Her Father's Expectations by Chevel Grant (classic children's novels .TXT) 📕

"Father I love him!" I screamed as father spoke to the bodyguards. "You will understand when you are older Reina. You may think I am doing something wrong but I am actually doing right by you. You are just too young to understand it" he said without even sparing a glance in my direction. "I am twenty-one and you still treat me like a child!" I screamed at him. "Enough!" he shouted. I usually could sense when he was going to hit me but this backhand was completely unexpected! I fell to the ground holding my cheek and fighting back the tears that threatened to brim over. I will not let him see me like this- I thought to myself.
"That young man you insist you are in love with is a womanizer! Yes he is rich but his reputation speaks plenty" he stooped down to look at me. "Reina he is all over the news everyday and each time with another woman! You insist you love him but does he share in your feelings?" he asked looking me squarely in the eye. "I-I don't know. I never asked" I replied shyly. "Reina you are still too young to know what love is let alone understand it. Now I expect all this talk about love to cease. I also expect you to stay away from Demetrius. You are not to leave this mansion without a guard or so help me I will make your life a living hell!" he said as he slammed the door behind him as he left. The thing is my life was ALREADY a living hell! All my life I had to live up to my father's expectations! Even when I thought I did he would still find a way to make it seem like I didn't. Gertrude and Antonio were by my side as soon as he left. They were from my mother's country, Hispaniola. "Don't let him get to you little one and my son may be many things but he knows how to treat a woman with respect" she said as she brought a wet towel to my cheek. "H-he doesn't understand" I started crying. "Reina I should have helped! How did he find out you were meeting Demetrius? I thought you were so careful" Antonio asked. "I think I know who told him" I replied dryly. "I think I know also. That Malik is a nasty piece of work. I don't know how he found out about you and Demetrius but it was none other than him who told your father, hija" Gertrude said as she pulled me into her arms for a hug. Gertrude and Antonio had one son, Demetrius. My mother and my eldest sister, Mia, left when I was five years old because they could no longer take the abuse my father was dishing out. I still hated my mother for not taking me and Lorenzo, my older brother, with her. But Gertrude and Antonio gave me the love and tenderness that my father didn't or was incapable of giving. They may have only been servants but to me they were my parents. On occasions when life got too unbearable at the mansion I would go stay with them at their four bedroom house. Antonio told me when I was about ten that one of the rooms always stayed locked because he would let no one enter my room other than me. They may not have been as rich as my father but my father paid them well enough that they could live comfortably and even send Demetrius off to Princeton. Antonio even designed my room at their house with lots of pretty colors. My room here at the mansion stayed a boring white because my father thought it symbolized 'obedience' while Antonio disagreed he said a child needed a colorful room to develop imagination and creativity.

Later on that day I made a promise to guard my heart. My father was right in some ways. Demetrius was a playboy and one of New York's most eligible bachelors. Women practically threw themselves at him everyday. I once read in People's magazine that he had mistresses all over the globe. Of course Lorenzo, my older brother, disagreed with what I read telling me not to put too much into what I read. Demetrius and Lorenzo had been friends since as long as I could remember and even then the sight of him did strange things to my insides. Lorenzo was currently out of the country on a business trip to China and I was feeling very vulnerable knowing he was not here. It seemed to me that my father now had an all access pass to abuse me in Lorenzo's absence. I sat on my bed staring at the ceiling when my phone rang. It was none other than Demetrius calling. I was tempted not to answer but in the end I did. "Reina" he said. Even over the phone he had a sexy voice that got my heart racing. "Hi" I replied. Chastising myself for saying something so dumb. "What is wrong?" he asked. It never ceased to amaze me how he could always sense when I was sad. "Nothing is wrong, Demetrius. I am fine" I told him thinking I sounded pretty convincing. "Rein, you were always a horrible liar" he used the nickname he gave to me when I was thirteen. "Demetrius it's nothing" I sighed. "I am tempted to come over there to find out myself you know" he said seriously. He meant every word. "Demetrius nothing is wrong and shouldn't you be in a meeting?" I asked him. "I am" he replied and I could tell he was smiling. "Well I don't want to be a bother" I told him. "You will never be a bother, sweetheart. There was a reason I called though" he told me. "Mother phoned me today. She said I should call you" he said. Gertrude was playing matchmaker but she knew long ago that Reina was deeply in love with her son, Demetrius. Demetrius may not have been rich and successful at the time nor did he have the upbringing Reina and Lorenzo had but he was treated as an equal by both of them even though his parents were only servants at mansion. "Reina are you listening to me?" he asked. "Huh? Um I didn't catch the last part of that" I replied. "I said we cannot go to my club tonight because I will be working late" he told me. Despite what everyone thought Demetrius and Reina weren't a couple. Reina would be glad to have him as a companion in an intimate way but he never showed that he was interested and even though she openly admitted to her father today that she loved this wonderful, caring, drop dead gorgeous man with a Spanish accent that could charm a menacing cobra there was nothing intimate about their relationship. Reina snuck around to meet Demetrius because he took her to his multiple of clubs and she always felt safe when he was around. Demetrius didn't know that Reina's father abused her and she begged and pleaded with both Gertrude and Antonio not to tell him. If he found out he might start looking at her differently and she loved the picture she painted for him of who she was. The smart, sassy, sweet, generous girl who wasn't afraid to stand up to him when he was angry. "It's fine, Demetrius. I wasn't feeling in the mood to go out tonight anyways" I sighed into the phone. "Does this have anything to do with why my mother called me?" he asked. Tears clouded my eyes. "Rein?" he pressed. "I have to go" my voice cracked as I hung up before he could protest.
"Reina!" Demetrius shouted into the dead receiver. He looked around his board room to see all the members of his executive board staring at him. He shook his head. "Carry on" he told the man who was doing a presentation.
Demetrius sat in his office after the meeting thinking about Reina. Lord knows he has wanted Reina since she was sixteen. It was sheer torture on his body to have her sleep over at his parent's house when they were younger. His room was right beside of hers. Usually she came over crying and as if his mother knew the reason she would just hug Reina until she stopped crying. Even his own father had a soft spot for Reina and that man was as hard and tough as they come! "Mr. Vassaliadas your four o'clock is here" his personal assistant told him as she came into his office. "I will be right out, Cindy" he told her. She nodded as she closed the door behind her. Reina has been unusually jumpy ever since Lorenzo left for China. Maybe he would give Lorenzo a call and see if he knew anything but he had a meeting to go to.

Gertrude was in Reina's room brushing Reina's long, waist length hair when there was a knock at the door. "Tell whoever it is that I don't want any visitors" I told Gertrude. "Yes sweetheart" Gertrude said as she gave my shoulder a squeeze before getting up. She placed the brush on the vanity dresser and went to the door. "Miss Reina says she doesn't want any visitors" Gertrude told the man. "I think I am an exception to that statement" Malik smiled as he saw Reina sitting with her hair down across the room. "Sir, Reina doesn't want any visitors" Gertrude repeated this time in her no nonsense voice. Malik didn't seem to hear her because he stepped forward causing Gertrude to step back letting him into the room. Malik walked over to Reina who was secretly wishing it was Demetrius who had come to her. "Reina! Darling!" he said as he pulled her out of the chair and into his arms. She told him more than once not to use such endearments on her but he never listened. Reina looked at a disgruntled Gertrude who was holding up the brush as if she wanted to throw