The visitors, sitting on the sofa, shifted their gaze to the girl carrying a thin silver tray with lemonade in three glasses and pancakes in a bowl. As she bent down to serve delicacies to the guests, the corners of her lips genuinely turned upwards, and her eyes bowed to exhibit her gleaming black orbs.

She sighed in relief after finishing with them, grabbed the tray, and returned to stand beside her aunt. The lady gave the girl a disgusted look and turned her face away.

Out of the two visitors sitting on the sofa, one was chatting with the lady, while the other continued to gaze at the girl, glancing in the opposite direction, as he gulped the lemonade.

He looked younger than his fellow, appearing to be one between the age of 23-24, with a round face, fair white skin, a clean shave, brown messed hair, and sky blue eyes that were exactly the colour of a jewel set in an ornamental ring. His eyes were the colour of an ocean, in which several young ladies dreamt of bathing. His body was thin and muscular. His gaze was still glued to the girl, looking in the opposite direction.

“What’s your name?” the guy inquired, looking calmly at the girl. But the girl continued to stare blankly in the opposite direction, completely engulfed in her world. The lady nudged the girl with her arm, making her come out of her imagination.

“What happened? Is there anything you want? ” asked the girl nervously, with her heart beating faster, with her face shifting rapidly to the right and left in bewilderment. “Calm down lady, I just asked your name, nothing to worry about,” the guy said, grinning at the girl, “So, are you this lady’s daughter?”

” No, I mmm.” she was about to complete her sentence when the lady interrupted, “No, she is my maid. She just joined here a few days back and doesn’t know how to greet guests. If there remained any fault on her part, I will reprimand her to make sure she doesn’t act the same way next time.” said the lady, concealing the identity of the girl.

“No, on the contrary, her manners are outstanding. The way she greeted us and made us feel like a member of this whole house made me feel some sort of connection with her, which I would like to further develop.” exaggerated the guy, looking at Sophia with love.

The lady was sitting still, faking a smile, clutching a piece of her pink robe tightly and revealing creases of tension on her forehead, as she stared at the girl. As the girl’s eyes met her aunt’s, she could see in them the utmost urgency and anger, and disclosing a warning notice to the girl to immediately leave the room or things would get worse.

Two of her cousins were staring in infatuation from the back window of the guestroom, pointing at that handsome guy. One of them kept blushing, peeking at the figure, while the other kept fixing her messed-up hair to create a good first impression. Both of them hastily entered the guest room, shoving each other as if to speak first.

“Umm, who are you?” asked the gentleman.

One of the two girls kept blushing, covering her whole face with her palm. She said, “I am Stella,” and spreading her arms to introduce her sister, she said, “and she is Diana.”

 

“Are you both maids too?” asked the gentleman.

His question pinched both the girls deeply. Both of them kept staring blankly at each other as if something had shattered their false hopes.

“How dare you call us maids? We are the daughters of this lady.” Call this name someone else, dear businessman. We are angry with you.” Stella shouted, crossing her arms and making an irritated grimace. She left the room, and her sister followed her up the stairs. The lady kept staring in shock at what the guy said.

“We’re leaving now; we’ll use this location again later,” the guy said firmly, motioning his companion to follow him. The lady stood up and was about to utter a word when two of them immediately paced towards the front door and to the lawn.

The girl was watering the roses on the lawn when she turned around to see two men arrive. She slowly raised her palm to wave them off, while the guy never stopped smiling at her, at her kindness. He kept staring at the girl from head to toe, lost in her enticing black orbs, chubby cheeks, fair skin, and gleaming brown hair.

He stood inside the car and drove off from that place. The girl still lost in her dreams, didn’t notice the three ladies staring at her angrily from the terrace. In an instant, the lady paced her steps in anger towards the girl, and grabbing her by the hair, she took her to one of their rooms.

Anxiety began trailing over the whole body of the girl as she was thrown harshly on a bed. When she raised her neck towards her aunt, she could find a pair of orbs blazing in anger at her. “so, you think you can patch up easily with businessmen like Joe? How dare you fill your mind with these filthy thoughts? Just look at your standard and look at theirs. You are only a girl born to toil under our stand. You have no value of your own.” said her aunt, uttering every word harshly and locking the girl up in the room from the outside.

Tears stood in Sophia’s eyes as she stared at the door. The warmth of tears trickling down her face was the only pleasure she could have at that moment. The coldness of her aunt, and her proud mean cousins, made her think about ending her life by throwing her entire being inside a deep dug well. She often yearned for love but never got it.

Avoiding all these thoughts, she lifted her body to sleep on the warm bed. At least the bed turned out to be warm for her in these harsh times.