Rachael sighed as she watched the landscape moving quickly past her eyes as her father sped closer and closer to their new home. She hadn’t been happy when she found out her father was moving her to a new town when she was a senior. Senior transfers were the worst; she always heard about how difficult everything was because everyone else was already so close to each other. Rachael felt tears well up in her eyes as she remembered how hard it had been to leave all of her close friends back in California.

Her father’s business had been a small clothing outlet in California and he had opened up a boutique out on Rodeo Drive. Then he decided to see if he could expand out into the world and he had his eyes set on one place. Seoul, South Korea. Rachael had been in awe at the goals her father set for his store but she knew it was a bit much, even for her business-savvy father. Too bad he had actually chosen wisely in where he wanted to expand to.

Rachael’s father was suddenly never home and she suddenly missed her father. He was always at meetings and out of the state, flying back and forth from Seoul and Los Angeles for back to back meetings. Everything seemed to go well until he collapsed in one of his meetings while in LA. Rachael never thought she could get this upset since her mother had died when she was ten. She had stopped going to school when her father got out of the hospital and she stayed with him whenever she could, taking care of him and doing exactly as he wished. But then things started changing between the two of them.

Her father was starting to take advantage of just how willing Rachael was to do anything for him. He made sure she only did specific things; that she was never out super late. The restrictions got to be too much for her and she soon started rebelling against anything and everything her father wished her to do. That’s when her father’s health started getting worse again and Rachael, against her own wishes, decided that she should become the good daughter figure again. She stayed in with her father, took care of him, and lost contact with her friends until he was in tip-top shape again. Then he dropped the bombshell.

When she found out they would be moving out of the country, out of her home of 17 years, Rachael broke. She gathered some of her things and she ran from home. She knew in her heart that she would go back to her father, but she needed to show him that she wouldn’t go willingly. She stayed with her close friends and never went home. The only time she ever did was in the dead of night when she knew her father would either be out of the house or in his bedroom, sleeping and unknowing of the world at that moment.

Two months had gone on like that and Rachael knew she had to reconcile with her father. She had left with her friends to go back to her home to see a large moving truck in the long driveway leading to her house.

Rachael felt the tears well in her eyes as she thought over everything that happened earlier, the day that had occurred only a few hours earlier. She remembered the happiness of seeing her father but then pain had coursed through her system as she saw a smile spread across his features as the pain set in on hers. She remembered she had tried to run again but her father’s voice had cut through her to the core.

“Rachael,” he said as he walked towards her, “it’s time for us to leave. I’m sorry this is so sudden…” he stopped his sentence and took notice of her pain. He rested his hand on her head and ruffled her hair as if she were a young child.

“What can I say except, you should have stayed home. This might not have happened Rachael.”

He grabbed her hand lightly and pulled her to his car, away from her friends who stood there in shock as they watched her get pulled from them. She slipped into her good daughter façade and followed her father. The pain he was causing her was too much, but she couldn’t do anything now. And as the car pulled out and away from her house, her home, the tears coursed down her cold, pale cheeks and Rachael felt her heart break. Her one and only home was gone.

Rachael was pulled out of her thoughts as she felt the car slow down considerably and she focused on the new surroundings. She grimaced as she saw the many beautiful mansions pass by until they stopped at one that seemed to be more modern than the rest yet just as elegant. She was sick of all of this richness that she was surrounded by. For once she wanted to feel a bit normal, not so high and mighty. Her friends had always made fun of her for being a weird rich child, not liking the money that was always there for her. A sad smile worked its way onto her face as she thought of her friends for that short moment. The car slowed to a stop and Rachael turned to face her father as he turned to look at her, a small smile on his lips. He frowned when he saw the tear tracks on her cheeks and reached back only for Rachael to turn away as his hand got closer. She wiped away any trace of her tears away as her father pulled his hand back.

“This is for the best Rachael,” he said from the front seat. “You know as well as I do that I need to be here to make sure this store doesn’t go down.”

She nodded silently until she realized he wasn’t facing her so she would have to use her voice. “I know that father,” she quietly replied, “but did you really need to take me like that? Force me to leave so soon?” She knew he could hear the pain in her voice and she watched as his hand clenched into a tight fist.