Chapter 4: Threats

'Ken, you do not have to go just yet. Let us figure out a way to resolve this issue. I shall see if there is a place I can send Mirabel to. She is grown now and should not be living in this little room with us'

Mirabel could not believe what she was hearing. Had this man somehow hypnotized her mother? Had the alcohol taken over her senses?

'Mother, what are you saying?'

'I shall find out which of the people you work for will be willing to keep you with them permanently. They will give you a place to live in their house since you shall be working for them full time'.

That should make Mirabel happy but when she looked at Jen, he saw him wink.

No! It would mean that Jen had won and she will not have that. She was going to expose him before leaving the house and maybe, then, she would not have to leave but he would be thrown out.

'Okay mother but you have to ask them first because I do not think they have quarters for their helps. If any one of them had, I would have left here a long time ago. This room suffocates me'. she said.

'I didn't know you felt like that before I could have done something about it sooner'.

'Simething like what? Like throwing your daughter away? The child you bore in your womb for nine months and nurtured just for a man that you just met? You know, I am sorry that I thought that you knew me very well because you are my mother but for you to have taken the side of this stranger ibmver your daughter shows that you never knew me or the alcohol you take has eventually robbed you of your common sense or maybe you are just scared that you might not get another man to bed you and you are willing to tolerate anything even dehumanisation from this beast just to keep him in your bed? Very shameful'.

Before she could finish her tirade, she felt another hot slap on her cheek.

She had not wanted to say all that. In fact she had never spoken to her mother that way before but she was just angry at the turn of events. She who was the victim was being made out to be the villainess and it hurt badly especially since her mother seemed to have lost all faith in her.

'Mira, if the people keep her, her pay package will be reduced and she would not be able to make the little contributions she makes towards the upkeep of this house. You know that I am unemployed at the moment. I do not want the burden to be too much on you. Let her stay. I believe that she has learnt her lesson and would not try such stunt anymore. When I get another job and can take good care of you, the may that you deserve,then you can send her to live elsewhere. I might even move is to a better place with more rooms. But we have to plan this very carefully and not take hasty decisions because of her indiscretion.

Mirabel knew then that she had to kill the man when she saw her mother considering his words.

How could her mother not know that he didn't want her to leave because he wanted them to continue slaving for him while he used their hard earned cash on himself and his girls? Was her mother really that blind or pretending not to notice?

Then what had motivated her to save her that night? She just couldn't understand it.

'You are right. She will have to stay for now'.

Mirabel knew that things were going to get worst. If she was not afraid of sleeping outside because she knew that a worse fate awaited her since this was the worst neighbourhood in Soho, she would have run away but she decided to be on her guard. She had been taken unawares but it was not going to happen again, she vowed.

Her mother went to the factory where she worked as Mirabel prepared to go to work as well while Ken lay back on the bed.

Previously, he made a show of searching for a job but these days, he no longer pretended to do so. And Mirabel was sure that once her mother was unable to keep him any longer or if he found a woman with better means who was willing to have him, he would not bait an eyelid before leaving her mother for such a person.

Not that the thought annoyed her. She prayed that it should happen sooner than later because she did not know how long she could restrain herself from killing Ken.

As she was about to leave, he spoke.

'If you leave this house without my permission or try again what you did last night, I shall kill your mother. It is better for you to know that your presence in this house is stopping me from doing away with your mother. If you as much as leave, then she is a goner and if you encourage her to send you away or convince her to run away with you, then I shall haunt the both of you down and kill you both but I shall make sure I kill her first with you watching so that as you go to the world beyond, you shall go bearing the guilt of her death but before then, I shall torture you in such a way that you shall beg for death and you know just how I plan to torture you. I shall enjoy every second of it. So you had better be warned!' And he laughed. The noise sounding so eerie and scaring that Mirabel hurriedly left for her housekeeping job filled with fright, not for herself but for her mother. She knew now that they were both in danger and did not know what to do. She realised that she had made the right decision to make him believe that she was the one and not her mother who had managed to knock him out that night. He would have harmed her mother in some way to get back at her.

She would rather bear the pain than allow this beast to inflict pain on her mother because of her.

She believed every word that beast had said. She knew they were not just threats but a warning but even then, she was determined to beat him at his game.

She could not afford to be scared. She was not a Cole for nothing.

Mirabel Cole would teach him that wisdom was better than strength in most cases and she was not her father's child for nothing.