At the main sitting room where the family of three were watching the evening news while waiting for dinner,
The headline news read, " The Prominent Williams Couple and their daughter Dead in Airplane crash"
A picture of the scene of the plane crash was displayed and the scene changed to where the interview was held and a pitiful looking Mrs Juliana was seen crying uncontrollably.
"Mother! Mother! Look! We are on the news!"
"Just look at how beautiful my little princess looks on camera even while crying!" Her mother exclaimed.
"No doubt, you two did very well." Her father said smiling proudly.
"Thank you father. Nechel did very well too. But daddy, what are you going to do about Iliana?"
"That isn't for you to worry about my dear princess. Just keep enjoying yourself."
"I will daddy!" Melina squealed and Nechel covered his ears.
"Good evening boss! Young mistress' and Young master's rooms are ready" Clara announced.
"Hear that? My princess's room is ready."
"Yaaay! I get to have a beautiful room and all the toys all to myself. I hate remembering when I had to beg Iliana to share them with her." Lina said with hateful look on her face.
"But she always shared her things with you willingly Melina. She even once gave some away to you."
"Hand me downs? Who wants those? Besides, she's just a proud show-off. I don't like her one bit."
'Seems like she will have a hard time here' Nechel said to himself.
"You won't have to share anything with that unfortunately disgusting girl don't worry"
A helper walked into the main sitting room. Bowing his head and going down on one knee, he announced,
"Master! Mistress! Dinner is ready."
"Why did it take all of you so long to prepare it? For making my little princess wait for this long, you will all be punished!"
"Father, please don't let them do this." Nechel begged from the side.
Ignoring him, Mark asked, "Lina dear, what do you want me to do to them?"
"Hmm" said Lina stroking her chin like she was strategizing a plan.
"Father, there should be no pay for all of them for six months and they must all eat only once in a day" Lina said smiling triumphantly.
"Ah!" Nechel exclaimed, his eyes wide open.
"Please master, we have families to feed. Please have mercy on us" the helper begged.
Kicking him aside, Mark replied, "Get out of here this minute!"
Afraid for his life, he stumbled out of the sitting room and walked towards the helpers' quarters to break the news.
"Father let's go and eat now."
Her father took the head seat while her mother sat on the seat next to him and Nechel and Melina sat opposite each other.
"It feels so nice to have all this comfort to ourselves honey." Juliana whispered to Mark.
"Yes. I wish my brother died earlier." Mark replied.
"But if he did, how would he have been able to gather all these wealth for you to use?"
"Let's all eat now." Her father announced.
"Wow father! This definitely tastes better than what mother cooks for us back home." Lina smiled.
"What do you mean?" Her mother asked embarrassed.
"The seasoning in the food isn't even enough and the rice is overcooked. The sauce is too spicy as well and the chicken wasn't roasted properly." Juliana continued.
"Umm, if you think so mother, why are you serving yourself more food?" Lina replied, a sly smile on her face.
In order to save his wife's face in front of his daughter, Mark coughed and said, "Keep quiet both of you. We aren't to talk while eating."
Flashing her mother a silly look, Lina continued with her food.
When the family of three finished their dinner, Lina requested to go see her room. The room was painted in different colors making it bright and colourful. There was a soft, pink footmat in the centre of the room . There was a lampstand on the bedside table which lightened up the whole room. The sheets were well arranged and there was a giant teddy bear sitting on the bed. A white door in the room opened to a closet filled with new clothes and shoes still in their boxes with most that were owned by Iliana which she probably had never used.
"Wow! This is amazing daddy!"
"Thank you daddy! thank you daddy! Thank you! thank you! thank you! I love you both!" She screamed.
"You are welcome my princess."
"Wow, I never knew that foolish girl's room was so beautiful. I am sure Miss Clara didn't have to do much" Lina squealed.
"It belongs to you now"
"Yes it does! It does!"
"Now go to bed okay?"
"Yes father, I will."
Shaking his head, Nechel left the room and found his way into his own new room. He couldn't deny the fact that he preferred this room better to his old one one, but he felt bad about how Iliana was being treated. When he looked into her eyes, he felt like he could feel her pain spreading through him and he felt a sudden urge to protect her but at the end, there was nothing he could do to save her. He sighed as he closed his eyes and gave in to sleep.
