"You never cease to amaze me each time you do this, kiddo." Mr Whittaker spoke up. He had been watching since along with two of his stable hands.
The young boys went forward and began to clear the horse's faeces while Mina gathered her things and went out of the stable with Alice.
She got back to the front of the house and went straight to the water trough where she washed her hands and bid the family goodbye. She declined Alice's offer to see her off and began her merry walk home.
She was two streets away from her home when she squeezed her face in consternation.
"Oh no! Not today. I'm tired."
She groaned inwardly and turned around in order to head back the way she was coming from.
She got back to the Whittaker's farm and was about to announce her presence as usual but the heated conversation going on between the mother and daughter duo caught her attention first.
"How can you say that? Don't you know she's my friend? And most times, she always like coming here because the other girls don't like playing with her." She heard Alice's high pitched scream.
"And that's the reason why I said you shouldn't claim her as your friend. She's the daughter of a very rich man who is based in New York.
Your father is just a local farmer so the difference is clear." Her mother countered her and ruffled her hair.
Annoyed, Alice swiped at her mother's hand and blabbered.
"But you were the one who told me to make friends with her because you think she's lonely.
You said she was abandoned here by her family because they think she's an ugly duckling.
You said she's the most ugly girl in her family, that's why they made her stay in this rural village with her nanny so that they won't be disgraced by her ugliness. You even said there's a possibility I may get married before her."
Mina reeled back in shock but she had to take what she came for. She had forgotten her cardigan earlier when she washed her hands at the water trough.
She took in a deep breath and squeezed her hands into fists in order to remain neutral and pretend that she wasn't affected.
She had her nanny to thank for doing that easily. Her nanny had grown up in South Korea and she had often trained her on keeping hold of her emotions.
She began shouting and both mother and daughter turned around, shocked. They looked at her and when they saw no sign of her having heard their conversation, they breathed in relief.
"I came back for my cardigan. I don't want any verbal spanking from my nanny when I get home." She joked as she took the cardigan and headed home.
However, she had a lot of turbulent thoughts going on in her head.
'Was it true that she had been abandoned here? Why was she only allowed to visit New York once a year?'
Now that she had a phone, she was only able to contact her parents once a day and they often rushed through the pleasantries so that she wouldn't ask to be allowed to come to New York.
These thoughts occupied her mind and she walked home absentmindedly making a few people turn back to look at her with their brows raised in question.
She got into their compound which was surrounded by netted iron fence and the front part of the fence had white pickets sticking out of the ground.
She was about to settle on the stone chair in the little garden when her nanny attacked her with a mop demanding where she was coming from that made her miss her parents calls.
She hurriedly stood up in an attempt to miss the incoming missile making her depressed mood lifted.
They were both running around in circles when the little wooden gate opened and Luke, the butler at their New York apartment walked in.
He had come with the household supplies since her nanny could'nt run an account and her father didn't want her having one until she was twenty.
Immediately she saw him, an idea popped into her head and she smiled to herself as she thought about it. Her nanny's scream for her to go eat her food brought her back.
As she made for the house, she turned around only for her to see her nanny having a tête-à-tête with the butler. She furrowed her brows but she was too far from them to know what they were saying.
The next day, while her nanny was busy with the laundry a few minutes after Luke had left the house, Mina shouted to her that she was going to pay Alice a quick visit before coming back for lunch.
She ran out of the house and quickly retrieved a well packed backpack which she slung across her shoulders the moment she was out of the view of the house.
Clad in a black hoodie and ripped boy jeans with a black boot, no one would know she was Mina. She kept Luke in her sights and followed him to the bus station.
At the station, she quickly procured her ticket thanks to some money she had taken out of Luke's wallet and her nanny's bag. She got into the bus and sat in the back row while Luke sat about seven seats away from her.
Chris slumped into a chair. He had just gotten home from school to learn his father had passed away. He had tears in his eyes but he remembered Roger's saying to him that real men don't cry, so he kept it in.
"Where's my brother, Roger?" He asked. "How's he holding up? Will he be able to take care of the company? I can help him if he wishes." He asked his mother and offered in the most sin
cere way he could.
"Chris..." His mother called with a weary sigh.