Chapter 5 - A New Father
It has been two weeks since she first met Mr. Justin Whitfred and it was finally the day she was leaving the orphanage. It would be a lie if she said she was not excited and not just that alone, she was also nervous. She smiled at her reflection on the mirror in the bathroom.
Since no one was with her to pat her and encourage her, she did it herself. It felt funny to pat herself on the head and give herself an encouraging smile but it was actually effective.
And like a dream, she was finally standing beside her foster father before a black jeep with black tinted windows and all those she happened to get close to in the orphanage standing behind them in front of the gate of the orphanage.
Mr. whitfred opened the door for her like a gentleman and she went in sitting down and took a deep breath before giving her 'friends' outside a final wave.
The door closed and her journey to the other part of the world began when Mr. Whitfred sat beside her and the driver started the engine of the jeep and the car drove away from the orphanage..
Her heart was beating hard against its protection and she felt a lump build up in her throat and her nose stung. Her eyes began getting blurry as tears made a poodle in her eyes ready to pour out. She immediately lifted her head up and squeezed her eyes shot.
'Mother, I am coming. I will visit you as soon as I get the chance. I will bring your favorite flower,' she promised her mother as she looked forward to the beginning of a new life.
Her action did not escape Justin's observation, he was proud of himself for saving someone else's life from the pain and stress of poverty. He felt like he had just rescued a poor abandoned puppy from the street. He straightened his broad square shoulder in pride. He had done a good for humanity despite all the other things he had done bad. This one good thing was good enough.
As someone who had not left the little town where the orphanage was in almost a decade, Rose did not get bored or dull herself. She enjoyed the sight of every single thing that caught her attention and lots of thing did get her attention.
She had a lot to do which included cleaning the dirt stuck to her mother's name and get the kingdom off the queen's hand and perhaps her father too for not trusting her mother.
She could not imagine herself being ruthless but she could sure learn to be ruthless with the memories of her horrible death.
She closed her eyes when her eyes finally got tired of watching the scenery of fields and fields and fields when they left a town which seemed to be the main town before crossing over to the next state. She had not been able to sleep well for days after her rebirth. She inhaled the cool scent that came from the obviously expensive air freshener on the dashboard.
In less than ten minutes she fell asleep and as usual, she was welcomed into the dreamland by the pain of her bones getting broken like a small stick without pity. She tightly closed her eyes with her teeth clenched tightly to avoid crying out.
Her tightened fist gave her fingers access to her palm and dug into her palm and distracted her from the illusionary pain. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes after half a minute and turned to her foster father to check if he noticed her strange behavior.
Luckily, he did not, his eyes were looking at the tablet in his hands as he kept scrolling. She could finally exhale and lifted her palm before opening her palm and both of them had red patches of broken injured skin. She pulled out her handkerchief frowning at the innocent glass air freshener which gave her a deceptive feeling of relaxation.
She had actually believed she would be able to sleep finally for at least an hour but the nightmares came to her faster than ever. It was like a thorn or injury that vengeance alone could pull out or heal and she would definitely suffer this forever if she tries to run away from avenging.
She held back a sigh with great effort as she stared out of the window at the repetition of fields. It was green and beautiful but she could easily get tired and besides, the car was moving on a high speed.
"Do you want music?" Mr. Whitfred asked without looking at her.
"Uh?" she asked saucer-eyed. She thought he did not notice but it seemed she was wrong.
"Do you want to listen to music? You seem to be having motion sickness," he said still not looking at her, his gaze fixed on his tablet.
"Yes . . ." she answered nodding her head vigorously trying to persuade her wandering mind that he only thought it was motion sickness and not as some psychological problem. "Thank you."
He ignored her appreciation and the driver immediately turned on the radio. A soft tone filled the car, she knew a little about music and immediately recognized the piece as a classical music from B city. It was soothing and soon she fell asleep again. Her nap was not dreamless but all she saw was her mother's beautiful smile.
The music coupled with the soft leather chair of the chair that was over a hundred percent more comfortable than the bed she slept on in the orphanage she could drift away to a dreamland.
***
Thousands of miles away in B city, a man stood in front of a bay window with his smart phone held close to his ears as he made phone call.
"He adopted her and they are on their way back. They should be back by tomorrow," the person on the other end informed the man.
The man's thin lips curved up and his eyes filled with mystery and too many secret brightened and slowly formed a crescent shape.
A handsome young man stood beside the now smiling man perplexed but it did not show it on his expressionless face. He had never seen the man smile this way before. It was actually a soft smile filled with love, a smile this man had never given him, his brother or anyone else.
He was envious of whoever this person was. The smiles he had always received from this man never got to his eyes, he was amazed that this man's eyes could actually show laugh lines and form a beautiful crescent shape. The more he watched the man smile, the more he felt jealous.
The man turned and looked at the teenager and got startled for a while because he finally saw a change in this boy's face. The young man had always refused to show any emotion on his face. He had concluded that the boy had face paralyses but the boy now wore an expression of amazement blended with sadness. That was the most complicated blend of emotion to be shown on this boy's face.
The boy immediately dropped his gaze when their eyes met and turned away from the window his handsome face now wearing no expression.
The man looked back toward the window and his smile brightened more. 'So this ice cold boy could let his emotions show,' the man thought and began humming. 'Welcome back my Princess.'
***
Justin had one more thing to add to his list of all the good he has done for humanity when he saw Rose asleep comfortably. He actually helped an orphan girl sleep well in his car despite her motion sickness. He never knew music was a good cure for motion sickness. It was time for her to wake up since they were already in the underground parking lot of a five star hotel in Y city. He felt it might reduce the number of his good deeds.
Rose stirred as she began wake up with her mind foggy and waiting for sunlight. She opened her eyes and turned to the left to look at her left hand side where Mr. Whitfred sat. She thought she had just slept for a few minutes.
She was taken aback to see Mr. Whitfred staring at her with his black eyes almost digging holes in her. 'Doesn't this man know it is rude to stare?' she wondered and looked around.
"Where am I?" she had to ask because the place was so bright with very good bright lighting systems but it was obvious that the place would be really dark without the lights on.
Since she woke up herself, Justin knew that the merits he now had won't reduce. He ignored her question and left the car. "Get down," he told her from outside before the driver helped him close the door.
As she opened the door of the jeep to get down, she wondered where the gentleman that opened the door for her in the orphanage was. She only hoped it won't get any worse.
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