"Take me to the park, Rosaline, just take me to the park now!" Kiara picked up a jersey and threw it on her back, slipped on some shoes and then began to run towards the door.
"Wait ma'am Kiara. Let me get a driver for us. And I also need to pack the junior master's bag."
Since she saw that Rosaline was going to delay her, Kiara ordered her to remain at home, while she, along with two bodyguards and the driver, went to the park.
"It has to be there…it just has to be there," she mumbled under her breath while seated in the back of the car.
"Pardon? I did not get what you said, ma'am?" the driver inquired.
"Just drive faster!" Kiara commanded.
The car picked speed and drove on, and the bodyguards, who were following behind, also increased speed to match with the car that Kiara was in.
As soon as she arrived, she ran all the way into the park. The car had hardly parked properly when Kiara hopped out and started running.
"It has to be there!" she repeated to herself.
One of her shoes fell out, but she did not care about picking it up. She continued to run. Across the park she went, until she reached the far end, and she flipped the first bin. It might not have been the very same bin that they used as children, but it was in the same place. With trembling hands, Kiara tried to open it, and she kept on going, failing.
"What is the problem, ma'am?" her bodyguard asked with concern. Only one of the bodyguards was with her at that time.
The young lady did not respond. Instead, she continued to fight with the bin, yet the thing remained intact. She looked around and seeing a stone nearby, picked it up.
"What's happening, ma'am? Do you need help with anything?" the bodyguard asked but there was no response. He immediately left the scene, running off to inform his two colleagues that Kiara was acting in a strange way.
Kiara hit the bin, and the more she failed to open its base, the angrier she became.
"Open up! Just open!" she shouted furiously, and the opening finally creaked. She threw the stone aside and using her own hand, pulled on it, cutting herself on two fingers. But at that moment she could not have cared about the cut. She pulled harder, and the base fell, revealing a brown envelope.
"I knew it!" she cried, and picked up the envelope.
Swiftly, she covered the envelope with her jersey, which she had taken off, and headed to the car.
"Err, ma'am, I will have to ask you to stop and explain why you just crashed that bin. This is the City Council property, and it is a crime to go about breaking things like this," a police officer said.
Ignoring him, Kiara continued to go; but the officer was behind her. The officer cried out for her to stop, thus attracting the attention of the other people in the park.
At the parking area, the driver had instructed the two bodyguards to go and check what was happening, and to ensure that Kiara was fine.
"Why did you have to come here? You should have called us! Now you left her alone! If anything happens to her; you know that our lives will be over!" the driver scolded the bodyguard.
The two men left in a hurry, and they had barely gone ten meters when Kiara appeared from the other side, and jumped into the back seat of the car. In the speed of lightning, she threw the envelope under the car seat, remaining with her jersey in her hands.
"Ma'am Kiara?" the driver wanted to understand what was happening.
"Hey stop! Stop right there! Excuse me, do you know this woman?" the officer asked the driver.
"I do know her."
"I'm afraid she cannot leave. She will have to explain why she crashed property in the park."
"Crashed some property? What are you talking about?" the driver frowned.
"I need to talk to her for a crime committed. Vandalizing. She smashed up the bin down at the end of the park, and when I tried to stop her, she ignored me." The officer explained.
"Oh, I think there is a misunderstanding." The driver had no option but to defend Kiara.
"Not at all. I saw her with my own eyes. Please come with me, miss. You will have to explain yourself at the police offices."
"Does she really need to go to the offices for that?" the driver sounded annoyed. "Wait, I will have to make a call."
He pulled out his phone and called Gareth. At that moment Gareth was in a meeting, and he was tempted to ignore the call, but when he saw that it was Kiara's driver calling, he figured it could be important, so he excused himself and answered.
"Sir Gareth, ma'am Kiara is in trouble. Apparently she is being accused of vandalizing some City Council property."
"She's in trouble? Where are you?" Gareth inquired.
"'At the park."
"The park? Which park? That public park which all the nobodies go to?"
"Yes, that one, sir," the driver was beginning to panic.
"Why on earth did you take her there?" Gareth asked.
"She requested to be driven here, sir. I am very sorry." The driver pleaded.
"I'll be there now. Send the coordinates now; the park is too big. I need to come straight to where you are." Gareth ended the call.
