The doors closed, and Melinda began to watch the elevator count the floors, going down smoothly. The girl sighed with relief and turned to walk toward the stairs."What are you doing here?" A stern male voice made her shudder in surprise. Melinda turned back and saw David.
The gaze of the man was like an icy wind, full of coldness and scorn.
"I... I... I just...," she began to stutter, and could not clearly answer anything.
The man went ahead and called the elevator.
"I wish I will never see you next to Elena. Get lost," David said, not even looking toward the girl.
The elevator pulled up, and he went inside. Melinda did not dare to move ahead and remained standing until the man"s silhouette disappeared behind the closed doors.
Only then did she come to herself and walked away quickly.
The girl parked the car near the large apartment complex. The houses were old buildings and were on the very outskirts of the city. n.o.body went here at night, as it was life-threatening. But even during the day, it wouldn"t be safe to be around there.
Melinda went up to her apartment on shabby steps and opened the door. The girl"s face immediately wrinkled from the familiar and unpleasant smell.
She took off her shoes, went into the living room and saw a man lying on a sofa surrounded by empty whiskey bottles.
The girl went to the kitchen to get a plastic bag and began to collect trash scattered on the floor.
The man opened his eyes lazily and said in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "Melinda, is that you?"
"And who else could it be?! When will you stop drinking, eh?! Do you think it"s only you who became bankrupt? Do you think it"s only you who had hard times recently?" The girl loudly reprimanded her father.
Her home life before she grew up was not a fiesta either. Her father was rarely at home. And if he was, then in those rare moments he did not care about his daughter. Since her mother died when she was ten years old, Melinda lived on her own. She raised herself, cooked food for herself.
The only thing that was required of her was not to cause problems at home and to behave as an exemplary daughter in public. Because for any blunder she was severely punished.
Secretly from her father, she began to study dancing and even won a compet.i.tion, the prize in which was training in one of the best dance schools in Europe. But her father did not let her go. So another girl took this opportunity.
Soon after, she met Elena at one of the social events. She knew that the girl was President Lee"s adopted daughter, but when Melinda saw how warm and caring Chen was to that girl, her heart filled with resentment and envy.
She did not understand why her own father treated her worse than this man was treating a child who was not even his real daughter. It was then when Melinda began to feel irritated about everything Elena was doing. Although in reality, Elena had nothing to do with it.
And now, after so many years, when Melinda decided to return to her old childhood dream and started dancing again, that same Elena sincerely congratulated and encouraged her. And she did not hear a single good word from her father.
Melinda collected empty bottles and headed for the exit to take them outside. Suddenly, her attention was attracted by an unknown doc.u.ment lying on the dining table. She came closer and looked at the contents of the first page. The girl"s hands fluttered, and the bag fell to the floor with a crash.
Melinda grabbed the paper and read them carefully. With every paragraph she read, her heart sank more and more.
She rushed to the man lying unconscious on the sofa and began to shake him desperately,
"What it is??? Now come to yourself and explain to me what is it all about??"
Her father opened his eyes reluctantly, looked at the doc.u.ment and pushed his daughter, "Leave me alone. I needed the money, and I decided to sell this useless apartment," Mr. Matthews replied and rolled over.
"Useless?! But how could you!" Tears came out in the eyes of the girl.
She began to beat the man on his back with the papers desperately, "It was my apartment!! Mom left it for me! How could you sell it??! This is the only thing left for me after mom died!!"
The apartment in Spain, which Melinda"s mother inherited, was her last hope. She has already agreed with her friend that together they will open a dance school for children in Barcelona and that she will work as an English teacher as the school grows. She even bought tickets to Madrid and packed up to fly away tonight and forget about all this as a terrible nightmare.
With all her heart she wanted to start a new life, where no one knew her, and where she did not know anyone. Where she could be herself and not think about the "high cla.s.s" social life.
But now she didn"t even have that opportunity. Her own father robbed her of the last thing she had.