Bound For Ruin

Chapter 7

My father wasn't an inquisitive man. He enjoyed being in his own bubble of bliss and would run away from those who had even a tinge of sadness because they always "managed to ruin my blissful day". It was quite odd that my father met me in the living room and asked me thousands of questions about my weekend when he usually wouldn't even care about any of my friends, he hadn't even bothered to learn the names of my friends from our previous town even though we were friends for over 5 years and they were at my house almost on a daily basis.

I never thought I would see my father, who was a firm believer of staying far away from sin, lie but I was forced to believe it when I saw the uncomfortable stare at my forehead as he spoke about how he hadn't known anything about the Shin family. It was amusing to see that how relieved he was when he saw me 'accept' the lie that he uttered, he obviously still thought of me as the little girl who believed her father's words blindly.

The one thing that bothered me was the reason as to why he lied about knowing them. Knowing the Shin family wasn't a sin that should be hidden, they were an influential family so it was usual to hear a few whispers about them especially since they had the juicy updates about their illegal dealings in Cape Town and Korea. For him to lie to my face about such a small matter, he had to be hiding something but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was.

"When are you going to sleep, baby? It's almost 23:00." I smiled at my mother as she brought in the freshly ironed uniform and hung it neatly over my chair at my study nook.

"I'll go to sleep after I finish this one thing," I said as I looked at the many selfies and group pictures on my personal Facebook account with an aching heart because I had to delete them since I found Mia's brother's office filled with pictures of mines that I posted. I had to admit that I found the paintings a bit scary but I couldn't raise my concern to Mia since she would find a way to make the paintings seem like something normal which I knew wasn't.

"Good night," I said after I deleted the last picture and shoved my phone under my pillow.

~~~
                  HWAN POV

"She's quite a beauty, isn't she?" My father asked as he stood behind me and watched me paint the finishing touches on the portrait of my darling, Minnie. I tsked at the degrading term that my father used to describe my darling, Minnie. Minnie wasn't the usual belle that roamed the streets or the casual sunset that would bring a sense of peace to someone's faulty day, she was beyond anything that people knew. She was ethereal, with a personality that matched one of royalty, so profound and elegant. She was the definition of perfection and I would be damned to let anyone to refer her as anything beneath that.

"She deleted her account," I said as I placed the paintbrush back into the paint box and turned towards my father to give him my undivided attention. I hadn't liked how she deleted her account a few hours after she saw my sanctuary but I would put in a word with Mia so that she could make her account again so that I could find more inspiration for my next portrait.

"I would've done the same thing if I was her. You need to be careful with this one, she looks like a runner," my father chuckled at the joke and sat down on the couch that was in front of me. I looked at him tiredly as he took the blunt that was stashed in a box on the couch and lit one which instantly filled the room with the smell of weed. He usually done this when he was stressed so I knew that I was about to deal with a high man who liked to peel at every layer that we had so that he could find a reason as to shoot you in the leg for disrespecting him.

I then turned towards the recent portrait that I made, of Minnie sleeping peacefully on her bed with her cute pink pyjamas that left nothing towards imagination. It was one of my favourite images that her father gifted as it showcased what she hadn't like showing others like the drool that was rolling from her mouth, the messy hair that escaped her bonnet, and the clothes that were wrinkled from thrashing around all night.

I always wanted a big portrait of this very picture, but I was way too scared that I wasn't going to do any justice to it. I believed that the paintbrushes weren't going to illustrate the radiant body of hers but as I looked at this painting after 10 hours of working on it, I knew that it was going to be hung in my room, where I could stare at it for hours on end. "She has more of an investigative spirit," I replied as I smiled at the thought of the time that we caught her searching through my belongings. Where her fingers were desperately trying to open the envelope that had her family's name on it, it was amusing to see her so stunned when we caught her and tried to hide her snooping by shoving the envelope back into the drawer.

"You always had a neck for one of those," he said as he unbuttoned his shirt and then turned to lay on his back. I tightened my hand around the paintbrush when I heard the loud ringtone of the office phone. "Bloody answer the phone, its fucking up my vibe," my father shouted as he inhaled more of the blunt.

"I don't know who makes a phone call at 6 in the morning. It better be someone who's dying," I said as I left the paint brushes onto the floor and walked towards the telephone. I picked up the phone and my fingers immediately started to twitch when I heard the jolly voice of Minnie's father.

"You better get your filthy hands off of my daughter. Who the hell do you think that you are to touch and say such dirty things about my daughter?"

"I think you've forgotten the deal that we had," I began as I took a seat by my office chair and continued to play with the wires of the telephone. I smiled at the memory of the battered man who stumbled into my office in Johannesburg and begged me to assist him with the loan sharks that he owed money to. I've heard about these loan sharks where many South Africans were afraid of because of the gruesome way that they would kill whenever you hadn't returned their money in the time period that they indicated. It was amusing that he came to ask help from a man who was much worse than those small gangsters who fed on killing the weak but I was rather bored that day and felt pity so I granted him the R15 million loan.

I was a selfish and greedy man. I loved when people begged for my assistance because I always made deals that were painful to agree to but hard to not accept due to the benefits that came with it. It was that day that we had an agreement that he would provide me with the R15 million and his daughter as the payment of the loan after a few months. I had no good intention for his daughter, to me at that time, she was a quick lay that would receive a bullet to the skull when I was bored of her.

It was only 4 months after the due date of payment did I meet my little princess. I could remember it like yesterday when she entered abruptly into the house and scream when she looked at the security that were on every corner of the room. She wore a pink dress with ruffles on the bottom that reached to her knees. I knew when her eyes met mine, where hers were fear and mines enamoured, I knew that she was going to be the woman who bore my children.

It was a bore when her father told her to go to room and rudely informed me that she was just 12 years old. I never cared that she was just 6 years younger than me, I wanted her pregnant in my home and cooking my food. It was when I was going to instruct my guards to take her did I receive advice from my father's right-hand man that it would be better to wait for her to mature before taking her away. Even though I wanted to dispute, I knew that he and my father thought the exact same way and would force me to return her back home until she was at the perfect age.

The father then suggested to give me information as well as her pictures in exchange for a grace period of a week. It was then that I began to receive her information through my mail on a monthly basis for 6 years. I knew her birthday, favourite colour, movie, show and favourite sleeping position all in the courtesy of her father. I treasured every letter written by the father that gave me what I wanted and stashed it into a large envelope that Minnie almost opened that day. If she were to find out that her father was the one who sold her to me just so that the family could go for holidays, I'm sure shed loose her mind.

"I don't know why you don't want me to touch her since she's basically mine," I said as I chuckled at the sight of my father stuffing the muffins that I kept on my table into his mouth hastily. "Her birthday is coming soon. Clear her schedule and pack her bags, I will be there before sunset."