My Father's Land

(Regina POV)

I could feel the hot, scorching sun that heated my skin without mercy while I dug the ground with full concentration. I was used to this, so I was not complaining about how hard the ground was or how hot the bright sun felt, as long as my cap covered my face, I had no problem at all.

"Regina!" I heard my aunt called.

"Yes, I'm here aunt," I stood straight and waved at her. She looked my way from where she stood before rushing towards me.

"What is it, aunt?" I asked her. Her brown hair covered her face as she placed hands on her knees while she breathed heavily. She must have been running for a while for her to be short of breath.

"Re… Regina. You must come with… With me," she said in-between deep breaths.

"Why? What happened?" I asked her with my face slightly creased.

"There… there are some men in suites asking for us to leave," she explained.

"What? What do you mean? Leave how?" I asked, unable to stop myself from fuming.

"You. You must come with me, Regina," she said desperately.

I nodded and dropped the farm tools, leaving the large land, I followed her from behind. Upon reaching there, I was shocked to see men in black suites, looking like they came for business, with several black cars lined up in a roll behind them.

"What do they want?" I whispered to my aunt.

"They only told me what I told you."

I nodded, looking back at them, I took a step forward with a pounding heart and sweaty palms, I walked towards them with my chin raised. One thing I learned from my dad was that the rich would only feel richer and more powerful once the people under them lower their heads in fear.

"Yes? What do you want?" I asked one of the men. They all had black glasses on that clearly gave me a bad vibe, especially with the way they dressed in black suites with their hair gel backwards, it frightened me.

They reminded me of the movie, the men in black. However, they are expressionless faces and muscular structure made me gulp as I waited for his response.

This man in particular, I walked up to, had a lesser bulky features and he looked a bit approachable, unlike the rest that almost made me pee.

He removed his glasses and passed me a small smile. "I'm Darryl. I wanted to inform you that we will be starting demolition here tomorrow," he said straightforwardly.

I almost spat blood. Demolition? Here? On my father's land and the only place these poor farmer could feed on? How unthoughtful and heartless? Who gave them the right to come here and claim our lands like they were here when we started it from scratch.

The man must have seen the storm in my eyes to have let out a forced smile. "You see, this land is already bought," he informed immediately.

"Bought? Hell with that! This land belongs to my father and these farmers here. You have no right or whatsoever to demolish it," I was already yelling angrily. What was he saying? My father would never sell this land because he knew how much we needed it, the farms, everyone, so he couldn't, right?

My hands trembled, but I clenched my fists. "We won't! And I repeat myself, we won't!" I yelled and walked away from them. I went back to stand beside my aunt as I watched him put back his glasses, then they got into their cars and left.

Furthermore, I sighed in relief once they were out of view.

"What do they want?" My aunt was quick to ask, but my gaze was at the house behind her, I wanted to talk and confirm what I just heard. I without wasting any more time, I rushed inside the house and went to a room.

A man laid down on a bed unconscious like he was dead, but I knew he was only sleeping. "Dad!" I called and went to his bed to shake him.

My aunt was quick to follow me, she held my arms and tried to pull me away from him.

"Regina, what are you doing?" She asked while she continued to pull me away, yet I was adamant.

"Regina?" I heard my uncle's voice and I stopped then turned to look at him.

"Uncle," I rushed to meet him as I started crying. He hugged me back, patting my back gently.

"What happened?" He asked her to me after I was done, and we sat on the wooden chair.

"Some men came over today to inform us that there'll be demolition tomorrow," I conveyed.

My uncle frowned before his face looked red as he moved his gaze to the room I just went to. "When did this happen?" He asked his wife.

My aunt replied to him that it happened after he left for fishing. My life was hard and simple in some way. My father's only surviving brother was now a father to me. My father had struck, and he couldn't play his role anymore, but I never viewed him as a handicap.

My uncle fished every day, while his wife and I farmed on one of my father's lands. We were managing, but we never for once, complained about life because we've learned to always appreciate every little thing and whatever we had.

"Regina, I know you must be looking for answers, but you and I both know that your father can't give you those answers. He is not fit enough, Regina, so please," he implored and I nodded.

We had dinner that night, although we only took a few spoons of it. We were only thinking about tomorrow.

I was in my room, unable to sleep when I heard a light knock on my door. I invited the person in and my aunt stepped in shortly.

"Aunt? Is something wrong?" I asked her, feeling worried.

"I don't know, Regina, I just feel so worried about tomorrow that I can't sleep." She moved closer to me and I furrowed my brows. "Regina, is there a way you can just negotiate with them instead of us taking whatever is coming tomorrow?" She asked me with expectations gleaming in her chocolate brown eyes.