The officer looked at the driver and made a mocking remark; "driving around in such an expensive car, one can never guess that this lady would be found defacing other people's property. Ma'am, I still need you to respond as to why you chose to damage the bin?" he raised his brows at Kiara.
Kiara, seated in the back seat of the car, remained silent. The driver told the officer that Kiara was not going to say anything until the people that they were waiting for arrived.
Sure enough, in a short while, a motorcade arrived, attracting stares from people.
The officer looked in surprise, seeing the very familiar Gareth coming out of one of the cars. Vine was with him, but the officer was not too sure who he was. He just guessed that maybe it was the one who people referred to as the young master.
The two men, along with bodyguards, came forward and stood before the officer.
"I understand there is a problem. My lady here has broken the law in some way? Please let me know what she did." Vine's voice was cold, yet piercing and seriously threatening.
"She ….she just was not handling property well, but she is fine. All is well." The officer smiled in fear.
The people who were looking on would have really loved to hear the conversation, but they could not.
"May I then, with your permission, officer, take my woman home with me?" Vine asked.
"Of course, of course sir." The officer moved away from the car door, because initially he had partially blocked Kiara from leaving the car.
Vine stretched out his hand and Kiara took it, stepped out of the car and was led to the other car which Vine was using. Since there were many people around her, she only picked up her jersey but left the envelope under the car seat.
The journey back home was silent; no-one spoke to the other. As soon as Kiara got home, she washed her hands and ran up the stairs to meet Rosaline.
"Where is Vincent?" she asked with a frown, seeing that Rosaline was without the child.
"Playing with his grandfather," Rosaline responded.
"Ok Rosaline, listen. I want you to go down and go to the car which I used. That silver Mercedes. Go there and check under the back car seat; there is a brown envelope. You have to bring it to me, and no one must see you."
"What is in it?" Rosaline's eyes widened in fear.
"You don't have to ask me questions when I tell you to do something. Bring the envelope to me."
"Yes ma'am. But, my fear is, what if the car is already locked?"
"Then find a way, Rosaline! Just tell the driver that ma'am Kiara must have dropped her hair pin in the car or something like that. Get access to that car and bring me that envelope!"
"Yes ma'am."
"And no one should see you!" Kiara called after Rosaline, for the girl was already walking away to go and carry out the task at hand.
Alone in the room, Kiara crossed her arms and started rubbing her shoulders in anxiety.
"What are you doing in this room?" Vine's voice startled Kiara so much that she screamed a little.
"Oh, Vine you scared me." She laughed, but immediately stopped when she realised that Vine was not in a laughing mood at all.
"I asked you a question," he stated.
"I was looking for Rosaline; to check how the baby is doing. She said Vincent is with grandpa."
Vine remained silent. He looked at Kiara from head to toe, and there was disdain written all over his face. Kiara curled into her shell, dreading what was about to come her way.
"I must say; I have always known that you grew up poor, but I wasn't aware that you went to the extent of searching bins? Are you hungry? What are you in need of? What was the purpose of that visit to that lousy park?"
"I…I wanted to meet up with a friend," Kiara stammered.
"Oh, I see. In order to tarnish my name, you choose to meet up with some useless people at that disgusting, dirty place? Where is your honour; as the mother of my child? Was carrying a Pinkerton child for nine whole months not enough to knock some sense into that thick head of yours, and make you realise that it's time to leave your life of searching bins?"
"I...I wasn't searching bins."
"What a pathetic human being you are. I tried to pull you out of your poverty-stricken life, where you used to eat from bins; yet even when surrounded by the finest food in the world, you still find reason to go and search from some bin!"
Kiara faced down and told herself that since she already had the diary with her, she needed not fight with Vine. It was no use fighting with him anyway. The diary was in place. Her prayer at that moment was for Rosaline to get it without anyone seeing her.
***
Dear Kimmy
I think I won't need to write anything to you anymore. I need to save up my energy for the life ahead. I have a feeling that he is alive. For why else would he have left the diary for me? What is the use of it; if its owner is gone? I believe there is some hope in the pages of that book. He must be alive. He has to be alive. Dear Kimmy, I will still keep you, but I will not update you anymore.
If I continue updating you, Kimmy, I will offload all my anxieties. In the process I will lose the zeal to try and find him. He must be alive. I must keep it all in. Once I keep it all in; the pressure will become too much for me; and I will act.
It is no more time to let out emotions in a diary. It is time to act. Goodbye dear Kimmy.
Love, Kiara.