The Truth

Chapter 4

I quickly darted back into the cover of the branches and skirted down to my branch, placing myself back on it as I was before. He hadn't seen me, or at least I didn't think he had, and I intended to keep it that way. I wanted him to leave as soon as possible, and I knew that socialisation wasn't a very good way to go about that. I hadn't got a very good look at him, but he looked about my age, if not a little older, and he was quite tall. He was wearing a well-kept black suit and tie which indicated that he had been at the funeral, and I guessed that he was quite wealthy as his suit looked expensive. I'm not going to lie, he looked quite attractive. But then he was still a few dozen metres away and up a hill.

Nonetheless, he reached the pond pretty quickly and sat down at the water's edge, feet dangling just above the water. I couldn't help staring at his groomed dark blonde hair and wondering what his face looked like. A few minutes passed, and I failed to notice that I had begun to idly swing my leg back and forth. He must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye as he turned his head slightly to the side. I froze. He turned back to the pond, did a double take and looked back. He saw my foot and slowly followed it upwards until his gorgeous deep blue eyes met mine. Yep, he was definitely attractive. My eyes widened, and I flashed my teeth in what must have been, in retrospect, the most terrifying smile ever.

Shoot, I thought, Act natural.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" He asked, standing up and moving towards my branch with his brow furrowed. He was definitely wealthy, his voice gave that away, along with the impression of one who had never had a day without food or a nice warm bath. Not to mention his handsomely fresh, clean face and delicious smell. Only the richest could afford to smell nice.

"Um," I stared blankly at him and decided to go for the impressive introduction, giving him a less scary smile and lifting my hands off of the branch and leaning down to shake his. " I am Ebony Coburn, granddaughter of the late-"

I lost my balance when pulling away from the handshake and tumbled down forwards,  landing on top of him. I swore. Loudly. He pushed me off of him, stood up, brushed himself down and stretched his hand out to me. It took me a moment to register that this was to help me up, and gladly took it.

"Granddaughter of the late Arthur Coburn?" He finished for me.

"Uh, yes. Sorry. That wasn't quite how I wanted to introduce myself." I must have turned beetroot coloured.

"I hope not. Were you watching me from that tree?"

"Well no, not exactly. I was already in the tree when you arrived and I didn't think there was an appropriate time to leave or something."

"Right," He leant back on the tree and ruffled his hair, looking at me like he was still figuring me out.

"Who are you?" I asked a bit more harshly than I had intended.

"Frederick Wheeler."

"Son of that authority guy? Theodore Wheeler?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

My stomach flipped. Crap. How could I be talking to that monster's son? How could he come to my tree by my pond and enjoy it? I narrowed my eyes. If the saying is true, that like father like son, then I'm not going to make any attempts to be nice anymore.

"Your dad's an arse." I spat, turning away from Frederick a little.

"What?"

"Your father is an arsehole."

"Who are you to call him that?" He said, turning on me.

"I have every right to call him that."

"No you don't, my father's a brilliant, brave man and I intend to be like him one day. He's got a medal."

I laughed, which seemed to scare him a little.

Good, I thought angrily, let him think I'm mad. Maybe he'll get scared and f*** off.

"Then you aim very low, my friend."

"How dare you, you-"

Something clicks in my mind. Maybe he doesn't know. It wouldn't be beneath Wheeler to lie to his own child about his own career.

"Do you know what your father does? Do you know what he is?"

"Of course I do, he works at the top jail disciplining prisoners. That's what he earned the medal for. And good on him too, the swine in there don't deserve to-"

"Do you know how he disciplines the prisoners?"

"Well, no. But that's confidential information and I don't see how you would-"

"Do you-"

"Stop interrupting me, it's extremely annoying."

"Well you're a hypocrite then, you just interrupted me."

He glared at me, a glare full of hatred and anger. He obviously had a lot of pride in his fricking dad. So I decided to tell him. I knew he wouldn't tell anyone. Everyone who knew, which was very few people, were too scared of being caught and disciplined for exposing 'false' information.

"I'm about to tell you about what your father really does, and why he deserves to be dead," My voice had lowered to a whisper. "And you're to believe every word. I promise it's true."

"Why should I trust you?" He growls.

"Because when I promise something I always mean it. Always."