Arianna bursts out laughing. Was this a punishment?
She handed the tablet to Rosalind as she showered Arian with kisses.
' Who's mommy's little darling? Yes you are, Yes you are. Aren't you mommy's lucky charm?' Arianna says happily.
Rosalind stares at the tablet with amuse. Was this called being lucky?
' What's in the tablet?' Oliver ask.
' Finish all Kitchen leftovers.' Rosalind reads out.
Riona bursts into laughter, Arthur and Bella joins, Then Ashley and Brenda, Oliver and Lily. Mira was silent but she was clearly amused. Liam, Ivy and Roderick ( Lily's husband) stood motionlessly as if they didn't care about anything.
Stephen saw red! He was hoping she would kneel in the courtyard for 6 hours or She would be asked to move cement bags.
' That's not fair! She wasn't the one who picked the tablet.' Ava says.
' That's right Mother.' Stephen says.
' Dear cousin, you told me I only get one chance and that whatever was on the tablet would be my fate. Is cousin intentionally making trouble for me? Did I do anything wrong? I'm still the youngest so I make mistakes, I will apologize if I wronged you. My parents said it isn't nice to offend the elderly, especially elderly women.' Arianna says looking pitiful.
Ava's face turned black. Did she call her old? They were the same age!
' We are the same age!' Ava says through gritted teeth.
Arianna's childlike expression disappears and she has an icy expression, ' Then don't tell me what to do. If Grandmother has no objection then keep your thoughts to yourself. This is your last warning.' Arianna says with a smile that was far from friendly.
Ava shivers involuntarily. She didn't understand what was bone-chilling about Arianna.
Arianna turns sweetly to the maids, ' I am ready to serve my punishment.' She says.
' I still don't get how this is a punishment.' Riona says.
' It is actually a dangerous punishment, depending on the timing.' Arianna replies.
' How's that?' Bella asks.
' If this happened during an event with lots of guest which equals lots of leftovers, I would have been done for.' Arianna replies.
Arthur struggled for a while to come up with a sentence without a curse word. ' How'd you know that?' Arthur asks.
' Because it was my punishment on my 15th birthday. I had to eat up all the leftovers from the party, Courtesy of someone.' She replied glaring at Ashley.
The maids lay down six dishes.
Arianna sits down and gobbles down the food. She emptied the glass of wine and sighed contentedly.
' Did you really finish all that? You have a huge appetite.' Bella comments.
Everyone dispersed to their different rooms.
Arianna takes Mira to a room adjacent to hers.
' You can stay here. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything. Goodnight Mira.' Arianna says.
' Mm.' Mira replies.
Arianna goes to her room with Arian.
************
' That rotten child got away unscathed!' Stephen says angrily.
Ivy crouched quietly in the corner. Her greatest mistake in her lifetime was marrying Stephen. When Stephen first approached her with the intent of courting her, she felt over the moon. Stephen was tall, handsome, rich and kind; or so she thought. Before the wedding, he treated like her a prized jewel. But his attitude soon changed, he only married her to stabilize his position in the Havana family.
He was the first child of the family and by the time he was 35, his younger siblings were married and Oliver who was the last child already bought 35% of shares in the Havana Empire. ( equivalent to 850 quadrillion pounds.)
Not only did Oliver become the second largest shareholder of the Havana Empire, he had his hotel branches in 10 different countries. Stephen began to fear that Rosalind would make Oliver the head of the family. Wouldn't that be a slap in the face for him to lose the leadership to his youngest sibling.
He decided to marry Ivy as her family was influential and she was the only female child with 4 older brothers who spoiled her.
He did profit from the alliance but he could only acquire 7% shares. And he was almost stripped of money.
' Stupid woman! What are you sitting silently? Have you spoken to your brother about financing my project?' Stephen says directing his anger to Ivy.
' He refused. He said it hasn't been a month since he gave you 10 billion.' Ivy replied.
' What do you mean? Do you think 10 billion is a substantial amount?' Stephen says.
In a night he got robbed of 10 billion pounds, the previous week he lost 15 million to the same rotten child.
