"You are lying! you stole that necklace from me!"
"No i didn't!"
Two young girls, barely at age seven argued. One had blonde hair and was slim, while the other had raven hair and was slightly chubby.
Around them were ten children, belonging to the same age group.
These were the children of St. Martha orphanage and they were currently at a Caretaker's office.
"Keep it down!" Caretaker Betty frowned sternly from behind her desk.
She was a slim lady with ugly pimples wearing big eye glasses.
"Rose, you said the necklace belongs to you right?" she questioned, flashing a necklace with a crescent moon pendant.
Rose, the raven haired girl nodded.
"And you Charlotte, the necklace belongs to you as well?"
"Yes! it was the last thing my mother gave me before she died" Charlotte, the blonde replied. Her eyes were already starting to get misty.
Caretaker Betty sighed. This was going to be difficult.
"Who can attest to this?" she turned towards the other kids.
"Rose is lying!"
"Yes! the necklace belongs to Charlotte!"
"Rose is a thief. Pui!"
The ten children all testified against Rose, causing Charlotte to secretly grin with glee.
Actually, she was the thief. She once tried exchanging that necklace with Rose for some gummy bears, but the latter refused.
So she had to resort to this tactic. Fortunately, she succeeded in bribing the other kids to support her.
"What do you have to say about this?" Caretaker Betty glared at Rose, causing her to flinch.
"I.." Rose choked on her tears.
"I didn't steal it!"
"You still have the guts to lie at my face?!" Caretaker Betty barked.
She threw the necklace at Betty who caught it and turned towards a crestfallen Rose.
"For theft and lying, you are to spend seven days inside the box of shame. Is that clear?!"
Rose shivered while biting her lips to surpress the tears. So unfair.
"Is that clear?!" Caretaker Betty barked at a more louder pitch.
"Yes miss Betty" Rose bent her head.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Welcome gentle men. Please have a seat" Manager Rowan, a chubby man in long sleeve pointed at the three vacant chairs opposite his desk.
His visitors; two men clad in trench coats nodded, walking over and taking their seats.
"Might i ask who are these gents?" Manager Rowan was quite formal.
"I am Elijiah. My companion over there is Josef"
"Okay. Do you need cofee?"
"No need. We are going to spend a brief time here" Josef waved his hands.
"We are looking for someone" Elijiah became solemn, fishing out a card, tossing it at Manager Rowan who caught it.
Taking a brief glance, he gasped.
"You are from the Montero family?!" his heart began to thump faster.
What was a behemoth like that doing in his small orphanage.
"We are looking for a young girl. She shouldn't be above ten" Elijah ignored Manager Rowan's question.
"Can you please let us have a glance at your record book?"
Manager Rowan brought out a huge tome from underneath his desk.
Both men began to flip through it's pages while he watched on wordlessly.
"There are records that you took in two girls six years ago?" Josef questioned.
"Yes"
"Bring them here"
Like an obedient chick, Manager Rowan put a call across. After a while, he turned towards the two men.
"One of my caretakers is on it"
And then silence ensued. The two men were unbothered, but Manager Rowan wasn't.
The Montero family were a multi billionaire family, ranking at the top ten in the country. He couldn't place his fingers on what envoys from that family would be looking for in his small local orphange.
Fortunately, the silence was broken when the enterance door slid open. Caretaker Betty walked in, holding Charlotte's hands.
"That!" Josef's eyes lit up as he noticed the necklace around Charlotte's neck.
He nudged at Elijah.
"Isn't that necklace familiar?"
"Yes" a wide grin got plastered on his face.
"Come" he motioned at Charlotte, who turned towards Caretaker Betty.
After getting a nod of approval from her, she made her way over.
"Who gave you that necklace?" Elijah pointed at the necklace around her neck.
Charlotte's heart skipped a bit. Did these grandpas discover her theft?
But after giving it a thought, she rejected this possibility.
"My mum" she lied.
The two men exchanged glances. Excitement sparkling in their eyes.
Before Charlotte could react, Elijah pulled her into a hug.
"Young miss! we finally found you!
- - - - - - - - - -
7 Years Later
"Get out you witch!" a fat lady cursed, pointing her long manicure at a raven haired girl who stood a few feets away from the porch of the bungalow.
This raven haired girl was a more grown up version of Rose, who had tears overflowing in her eyes.
"Mother!" Rose cried out in an hoarse voice.
"Who's your mother?" Mrs. Albert spat in disgust.
"You better go dig the graves of your dead parents and find them!"
Hearing these words, Rose broke into more tears.
"Mum! Is that bitch still there?" a voice came from within the bungalow.
A girl, at the age of sixteen wearing a skimpy dress with heavy make up walked out. She was Annie, Rose step sister.
"Mind your language!" Mrs. Albert berated her daughter.
"Bitch! I'm not an heartless sister. Here is two hundred dollars. Take it and get out of our lives!" Annie threw a wad of dollar bills at Rose.
Ten minutes later, Rose was out under the scorching afternoon sun, roaming around the steet while pulling behind her a worn out luggage.
Her beautiful face was now pale and sweaty.
She got to a T junction and made to cross over to the other lane. Due to the exhaustion, her walking pace was slow, comparable to that of a snail.
At that momen, an expensive looking buggati was headed towards her way. Before the brakes could be applied, the car collided against her, knocking her down to the ground.
* * *
"Shit!" Lorraine cursed inwardly as she knocked a teenage girl pulling a luggage to the ground.
She was so engrossed in her music that she failed to realize that she already hit the speed limits.
She turned off the stereo while praying inwardly that the girl wasn't dead yet.
Walking out, she saw Rose sprawled on the ground, knocked out cold.
Fortunately, there was no blood or injury of any such. By now, pedestrians were already beginning to gather.
"To be on a safe side, i'll have her see the doctor for signs of internal bleeding" Lorraine spoke loudly to the gradually gathering crowd.
Some were even starting to take pictures.
Lorraine scooped up Rose, whose malnourished body didn't weigh that much.
Then she brought her into the car, started the ignition and off she zoomed.
* * *
When Rose woke up, the first thing she noticed was her new environment.
She hurriedly got up from bed.
Wait.. Bed? what was she doing in bed?!
She took a glance around and came to the conclusion that she was in a resting room.
Judging from the tiles and other furnitures, the room was quite lavish. But the issue was whose room was she in?
The last thing she remembered was being knocked to the ground by a vehicle. Luckily, she didn't die.
"But this place dosen't look like heaven to me"
At that moment, the door swung open. Lorraine walked in, holding a tray containing steaming hot tea and some slices of bread topped with jam and bacon.
Rose became cautious and seeing this unfamiliar lady.
"Relax. I won't hurt you" Lorraine gave a warm smile while dropping the tray on the bedside stool.
"You saved me?" Rose came to a quick conclusion.
"And knocked you out too. Yes" Lorraine laughed, scratching her nose akwardly.
Rose relaxed a bit. This lady didn't quite look dangerous.
"I'm Lorraine. What's yours?" Lorraine sat besides her.
"My name is Rose"
"You do look like a rose" Lorraine joked. Rose blushed.
"The doctor said you passed out due to the shock" Lorraine said.
"You really scared me back there. I haven't killed someone and i ain't going to do that anytime from now" Lorraine giggled.
Rose wanted to speak but her stomach beat her to it.
GWWWA
"Hahaha. I knew you were going to be hungry. I prepared cofee and bread topped with my unique bacon recipe. Try it out, i bet you're going to love it"