This time, however, she had unzipped her pants and put her hand down them as her imagination took over. She was seeing herself in the woman's place, that all those things were being done to her, that she was the one making those noises. It was immediately apparent that this was something she had to try. There was just one small problem. People would recognize her and word would get out.
If she was going to do this then she needed to find a place where her privacy would be maintained. It took hours of diligent searching but eventually her efforts led her to Fareeha's employer. She had scheduled a session with Fareeha and it had been everything she had hoped for except in one very important way. It hadn't been enough and she wanted more. That desire had led her and Fareeha to her vacation home where the last two weeks had taken place. But circumstances had changed and now she was here in front of this old woman.
The picture on the wall was of the old woman, she had the same eyes as Fareeha, they had the same color of skin. There had been no introductions made but it was obvious who this person was. Fareeha's mother. That wasn't the horrifying thing however. The look in her eyes was. Realization. Angela had gone to considerable lengths to hide her kinks from the world and that effort had been undone in mere seconds. She knew.
The box in Angela's hands slipped from slack fingers and fell onto the ground with a loud thud. Someone knew. Everything in the room began to spin as if thrown into a washing machine and Angela stumbled to the side as her legs slowly gave way beneath her. A pair of arms grabbed her by the shoulders and she found herself suddenly lying on her side. "Here's some water, mum."
"You with us now, dear?" The older woman was crouched in front of Angela, her eyes intently watching Angela's face. Angela groaned and pushed herself up to a sitting position before taking the cup of water. She took a long drink before shaking her head to clear some of the grogginess away.
"What happened?"
"You fainted but I caught you before you hit the floor. Come on, let give you a hand." The woman seemed to be in her fifties or maybe sixties but she didn't have any problem raising Angela up from the floor and walking her over to the couch.
Angela's butt plopped onto the sofa and she took another drink. "You're... you're Fareeha's mother?"
"I am. My name's Ana and you are Angela..." Ana's voice trailed off and she looked at Angela questioningly.
"Ziegler." Angela finished Ana's sentence. It was a simple question but the other woman's aim was obvious, at least it was to her. "I'm fine, just a little shaken."
Ana nodded sagely and she took a seat on the far end of the couch from Angela. "Let me guess. You realized I knew you're one of my daughter's clients and that scared you."
Angela's fingers tightened on the glass as Ana spoke, not wanting to drop something else while she was here. "I don't know what you're talking about." She replied, her stiff shoulders saying something else entirely.
Ana chuckled dryly at that. "My dear, I know that my daughter is a professional dominatrix. I also know that she was spending a month with one of her clients and that she came back two weeks early with you in tow. That can only mean you're the client she was staying with and that you're into bondage."
"I... I... I..." Angela began to stammer, all the blood rushing to her face turning her cheeks red, but nothing more than that would come out. This was supposed to be a quick stop on their way into Geneva but now she was stuck meeting her girlfriend's mother in the most awful way she could imagine. This meeting hadn't planned any in way shape or form. Ana didn't even know that her daughter and Angela were girlfriends. What made it even worse was Ana was discussing the fact she knew Angela was into BDSM as casually as another person might talk about the weather. "You know your daughter is a dominatrix?"
"I do. We had a discussion about it when she took the job. I've never asked about the details of what she does and I honestly don't want to know, but I know a lot of her clients are bankers or politicians." The white-haired woman gave Angela a sly grin. "That was really what sold me on her job. She makes the people who screw us bend over."
A look of horror appeared on Fareeha's features. "Mum!" At the same time Angela's cheeks got even warmer. Fareeha hadn't made her bend over but it was something to think about when she wasn't in such an awkward situation.
Ana chuckled again. "All right, all right, I'll stop. So what brings you back two week early?"
"The Americans rejected my application to have nano-biotics approved in their country." Angela said, her mouth twisting in disgust.
"Did they? I suppose that's not too surprising. Americans are a strange bunch though some of them aren't too bad." Ana said, sounding more than a little fond.
"How is Jack doing?" Fareeha piped up from one of the armchairs as she petted the cat sitting on her lap. "His basketball tournament is done right?"
"It is. He's been moping around the last couple of weeks." Ana said. "Jack keeps muttering about Indiana not fouling at the end of the game when he thinks I'm not listening. I still don't know what that means though."
"I'd have to look up the score but If I had to guess I'd say he's talking about not fouling when they had the lead." Fareeha explained as her hand moved to her cat's head and began scratching behind the ears.
Angela looked between the mother and daughter for a moment before setting her cup down. "I hate to interrupt but I need to get back to Geneva. It was nice to meet you... is it miss or missus Amari?"
"No need to be so formal, dear. You can call me Ana."
"It was nice to meet you, Ana. If you don't mind, Fareeha, I'll go start unloading your boxes." Angela stood up and quickly moved towards the front door.
Once she was out of the house Ana looked over at her daughter and smiled. "Angela Ziegler? Well done, my child."
Fareeha blushed and her gaze lingered on the door. "It's not that obvious is it?"
"Perhaps not to another person, but I am your mother, dear. I'd say you've gotten quite lucky. She's smart, rich, beautiful. If you weren't my daughter and I was younger and attracted to women then I'd be sorely tempted to try and steal her away from you."
"Mum!" Fareeha exclaimed. She didn't get the chance to say anything further as Angela walked back in with a box in her arms at that moment. Fareeha set her cat aside, much to the cat's displeasure, and stood up. "You don't have to do that, Angela."
"It's not a problem, Fareeha. You still have to take me to Geneva so I'm not exactly being altruistic..."
"Well it's my stuff so I'm the one who should be unloading it." Fareeha turned back towards her mother before heading out the door. "Do you want me to give you a ride too, mum?"
Ana shook her head. "No, I was planning to go see a friend after I made sure your cat had food and water. It was nice to meet you, Angela. You take good care of my daughter now." She patted Fareeha on the shoulder before leaving the two of them alone to finish unloading.
Angela watched her go before turning towards Fareeha. "I know she's your mother and I don't want to offend you... can I trust her to keep quiet about what we do together?"
Fareeha let out a quiet laugh without any malice in it. "You don't have to worry about that. My mother knows how to keep secrets. You don't have to worry about her telling anyone about your kinks."
Angela let out a deep breath as Fareeha finished speaking and she could feel some of the weight being lifted off her shoulders. Even so she couldn't shake the feeling of unease completely. Ana might be good at secrets but there was an unavoidable truth here.
Someone knew.