9 A Forbidden Step In His Room

Lilian ambled across the hallway as she entered the laundry room in the backside of the garden with an undersized laundry basket holding dozens of baby's clothing. Three maids were working there as usual, and noticing the madam of the house, they bowed quickly and stood attentively. The superior of three of them, Clara, a young girl in her mid-twenties with her long blonde hair braided beautifully and a relatively healthy build, approached the sovereignty to take the essentials they were assigned.

"Madam, you don't have to come here every day," Clara said as she passed the basket to one of her subordinates, signing them to continue the work. "Just inform someone, and we will pick up the laundry." She added.

Lilian smiled warmly, shaking her head at the responsible girl. This lass was youthful yet mature, and Lilian appreciated her hard work and determination.

"That's fine. I also need to burn some calories for the day, so please, don't burden yourself with that."

The maid smiled, pleased at the small kindness the house lady shared. She wasn't bossy like the previous home she served at, and she wasn't rude and cold like the other rich people she encountered either. Had she known this house had such an excellent master, she would have applied for this place sooner.

Feeling approachable, Clara decided to ask for a bit of help. She had been struggling without any solution.

"Madam, can you please help us with the master's laundry? We are not allowed in his room, and we also didn't get his laundry yesterday. Can we please get his laundry if it's okay with you?" She asked.

Seeing the maid raise this question, Lilian marked this girl as a new employee or someone returning to work after a long break. It wasn't hidden from anyone that the couple didn't share a bedroom, and just like any other person in this mansion, she wasn't welcomed in his room either. Lilian looked at Clara, who was waiting for her answer. She knew it was a forbidden room for her, but she wanted to use this excuse to feel his surroundings again. She was being foolish for one more time to take this as an advantage, and she knew that. The lady was falling into a deadly addiction to one-sided love.

Lilian looked at the timepiece on the wall. It showed the sunny 2 p.m. afternoon, and it was an almost null possibility of Richard coming home now. Since she had been here, he was at home in the afternoon just one time. A couple of days ago, when Aiden was vaccinated. So it wouldn't harm to go into his room for once and bring one basket. Nothing more. She won't do anything else, she stupidly convinced herself.

"Sure, give me a couple of minutes." Said Lilian and walked out of the arena.

The girl wanted to hurry up the process because Aiden had been asleep for almost an hour. The baby would wake up soon, and she didn't want him to be wailing in search of her to add more work to her schedule. As Lilian stood in front of the anticipated door, the memories of their wedding night when he slammed the door on her face gave chills down her spine.

'You still have a chance to run from here, Lily.' her internal voice said in front of the lion's den, but her heart wanted to get familiar with his surroundings again. The bed where he slept, the air he breathed, and the walls surrounding him and his belongings. She wanted to see his space. Just once, she reasoned with her brain, who tried to warn her.

Lilian twisted the doorknob, permitting herself inside, and the smell hit her olfaction senses. His cologne was strong enough to play with all the air molecules, and the various shades of black colour filling her eyes gave her eternal ecstasy she wanted to melt in.

'Laundry lily. Do that.' she reminded herself, shaking her head to avoid being caught in a vicious magical spell. Not finding some bag with clothes in the area she inspected, the lady walked towards the wardrobe. Presumably, it was a walk-in wardroom with a washroom behind it as she glanced through the transparent doors. She opened the glass doors, entering, and her eyes skimmed his expensive clothing. Ebony, raven, charcoal, jade and almost every other shade of black was enlightening, with some grey and dark blue being insignificant. She wondered how a person could be so obsessed with some colour.

"Oh, here it is." She spotted a small basket just a few steps away and picked it up. She was ready to flee the dangerous place, but her eyes stopped at the glance of the mirror. Her eyes grasped a reflection of a giant photo frame in the mirror before her.

She turned around, and the colossal portrait beside the glass door panged her heart, squeezing all the blood out. The wall occupying a giant-sized photo had Nia in a black baby doll dress, sitting on Richard's lap, wearing a black shirt and pants. The man was sitting on a blue-tinted greyish sofa, his hand on the bare thigh of the lady and the other on her waist. His eyes were intimately looking at the girl with love and lust who had her eyes closed while she kissed his lips, her hands tightened against his open collar. The intimacy displayed intensively ached Lilian's heart. She wanted to destroy this expensive piece of his belongings for a specific reason: not wanting to see such an intimate bond between a couple. Especially Nia and Richard.

Her hands gripped the basket tightly, her knuckles turning white, and she tried to hold herself back from clenching her teeth.

"Please don't feel this way." She reminded her heart, feeling angry and guilty at the same time. Though Nia wasn't alive, she didn't want to unfold the truth she had kept hidden. She didn't want to be a girl to snoop over someone's man to cross the forbidden boundaries, and she didn't want to be a part of the one-sided love's painful tragedy. Whatever she was feeling was dangerous, and it was frightening her.

"What are you doing here?" Lilian flinched hard, dropping the basket in her hand, and looked at the source. Her eyes met the man standing at the glass door, looking at her with rigid, unpleasant expressions.