Sakura’s fearful reaction made Mrs. Clark chuckle with amusement. She said, “You’re always trying to be brave, Sakura, since you were little. And that pisses me off. Why can’t you be like every other girl? Obedient. Quiet. But then again, everything you do pisses me off.”
Tara said, “Same here. Everything she does pisses me off.”
Mrs. Clark shook her head. “That can’t be helped. We just don’t like you, Sakura.” She crossed one leg over the other as she leaned back against the comfortable sofa. “Now then, I’m going to tell you everything because I just know you’re curious about how we all came to be here.” She cocked her head to one side as she narrowed her eyes. Then she began.
“It started some… Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention to timing because it’s not important to me, but anyway, it started when Mrs. Taylor, the headmistress of Queen Mary Orphanage, found you in front of the facility’s doorstep. And oh, my, but I remember she fell in love with you on the spot. She said you were such a beautiful baby, you know, with such rosy skin and black hair. She said you’d grow to be a beauty and that you’d break many men’s hearts. And you know what? That pissed me off, those words, because she had never said it to my Tara. Or ever adore my Tara like she had adored you.”
She sighed, her eyes staring off into the distance now, remembering the past.
“Then the checks started coming yearly, in the hundreds of thousands. Mrs. Taylor and I knew it was from your mother, and we knew she was filthy rich. I knew your mother was probably young and naive and had done some stupid things, like sleeping around and then accidentally having you, unwanted. That’s why you ended up at the orphanage.”
She paused and chuckled, as if she found it so amusing. “Just like what I’d done, except I wasn’t well off, and I wasn’t so heartless as to throw my daughter away in an orphanage. But anyway, all that money. Of course, I couldn’t help myself. I wanted that money. It was just so much for a little unwanted baby like you. I knew I had better use for it, making the orphanage better. I mean, I did control myself from doing anything rash at the beginning, but after seeing how much love you received from Mrs. Taylor, doting on you, it just made me sick. I snapped, I guess. I. Just. Snapped.”
She turned her eyes to Sakura then and laughed out insanely. “I did what my instinct told me was best. I pushed Mrs. Taylor over the balcony one night in winter. It was so easy. The police concluded it was because she slipped. She was old, after all, and there was ice on the balcony from the snowstorm the night before. God, it was so easy to get away with.
“Then I became the headmistress of the orphanage, and I changed everything. It was so much fun to be in power, to be in control and just be able to do things that I wanted to do. And the money sent to you? Well, it accumulated. Mrs. Taylor had put it in a trust for you, for when you grew up. You know, your college fund and life savings. But for an unwanted girl like you? In my mind, you were just not worthy of all those millions of dollars.”
Sakura listened to all this new information quietly as she felt her heart crushed in pain.
Mrs. Taylor. Had she ever remembered the elderly woman at all? Or had she been far too young?
No, there had been times when she’d seen a kind elderly woman cradling her in her dreams. She felt the woman’s warm presence and smelled the sweet, calming scent lingering in the air.
Sakura closed her eyes, trying to remember. Then as tears brewed and rolled down her cheeks, she saw the elderly woman. In a light-gray cardigan and long skirt, her gray hair formed into a bun at the back of her head, her wrinkled face pleasant and her eyes bright, she was smiling as she hummed a lovely tune. She was holding a toddler in her arms as she strolled back and forth under a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. That child had the palest skin and the darkest hair, sound asleep in the woman’s cozy embrace.
Sakura opened her eyes. She felt pain piercing at her heart at the loss of someone who had loved and cherished her. At the loss of a life.
She glared at Mrs. Clark, the woman who had the blackest heart she had ever known. God, she wanted to scream at the woman and ask her why. Why would she do such a thing?
When Mrs. Clark saw the raw anger in Sakura’s eyes, she was surprisingly taken aback. But of course, she didn’t let it bother her and continued with her tale.
“Then when you turned seven, that was when I formed a plan. Well, the plan came after the picnic at the Princeton estate. Seeing how much the Princeton children liked Tara and how happy she was with them, and after Tara told me how much she loved the Princeton brothers, especially Sebastian and Darcy, and wanted to be with them, I hatched a plan. I knew in my gut that Tara would be better off living with the Princetons as their adopted daughter. I mean, to be adopted by the Princetons, having their last name and being a part of their family, that was any orphan’s dream. Although, Tara isn’t an orphan to be exact, but I did know how to make her become one. And of course, you already know what happened that night.”
Sakura understood then that the night of the fire was Mrs. Clark’s implementation night. She had faked her own death so Tara could become an orphan and be adopted by the Princetons. Of course, that sounded nonsensical. Who’d go that far just to be adopted by a very influential, rich family? She knew there was more to the story than what she had been told so far.
Mrs. Clark laughed then. “Ah, I can see it in your eyes that you don’t believe this is the whole story. You’re clever, aren’t you, Sakura? And that’s why I hate you.” The woman sighed and then nodded slowly. “That’s right. Faking my own death and making Tara an orphan so the Princetons would adopt her as their own was only part of my plan. My real plan? Oh, that was to start a new life as someone different. Someone wealthy. Someone happy.”
She turned her eyes to Sakura again. “I wanted to be someone important. I wanted a new life where I could be happy and do as I pleased. I mean, who’d want to be a headmistress of an orphanage? Looking after useless children who had no hope in life? Not me,” she said, chuckling. “And of course, the money sent to you was able to help me do that very nicely. In a way, I should thank you, Sakura, for helping me out by merely existing. But now, unfortunately, you can’t exist anymore. You have to die because you’ve seen too much. You know too much. I can’t afford to let you live.”
Sakura could only stare at this repulsive woman in disbelief.
“Now then, I think it’s time,” Mrs. Clark said as she got off her seat.
Tara said, “Finally. I just want to get this over and done with.” She, too, stood.
Mrs. Clark came toward Sakura and roughly pulled her up. “Let’s go.”
Sakura protested and put up a fight, which caused Mrs. Clark to become annoyed. The woman growled impatiently as she grabbed a bunch of Sakura’s hair and stilled her. She said darkly, “You’re pissing me off, Sakura. Now be a good girl and let’s get this over and done with. I don’t want to have to use force, you know.”
Sakura simply glared back in anger.
“Let’s go!” Mrs. Clark snapped, forcing Sakura to walk. But of course, her legs were bound tight, and Sakura found herself falling onto her knees.
Tara sighed with frustration. “Her legs.”
Mrs. Clark said, “I got it.” She bent down and undid the binding on Sakura’s ankles. Once done, she said, “Now get up.”
Her legs freed, Sakura got up and staggered. As she was forced toward the door, she eyed the kitchen and noted some knives in their holder on the benchtop.