' It's your saving grace that we are at the Havana Mansion.' Stephen says.
Ivy shuddered. She looked forward to December every year. It was the only way she could escape from Stephen's beatings.
Just then they hear a knock on the door.
' Come in.' Stephen says.
Ava walks in.
' What do you want?' Stephen ask.
' Father I will avenge you. I will teach Olivia a lesson she will never forget. And dad, an uncle to a friend of mine is looking to invest in a real estate agency. I had recommended you and I wanted to know if you still needed an investor.' Ava says.
Stephen smiles widely.
' You are really your father's daughter. I asked your mother to get her brother to invest but she couldn't do it.' Stephen says as he glares at Ivy with irritation.
' Why are you so useless mom? You don't know any valuable business skills, no good contact and you can't even convince your brothers. Can't you do something of value for once in your life?' Ava scolded Ivy.
Ivy bit her lip as she struggled to hold in her tears. This was the daughter she carried in her womb for nine months. The daughter which she devoted time to take care of.
' Now don't start shedding your crocodile tears, you know Dad and I find it annoying.' Ava says.
' Who gives the right to talk to my mother that way?' Arthur says as he enters the room.
' Why did you enter my room without permission?' Stephen says. If not that Ava and Arthur were twins he would have sworn that Arthur was not his child.
' And who the h*ll gave you the right to f*cking mistreat my mother? Grandmother isn't far away.' Arthur threatens.
Stephen glares at him.
Arthur hugs Ivy. ' It's okay mom. I'm here.' Arthur whispers.
The tears Ivy struggled to hold in came flowing as Arthur hugged her.
' Come with me. You will stay with me tonight.' Arthur says.
Ivy looks at Stephen as if seeking permission.
' Get lost. Go away with that good for nothing son of yours.' Stephen says.
Ivy dries her face and follows Arthur to his room.
' Mom how much longer do you plan to tolerate him for?' Arthur says. He didn't know why but he found himself speaking decently each time he spoke with his mother.
' Arthur, my parents are dead. Three of my brother's have ghosted me and 4th brother will eventually get tired. If I leave the Havanas, how will I provide for you. I have been waiting for you to finish college and get your settlement fee. Then you won't need to depend on your father. Your sister will be fine but till then I will tolerate him. I just want the best for you and Ava.' Ivy says.
' Ava has become greedy for power and wealth. She has become a miniature version of dad. How do you still think about her?' Arthur asks.
' I carried you two for 9 months. How could I bring myself to hate her? I believe one day she will change.' Ivy replied.
' For your sake, I hope she does if not....' Arthur says.
' It's late mom. Sleep on the bed, I will take the couch.' Arthur says.
' Arthur, am I a bad mother?' Ivy asks.
' How could you say that? You are the best.' Arthur replies.
' I couldn't lead my daughter in the right path. Arthur thank you, a good mother shouldn't have a favourite but I do. Thank you for standing by me.' Ivy says emotionally.
' I will do a lot more for you in the future. I promise.' Arthur replies.
***************
Arianna woke up and in the middle of the night and decided to check on Mira. She opened the door quietly and her heart nearly fell off when she saw Mira sweating profusely, moving uncomfortably and muttering while holding tightly to the blanket.
Arianna goes to her and hugs her.
' It's okay Mira, I'm here.' Arianna says as she hugs her and strokes her hair.
Mira opened her eyes which were glistening as if she was about to cry.
' Fire.' She muttered.
' It's okay. It was just a nightmare.' Arianna says.
' Stay.. Please.' Mira says.
' Ok. I will stay with you. Let me tell you a story.' Arianna says.
Mira's ears perked up. She had never imagined that someone would hug her when she felt scared and tell her a story when she couldn't sleep.
' I will tell you the story of the most foolish princess in history.
Once there was a King whose wife was pregnant and wanted nothing more than to have strawberry. But it was midwinter and there were no strawberries except in the garden of a an evil witch. The king went himself to the witch's orchard and plucked some strawberries. He was leaving when the witch suddenly appeared before him and told him in order for him to leave the orchard alive he would have to pay for the strawberries with his unborn child.
