Road to Redemption - Michelle Dalton Page 0,3

her first success stories. In all her years counselling criminals, she had come to the understanding that they knew no other language than the one Ben spoke. Hopefully, during their time at Redemption, she could teach them a new one. But that was not important now. What was important was finding the face which matched the name on the list.

Dear Lord—let it not be him!

Her mom, Grace, who still worked for Derek Le Roux had told her that Raymond had once again met the harsh hand of the law. But she’d never in her wildest dreams thought he’d end up here as one of her inmates.

Mina looked out over the dotted figures. She couldn’t make out faces, but one in particular glowed like a nitro stick in the pitch dark. She knew it was him, even from this distance. The way he walked, stood … fuck!

Perhaps it was a different Raymond Le Roux and not the boy who’d broken her heart and left her with a child to raise on her own. Well, to be fair, she’d never told him of … oh, dear God. Mina didn’t bother to spend any more time wondering.

She spun around on her heels and ran toward the stables.

Her world began to spin and her breath froze in her lungs.

After Raymond had shamed her in front of his friends all those years ago, she’d tried to understand, tried to catch a moment alone with him to ask him why? Why had he called her those names, rejected her, when only days earlier he’d loved her so thoroughly?

He’d been in a bad fight the day he’d broken up with her, and she’d suspected it was his cricket team laying down the laws about dating a coloured girl that had pushed him in to being so cruel.

But he’d shunned her at every turn, and called her a ‘kaffirs kind’. That was the moment her heart had shattered in to a million pieces. Mina had vowed never to hand over her love, soul and loyalty to any man ever again.

Black dots clouded her vision and her legs began to cramp. Her throat constricted and her breathing shortened.

“Miss Mina, are you alright?” Becky, her house manager, ran up to Mina as she collapsed on the lawn, heaving. “I’ll fetch your inhaler.”

Becky turned and ran back in to the house.

“Find Lullu. I’ll be okay.” Mina huffed.

But Becky ignored her, shouting an order to cook in the kitchen, and returning a few moments later with her inhaler. She stood above Mina with the oddest smile on her face before landing on her knees and shaking the inhaler. The lack of oxygen must have been affecting Mina.

“Come. Open your mouth now.” Becky brought the medicated inhaler up to Mina’s lips.

“But Ma, how am I going to earn money? This isn’t fair! I don’t go anywhere near the inmates, and Ben always makes sure I’m with the hired workers in a different section of the farm,” Lullu pleaded.

While Lullu always kept well clear of the camp, as was the rules, she did earn her pocket money by helping out with the abalone farming. She was always supervised and safe. But with things the way they were now, Mina did not want to take any chances.

For once, she wished she’d sent her daughter to a boarding school and not the local schoolhouse in town. The abalone nursery would be the one place she’d run in to her father.

“It’s just for a while, Lullu, please. I have my reasons and I need you to trust me.” Mina shook her inhaler and sucked in a puff of Ventolin. She felt a second asthmatic attack come on. She’d not had an attack in months. The medication eased the spasming tissue of her lungs and the action helped calm the crippling anxiety gripping her diaphragm.

“Agh. I can’t wait till I’m eighteen.” Lullu stomped her left foot, spun around, and stormed out of the kitchen.

At thirteen, she was proving to be a force of nature, Mina shuddered when she thought of the years to come. Lullu was generally a well-behaved child, but she had her … father’s stubborn streak and Mina’s unwavering cheek, which made for a lethal combination.

“Don’t worry, miss. Children will never understand until the day they become parents,” her cook soothed her.

Mina nodded. How true the woman’s words were. How she had fought with her mom when Grace had discovered her and Ray were lovers. But in the end, her mother had been right, and Mina