MAY 28, 1860
After secrets had been revealed about her real parents giving her away, she had ran away from boarding school. She had withdrawn all her money that her adoptive father had put in an account just for her. With him adding to the fund ever so often, and her not being an extravagant spender, she had a nice size nest egg to get her where she had wanted to go with plenty of extra money left over.
She had grown up a good little girl, and with her or what she thought was her parents being rich, she had wanted for nothing. But all that had been lies and fantasy. They weren’t her parents, and Morgan Manor wasn’t her home, at least not any more.
She had met some unsavory characters on her journey, but she had escaped their clutches by very trickery means. Not being one who would normally lie, cheat or steal, she had grown up with a smart devious brother who practically invented every trick in the book. She had learned a lot from him, though she would never admit that to him or to anyone else.
She had been watching Dreamville for a month and a half now, and every time she saw that certain someone her anger would boil up inside her. How could their ma and pa have kept her sibling and not her? Why was she the one they had gave away?
She had watched the whole town having fun at the picnic, especially that certain someone that was laughing and enjoying the day. It should have been her having fun. Every time she saw that person her hatred grew more and more. She intended on ruining that person’s life if it was the last thing she ever did.
She would select certain people from Dreamville and follow them. The more facts she gathered the better. Today she had followed the little blond pony-tailed girl today. The more she saw and learned, the better. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do, but she had learned from her brother that first it was better to collect facts, and then figure out what you wanted to do.
The wind was furious today, and she had almost lost her hat three times already. She was getting cramps in her legs from sitting quietly watching the little girl. She was about to leave and find something else to do when she saw the little girl toss the paper aside that she had been writing on.
Melissa jotted something down on paper and then scrunched up her face, squished the paper and tossed it aside. The wind blew it away, but Melissa didn’t notice.
It must have been the young lady’s lucky day because the wind blew it close to the woods where she was hiding. Keeping a cautious eye on the little girl, she quietly retrieved the paper before the wind got a hold of it again. By studying the paper a plan began to formulate. And she walked her horse far away, mounted, and rode back to her hotel room in the little town of Broken Bow.