CHAPTER 4: SHE IS LYING

"Yes, ma'am. I saw him. I thought he was just tightening the cinch. I'm sure he didn't mean any harm. Dina orders him around a lot, and I guess he wanted to teach her a lesson. Oh, Mrs. Chandler, I wish you hadn't made me tell you. I don't want to get anyone in trouble."Mina explains wrongly the poor child was on the verge of hysteria.

Mrs. Chandler walked around the desk and put her arm around her. "It's all right, Mina You did right to tell me. Now you just forget about everything. I'll take care of it."

The following morning when the girls went out to the stables, there was a new groom.

"I don't believe she did it," mina said stoutly."Someone put it there. I know it.

On the twins' fifteenth birthday, Edward took them to the estate in South Africa where he gave a large party for them. It was not too early to see to it that mina was exposed to the proper young men they were alot begging her for marriage, and every eligible young man around was invited to the girls' party.

The young three boys were at the awkward age where they were not yet seriously interested in girls, but Edward made it his business to see that acquaintances were made and friendships formed. Somewhere among these young boys could be the man in mina's future, the future of the Blackwell clan, Ltd.

Dina did not enjoy parties, but she always pretended she was having a good time in order not to disappoint her grandfather mina adored parties. She loved dressing up, been admired making multiple boy following her like countless body guard.Unto them she was like their hope.Dina preferred reading and painting. She spent hours looking at her father's paintings at isle of man, and she wished she could have known him before he became ill. He appeared at the house on holidays with his male companion, but Dina found it impossible to reach her father. He was a pleasant, amiable stranger who wanted to please, but had nothing to say. Their grandfather, sunny, lived in Germany, but was ill. The twins seldomly visited him.

In her second year at school, mina became pregnant. For several weeks she had been pale and vomiting and had missed some morning classes. When she began to have frequent periods of nausea, she was sent to the infirmary and examined. Mrs. Chandler had been hastily summoned.

"Mina is pregnant," the doctor told her

"But - that's impossible! How could it have happened?"

The doctor replied mildly, "In the usual fashion, I would presume."

"But she's just a child."Mrs Chandler said

"Well, this child is going to be a mother!"the doctor exclaimed.

Mina bravely refused to talk. "I don't want to get anyone in trouble," she kept saying.

It was the kind of answer Mrs. Chandler expected from Mina.

"Mina, dear, you must tell me what happened."

And so at last mina broke down. "I was raped," she said and burst into tears.

Mrs. Chandler was shocked. She held mina's trembling body close to her and demanded, "Who was it?"

"Mr. Liam Her English teacher."Mina responded.

If it had been anyone else but mina, Mrs. Chandler would not have believed it. Joseph Liam was a quiet man with a wife and three children. He had taught at forcados School for eighteen years, and he was the last one Mrs. Chandler would have ever suspected. She called him into her office, and she knew instantly that mina had told the truth. He sat facing her, his face twitching with nervousness.

"You know why I've sent for you, Mr. Liam" Mrs Chandler inquired.

"I - I think so."he responded.

"It concerns mina" Mrs Chandler added.

"Yes. I - I guessed that."Mr Liam said

"She said you raped her!"Mr Chandler yelled

Liam looked at Mrs Chandler in disbelief. "Raped her? Oh My God! If anyone was raped,how could it be me."His excitement lapsed into the ungrammatical agony.

Mrs. Chandler said contemptuously, "Do you know what you're saying? That child is -."

"She's not a child." His voice was venomous. "She's a devil." He wiped the perspiration from his brow. "All semester she sat in the front row of my class, with her dress hiked up. After class she would come up and ask a lot of meaningless questions while she rubbed herself against me. I didn't take her seriously. Then one afternoon about six weeks ago she came over to my house when my wife and children were away and - " His voice broke. "Oh, Jesus! I couldn't help it."He said.

They brought mina into the office. Her manner was composed. She looked into Mr. Liam's eyes, and it was he who turned away first. In the office were Mrs. Chandler, the assistant principal and the chief of police of the small town where the school was located.

The chief of police said gently, "Do you want to tell us what happened, Mina?"

"Yes, sir." Mina's voice was calm. "Mr. Liam said he wanted to discuss my English work with me. He asked me to come to his house on a Sunday afternoon. He was alone in the house. He said he wanted to show me something in the bedroom, so I followed him upstairs. He forced he and me onto the bed -"

"It's a lie!" Liam interrupted. "That's not the way it happened. That's not the way it happened..."

Edward was sent for, and the situation was explained to him. It was decided that it was in everyone's interest to keep the incident quiet. Mr. Liam was dismissed from the school and given forty-eight hours to leave the state. An abortion was discreetly arranged for Mina.

Edward quietly bought up the school mortgage, carried by a local bank, and foreclosed.

When mina heard the news, she sighed and said "I'm so sorry, Grandad. I really liked that school."

"No way mina!" Edward yelled and turned back then left.

A few weeks later when mina had recovered from her operation, she and Dina were registered at macro- Fernwood, a Swiss finishing school near Canada.