The king had no choice but to agree and when the baby girl was born, the witch took the child and raised her as her own. She locked the girl in a tower that was very high.
Now Rapunzel the princess, had VERY long golden hair which she used as a means to lift the witch up to the tower. I don't remember much of what happened after that but I know that she had always longed to see the outside world and then one day a prince came and told her to cut her hair and use as a rope to come down the tower. The two escaped the witch and lived happily ever after. The end!' Arianna says.
' You said the story was about a foolish princess. How was she foolish?' Mira asks.
' The hair had been there with her like forever. It kept looking at her saying " You can use me to bring that witch up and down but you can't even free yourself." Why did she have to wait all those years for Someone to point it out to her that she could just cut the hair and escape. Not to mention th...' Arianna pauses as she sees Mira peacefully sleeping. She stands up gently, kisses Mira's forehead and goes to her room.
The next morning,
Arianna woke up sometime past six. She wanted to draft an account of all her assets. She had a beautiful dream the previous night and she wanted to make sure she achieved it.
In her dream, She, Ashley and Riona joined forces and opened up a company. Their company was rooted in designing, event planning and catering.
She brought out an old notebook from her bag.
10 pieces of land ( each about 500 square metres ) and rent of five million dollars was being paid for each piece.
She had two houses, one in Chicago and one in Paris.
Two airplanes and a mall.
She received 40 percent profit of the mall while the 20 were used for maintenance, 30 for salaries and 10 to the managing director.
She had to go and register for her account transfer. The money the rent was being paid to was handled by a lawyer, she could only access it when she turned 18. When she added
She estimated the money in the account should be around 1.6 billion ( including the money extorted from Stephen and Oliver).
With a good mood, she kept the book aside and went down to make breakfast.
When she got there, the maids greeted her and she replied cheerfully. She stops in her tracks when she sees that breakfast had already been made.
She pouted.
' Now what do I do? You did everything.' Arianna grumbled.
' I haven't made Madam's tea yet. You can do that.' Aunt Lula says looking tenderly at the childish girl.
' Yaaay! I promise I will make delicious ginger tea for Grandmother.' Arianna says happily as she gets ginger, honey and lemon.
She makes the tea and goes to her room to get ready for breakfast. She bathes the quiet Arian and places him on the floor. He could crawl properly and could stand holding onto furniture. She picks up her phone and a thought flashed through her mind. She should get Mira a phone. And a laptop, and headphones and a couple of other things.
She goes to Mira's room and knocks on the door.
' It's me Mira, can I come in?' She asks.
' Mm.' Mira gave her short reply.
Arianna enters and says, ' Good morning Mira!'
' Good morning Arianna.' Mira replies.
Arianna froze. Mira called her by her name for the first time.
' You finally said my name.' Arianna says smiling.
' I.. want to say.. something.' Mira says.
' Sure. Tell me.' Arianna replies.
' Thank.. thank you for... last night.' Mira says looking somewhat nervous.
Arianna smiles and holds her hand and says, ' My dear Mira, I have told you before that I am now your big sister. I will always look out for you. Forget all that, I need your help. Next week the branch family members will be coming and I need to give gifts. My cousins are your age mates and they are exactly like you. I want to buy them phone, laptop and headphones. Can you help me choose? From your own perspective.' Arianna says.
' O.Okay.' Mira replies.
Arianna logs into Amazon and Mira helps her choose.
Mira secretly longed to have just one of those items.
' Thank you so much. I will have it expressly delivered. Let's go for breakfast' Arianna says happily. Arianna picks Arian and the three go for breakfast.
Everyone was seated by the time they arrived.
The maids were serving the food and Lula gives Rosalind her tea. Rosalind ( who was very fond of drinking tea.) took a sip and her expression changes. She finishes the cup even before touching food.
' Lula! Make me another cup of tea.' Rosalind says.
Lula looked pleadingly at Arianna. Rosalind noticed the interaction between them and put the pieces together. So it was Olivia who made the tea.
Rosalind fell in love with Arianna's ginger tea.