In Clara's room,
Looking at Iliana's sleeping figure, she smiled and covered her with the blanket. Sighing, she laid down beside her and turned off the lights. She stayed awake watching over the girl but was lured into sleep by nature.
The following morning, Iliana woke up in severe pains and she groaned as she closed her eyes while trying to endure the pain in order not to disturb Clara. Clara soon woke up and her arm accidentally graced Iliana's skin.
"Oh my God! You are burning up. Hold on, let me get a wet towel".
"Thank you Aunt Barbie."
"There's no need to call me aunt, I'm your friend okay?. I'm going to use this cold towel to cool down your temperature. We won't be able to take you take a doctor."
"Have these." Clara said stretching out some pills to her which Iliana swallowed and soon she fell asleep.
"Mnn, I hope you get better dear." Clara said as she placed the cold towel against her forehead.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Mark was leaving the mansion to go to the Williams Corporation. When he got there, the workers were shocked as they weren't expecting a new boss already.
"That's our new boss." A young lady giggled from the side.
"I hope he isn't mean. Mr Adam Williams was such a nice man."
"It is a pity we had to lose such a great CEO."
"This man doesn't deserve to be here. This conglomerate is Mr Adam and Mrs Brenda's hard work. I've been here since this corporation was established. I don't think I can take this new development." An elderly man said.
"I don't want to lose my job. Please leave me out of this discussion." A young lady in her twenties said.
"They shouldn't just cut our food allowance. That is my main problem here." A fat man spoke up.
"Moses, you are a glutton!"
"And what's it with the discussion going on here? We have a new CEO and we need to give a record of all our previous transactions and you are wasting your time here talking nonsense? Return to your duty posts." Michael, the CEO's assistant said.
Adam's assistant called a meeting that was to be head by Mark.
"Good morning everyone."
"Good morning sir."
"Okay, so I am going to be your new boss. I hope that you all corporate with me. Anyone that is not in support of this new development can leave now." Mark said scanning the workers faces.
Five people stood up immediately and left the meeting room. They were fond of Adam and seeing someone else taking his place didn't settle well with them.
"Okay, so new people will be employed to fill in the empty slots. I have seen the documents containing your past transactions and they are quite okay. " "Thank you Mr Roberts." They chorused. "So we would be changing our company name to Roberts Group of Companies. I will buy all the shares from the shareholders whom are not willing to work with me. Michael, get me their information." "Yes boss, I will." "Welcome to a new era. The meeting is adjourned till Tuesday.". "Thank you Boss." "Michael, change the plate number of the company's car to the Roberts Corporation." "Yes boss." "You are dismissed." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Finally, after waiting for so long, I've gotten what I want. I will take everything you own Adam! And you won't to able to do anything about it. Thank God that old geezer was easily fooled by m
Iliana brought out a notepad and wrote down everything she had to do within the limited time she had. She also had to get to work. She was supposed to be there by 4:00pm for the evening shift. Grabbing a broom, she started sweeping the hall room. Memories of when her mother used to address the helpers dropped into her head but she shook them off and continued sweeping. She was almost through when a helper came to dump a whole trash can where she had already swept and frustrated that she would have to start all over and with the huge size of the hall room, she shouted at the helper in frustration. "What did you just do?! Who gave you the right to do that? Do you know how long it took me to get that place cleaned?" "And so? What business do I have with that? You rich people, always acting all high and mighty, employing helpers to do your work for you. At least now you know how it feels." The girl replied. "What do you mean? Have I ever made life hard he
The cafe Iliana worked at belonged to her mother. Brenda bought the cafe because that was where she and Adam had their first date.The cafe was a popular spot in Philadelphia and a lot of prominent people visited the cafe as it was known for its top-notch service. After Brenda died, Juliana made the cafe bigger and more modernized, and she left the previous name "Love at First Sip" since everyone already knew the cafe by that name. She employed new people there and got a new manager to head the cafe. Iliana begged her aunt and uncle and even had to serve Melina for a whole month before they agreed to let her work at the cafe. She even promised to work twice as hard and do more chores as long as she was let out. She thought of running away through it but her uncle was too smart as she noticed that someone was always following her and she assumed that it must have been one of her uncle's guards to ensure she didn't run away or try to do anything that would implicate th
