Chapter 2

Four years ago

Noah

Heidi and I used to run every morning before I left for college but now, she’s in bad shape. That’s mostly due to the fact that she probably stopped running the moment I wasn’t around to push her again. She’s the last of all my siblings and also the sweetest. Heidi couldn’t hurt a fly but that doesn’t mean people won’t want to hurt her. Sadly, they’d most likely take her sweetness for naïveté and try to hurt her in unimaginable ways. I have two sisters, Heidi and Gwen. Gwen is the feisty one and as much as I also take her on runs like this, she can pretty much hold her own so I focus a lot more on Heidi. I won’t let anyone hurt her

“Can we stop already?”, she asks, bending over her knees to get more air into her lungs

“Come on, just ten more blocks”

She groans

“Let’s just take a break please”

“No.. Now take five more breaths and let’s move on”. I continue jogging ahead without really waiting for her. She catches up and stays a few paces behind me. We reach a turn and I bump into a girl that’s walking a bit too fast. She looks up and I stop for a minute. You know when they say the darker the eyes, the harder to read? Well, I used to think that maybe if the eyes were a bit lighter, then we can probably be able to read it more but no, these girls eyes have to be the lightest shade of brown I’ve ever seen, almost transparent, and yet, I find it extremely difficult to see any emotions through them. The underside of her eyes are puffy which means she might have been crying but besides that one tell, there’s nothing else to indicate she was.

“Sorry, wasn’t looking”, she apologizes but i find it hard to reply, I just fix my eyes on her before Heidi speaks up instead

“It’s okay. We’re sorry too. We didn’t see you coming”

The girl doesn’t wait for a second, she dashes past us at the same pace she was going earlier. I’m worried about her but I don’t tell that to Heidi who hits my chest with a water bottle

“Come on, let’s go”, she prompts and I follow, not putting too much thought on the earlier encounter

<<>>

Tatum: Four years ago

“Princess”

I turn, my head hurts and the knocking from dad isn’t making it any better. I cried way toomuch the night before and I really wish I could sleep this headache off for the entire day

“Come on Tate, we have to be out soon. The young master of the manor would be arriving today”

That springs me up from bed and I wince as I remember the pounding in my head. I rush up from the bed and dash to the door, unlocking it and running past dad who still stands with his fist to the door.

“Goodmorning to you too”, he calls after me. I don’t respond though. The bathroom still has steam in it which means dad must have had his bath not too long ago. I don’t wait for the water to heat again, I turn on the shower to bathe shower quickly then dash to my room afterwards. Putting on my clothes is a bit of problem since I’m being too hasty. I tell myself to calm down, that I still have time but I can’t help it. It’s been almost 6 months since I last saw Nigel. I can’t take another second. I proceed to hastily put on my underwear, jeans and snickers then I walk out of my room while still trying to put on a baggy checkered shirt and struggling even harder to button up. Dad isn’t in the living room when I get there so he’s probably left for his morning trim. Or maybe Bridget assembled all the staff to give them a rundown of activities for welcoming Nigel. Personally, I think it’s over the top but what do I know? I’m not rich.

I go to meet Nana at the kitchen, she’s the head cook and basically the caretaker for the entire household. She’s kneading some dough when I walk in to kiss her chubby cheeks. She’s a cute old lady with a lot of bite in her.

“How’s it going Nana?”. I ask, situating myself on the counter stool and stealing an apple from the fruit basket. The moment I take the first bite from it, she whips around, fast as lightning and smacks my hand. The apple falls from my hand and I’m about to complain when she turns back to the sink, picks and apple and offers it to me.

“Eat this one instead, those ones aren’t fresh”

I melt a little at her efforts. Nana has been working here since before I was born and she’s always cared for me for as long as I remember. Made sure I was fed, fed me even more when my mood was down. She broke rules for me and basically took me as her own daughter after mom died. I love her to bits.

“Do you know when Nigel would be here?”, I ask around a mouthful of apple.

“Not sure but he should be here by noon, why do you ask?”. I’m not sure if I’m imagining the knowing tone she uses

“Uhm, nothing really, just wanted to keep up with the affairs of the house”, I answer.

“Ofcourse” It almost sounds like she’s mocking me. I can hear the smile in her voice. Some times I’m almost sure Nana knows about Nigel and me but we both just ignore it. It’s the thing we never speak about.

“What is she doing here?”. That loud shrilly voice could only belong to one person, Carrito. Little mistress of the manor and the little mistress isn’t happy

Here goes.