Ella pulled Alice into a hug. "I will never let anything happen to you. I'm really sorry I couldn't protect you!" She said.
"What could you do? We were both kids. I really hoped my father would accept me if I just did everything they told me to. You know, I was offered a place to study the bachelors in biochemical engineering and Stephanie didn't even have the score to get into a diploma. My father refused to pay my fees and it was too late to apply for the scholarship. He told me to go the following year." She cried. "Ella, he called the faculty of Country A university and told them I died and to offer my position to someone more deserving." Ella could hear her friend's heartbreak.
"It's never too late. Come on, you need to eat and bath. Everything will be ok, I promise." Replied Ella. As they walked towards the car, the man walking behind couldn't believe his ears. 'What kind of a man would do that to their own blood. Some man are just disgusting. I have to tell boss about this, that man doesn't deserve peace!' Thought the subordinate.
The girls got in the car. Ella had lost her enthusiasm to drive Xavier's car. Only then did she remember she had not even turned the engine off. She sighed, she couldn't help but look at her young friend and instructed the man "to the Palmer's main residence." Alice jerked "Ella I can't come to your house." Fear washed over her face. Ella furrowed her eyebrows "why? I'm inviting you. Don't worry my parents won't bite and plus they'll be happy I have a friend." She replied sadly.
"It's not your parents Ella. I wasn't joking when I said your sister is not a good person!" Alice looked at Ella's face, waiting for Ella to get angry and kick her out of the car. To Alice's surprise, Ella was calm. "Oh, her?! Don't worry, she won't do anything to you. Come on you need to eat, how long were you there for?" Asked Ella.
'Well, I guess there's nothing worse Maria can do to me than what my father has already done' she thought. Alice was not relax through the whole journey as this mornings event ran through her mind. She did not regret calling Ella but she regret the trouble she had caused the siblings. Alice felt her hand being squeezed and looked up. Ella gave her a reassuring smile, the girls tilted their heads towards each other. The journey would take at least an hour.
Ella's phone broke the silence. She looked down and saw it was Maria, Ella let the phone continue to ring eventually cutting off. As soon as Ella's phone finished Alice's began, she looked down and thought 'the devil is alive and eating well, why are these two sisters in sync with their evil deeds.' She heard "answer it, I want to hear what ugly Stephy is going to say." Said Ella.
As soon as Alice picked up a nasally voice cut through the car "Oh Alice, Alice, Alice! That whore of a mother of yours should've known her place. Now you're going to be a whore like her." Said Ramona, Alice's stepmother. Alice did not respond. "You know if she'd just left Lloyd alone when he said he didn't want her none of this would've happened. Who told her to like things? Stupid bitch." She followed angrily.
Ella and Alice looked at each other. Curiosity evident in their eyes. "What do you mean Ramona?" Asked Alice. Stephanie could be heard laughing in the background. The driver looked through the rear-view mirror with horror. He understood what had happened. "You should ask your father where your mother is… ha ha ha oops, he wouldn't know, even after all the money spent to look for her, he still can't find her hahaha." Ramona continued to laugh and said "Good riddance to you, I'm glad to see you go where you belong. I don't ever want to see your ugly face on our doorsteps again." And the phone went dead.
Alice sat in a daze. 'What does Ramona mean, if my mother didn't like things? Do they all know where my mother is?' She thought. Ella on the other side was quiet as a mouse as she watched her friend. She vowed she would be by this girl's side until she finds herself a place in this world. The two girls whose thoughts were polar opposite remained in silence.
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Maria had been looking out the window throughout most part of the morning. She cried in front of her father for almost 2 hours and Ella did not come home. Her father just stood up and left the lounge, Maria had noticed her father displayed no patience for her. Normally if Maria is upset, Ella would be hot on her heels to find out what happened.
Maria couldn't help but worry, 'what if she has figured it all out? … nah Ella is too stupid, how else does she still stand up for me?' She thought. Maria couldn't shake the pit of nausea she felt in her stomach. She picked up her phone and sent a message to a number she was to only contact on emergency.
She looked up and saw an Audi Q5 slowly pull into the driveway, she recognised the number plate, her eyes turned red. Most prominent families in Country F had their family totem on their number plates. Maria could not believe that stupid bitch was cozying up to her fiancé, Xavier was hers, only hers! Stupid Ella had no right to him. Maria began crying again and this time she walked down the stairs.
Ella alighted from the car and so did Alice. Ella told the soldier to park the car and come inside for a drink or food. Ella insisted as she could see the man was trying to reject her. He gave in and drove the car around to the Palmer's estate car park.
When Ella walked in, she could hear Maria's dramatic voice, apologising to their father. Ella had lost all enthusiasm towards Maria since morning as she felt she honestly couldn't deal with this witch right now. Ella walked to the kitchen and ask for lunch, 1 plate to the sent to the front for the gentleman who'd parked her car and two plates to be sent to her bedroom she needed to bath. Kitchen staff accepted. She asked for the soldier to be well catered for.
Ella walked back out of the kitchen towards the back door to her quarters dragging Alice along. Alice didn't mind either, anything to avoid Maria. It's not that Maria did not know about this entrance; it's just Ella had never used it she was convinced Ella did not have a garden key.