Once she was out of the office, Iliana ran to the nearest restroom, grabbed a bottle of soap, poured it all over her hand and started scrubbing it vigorously with her nails until her hand started bleeding. Foot steps could be heard were approaching the cubicle she was in, but due to the fact that she was extremely focused and blindly concentrated on cleaning her hands, she hear them. The door opened and a worried looking Catherine stepped in. "Iliana! Iliana!, What are you doing to your hand? Stop! You are bleeding!" "No, no I won't stop. I need to get his touch off my hand." Iliana said with her eyes focused on only her hand while scrubbing it harder. "Come on Iliana. Don't do this to yourself." Catherine tried stopping Iliana but got shoved away, her back hitting the door forcefully. "Iliana please stop. For the sake of your mother, please! Do you think she would be happy seeing you like this?" Catherine whispered. Hearing that
Iliana walked into Clara's room and she dropped her bag on the bed. She left the room and walked down the passage that led to her parents' former room. After walking down for a while, she stopped in front of one of the walls. On this wall, a huge painting hung. Moving her hands upwards, she pressed on a button on the painting's frame and the painting moved upwards revealing a brick wall behind it. She pushed one of the bricks on the wall and the wall opened to reveal a door. Typing in the passcode, the door opened to reveal a dark room. Stepping in, the door closed behind her, the brick wall took its place and the painting slid back down. Iliana discovered this hidden room when she was six years old. She had told her parents about it and they told her it was for security purpose. Therefore, it became a training spot for Iliana whenever Clara trained her. She looked around the dark room, her pupils adjusting to the darkness around her. Moving to the centre of
The next morning, Iliana and Clara were awakened by Melina's yells. "Dad, mum, we've been invited to the Harrison Heritage Hotel for a masquerade ball!" "Oh my goodness! That's fantastic. We may be able to form a marriage alliance with the Harrison family as a result of this. I heard they have a capable successor already." Juliana smiled as she walked down the staircase. "The Harrisons, on the other hand, are seldom seen in the limelight. But, in any case, chances only come around once. This is your chance to shine, my dear girl." Mark said as Juliana sat beside him. "If we ever hope to form a marriage alliance with the Harrisons, I need to impress them, particularly, the heir. The function is this evening. As a result, I have less time to plan. I need to get started right away." "Don't be worried, my dear daughter. Your mother is always willing to assist you in every way she can. Right?" "Of course" Juliana affirmed while leading Meli
I walked out of Mark's room and down the passage. On my way back, the guards around were looking at me with awe as usual. Ignoring them, I walked further down into the passage until I got to my room. Sitting on a chair, close to the window, I looked out at the dark skies. The wind blew gently across my face. Closing my eyes, I allowed memories of my past flash through my head. The feelings burning deep within me were too much to bear and I just could not hold it in any longer. A sharp pain from my eyes spread throughout my head and I knew I was about to get a migraine. A tear drop rolled down my face as I remembered my master and how he tried his best to protect me. "I can't believe I failed my mission. How did this happen? How?! How did I end up at the mercy of a man?" "He....th...that stu..pid man! He even had the guts to touch my hair. How da...re he!? How dare......" Unable to complete my statement, I dropped my face into my hands. "And he even ha
Clara entered her room and found Iliana trying to get into the gown by herself. "Iliana, do you need help?" "Yes!" "Fine, there and there....yes, it is done. Now your hair is next." "I can do that by myself Clara, focus on yourself for once." "Fine, fine." Clara said raising her both hands in defeat. She showered and changed into her gown as well. By this time, Iliana was through with her hair and was wearing the necklace that came alongside her dress. She slipped into her shoes and sat down at the dressing table. Applying a red lipstick and some mascara she stood up and turned back as Clara gasped at the sight of her. "Oh my God! Iliana!, you look like a nightmare dressed like a daydream. The dress really does look like it was made specially for you..." "Thanks Clara, you look beautiful as well." Iliana said looking at Clara's dress. Clara looked down at the dresser and applied her favorite lip gloss. Facing I