Road to Redemption - Michelle Dalton Page 0,21

done if my daddy had walked back into our lives?”

“Mina,” Derek chastised.

“No, she’s right, Derek.” Grace leaned on her open door and smiled. “I’d have given you the choice, no matter how hard it was for me. But the difference is, you have proof he’s changing. Your daddy never did come back, or change his ways.”

Mina’s shame at snapping at her mom burned inside her chest. Scoffing her feet in the dirt, she sighed. “She’s thirteen, Ma. She’s not old enough to make those sorts of decisions for herself.”

Grace smiled, let go of the door, and walked up to her. She placed her hand on Mina’s chest where her heart beat a stuttered thread. “Don’t underestimate your daughter or the blood which flows through her veins, my girl.”

“I know what he did was unforgiveable, but have you never wanted to know why?” Derek asked.

Mina wiped her hands down her face, “I asked him the week I found out I was pregnant. He told me to vokoff and said that I was a kaffirs kind. So do you still believe he deserves Lullu?” Mina had lowered her voice, but she made sure her tone sharpened her words.

Derek winced and shook his head. “Yes. He must have been very afraid for you if he’d used those words, as awful as what they are, my dear. A second chance is just that—unconditional. Didn’t I once hear you say so?”

Mina’s insides shook. She knew what Derek meant.

Tears stung her eyes, but she would not back down now. “That’s different.”

“Why? Because it’s your heart on the line and not someone else’s?” Derek cocked his head, a shadow darkening his gaze.

“No. Because it’s my daughter—your granddaughter, Derek.”

Smiling gently, he said, “Exactly. I’ll be back for the next fortnight’s visit.” He slid behind the wheel.

Her mother hugged her, placing a gentle peck on her forehead. “You’re not alone in this. Derek and I are always here for you.” She climbed onto the passenger seat and closed the door, then gave her and Lullu, who came trotting up on horseback, a wave.

“Bye Oupa, bye Omie. I love you.” Lullu waved back.

The car sped down the road away from the homestead.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Mina reached into her pocket for her asthma pump. Why did she have to deal with Ray now? After all these years, when she had her life sorted out. Her business was flourishing. And the pieces of her heart were neatly tucked away for no one to touch.

Shaking the apparatus, she brought it to her mouth and inhaled, holding it, then slowly let it go. She was tired of all the stress and upheaval which had arrived with Ray.

“Come on. That’s enough horsing around for today. I’m sure you have homework for tomorrow,” she commanded Lullu, who rolled her eyes and lay flat with her back meeting the gelding’s. “Fiiine,” she drawled out.

Mina stomped back to the house, not wanting to see the inmate camp, when she stopped dead.

She’d had a number of small cottages built for her permanent workers. They sat prettily along the eastern corner she’d cleaned up beyond the back of the stables. There, she saw Ben and Becky. Their discussion looked serious. Agh. She didn’t have it in her to mediate or even find out what it was about.

Turning her attention to her daughter, she waved for her to hurry up.

Mina made a mental note to ask Becky what the issue with Ben was. But all that’d have to wait.

She hated to admit it, but Derek and her mom had a point. She had to confront Ray.

7

Mina inhaled sharply as Ben stood, arms hanging at his sides, looking down at his feet. Her morning had started off with a bang and a phone call from Abbe.

The desk was the only thing between Mina and Ben which kept her from grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and shaking sense in to his thick skull.

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t,” he grumbled.

“Clearly. Ben, you of all people know how hard it is not to hand the locals a reason to give us grief, and then you, my manager, go out and pick a fight in one of their pubs.” Mina stopped pacing and leaned with her balled fists on her study desk.

“To be fair, the doos was looking for kak, and he wasn’t a local.”

“So you bliksemed a holiday-maker!” Her voice rose an octave.

Seriously, she did not have the energy for this now. The poachers’ trawler had been spotted a hundred nautical