IN THE CAR TRUNK

Kiara walked up and down the room, crying and feeling used, abused, ill-treated and all sorts of negative emotions. She pressed the button and Tessa came in running. Before the maid could say her morning greetings, Kiara spoke up,

"I need a phone. I need a phone, Tessa, and you are going to buy me a phone."

Tessa stood in her spot. It was rather too early, thus she was still wearing her night dress. She pulled on the hem of the nightdress, unable to understand what was going on.

"With all due respect ma'am, you and I both know that I cannot do that." Tessa finally spoke.

"You can and you will! I want a phone." Kiara spoke like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

"If you continue pushing me ma'am, as much as I would hate to, I will resign, I will have to leave this job. I can never be the person who goes out to buy you a phone. No ma'am, I am sorry."

Kiara could tell that the girl was serious. She paced the room in anger, and she did not care about the tears which were flowing. Tessa watched her in silence, and she dared not ask what the problem was.

As a new idea struck her mind, Kiara turned abruptly to look at Tessa, and she pointed a shaky finger at her, with

"You cannot say no to this! Tonight, your little brother is going to be seriously sick, and you shall take the evening off. And what we did last time shall be repeated today."

Tessa did not like the sound of it all. She wondered what she could do or say to stop Kiara from forcing her into doing things which she did not want.

"Soon after dinner, you are to pretend to receive a call, and after that call, you will say your young brother is now seriously sick and you want to go. Make sure you give me my uniform before that time arrives."

"Please, ma'am, don't make me do this," she pleaded with her head tilted to the side. Why was Kiara behaving like that? Oh, how Tessa wished Kiara could just drop the whole sneaking thing.

"I have no other option," Kiara stated firmly. "The Pinkertons took away all my freedom. I cannot even go to visit my own mother without a motorcade and bodyguards surrounding me. I need some space and privacy too! I am human just like them!"

"Have you tried talking to lady Pinkerton about it?" Tessa asked.

"Talking to her? Are you hearing yourself right now? We both know that she won't give in to anything I say. Tessa, we have discussed this long enough. The discussion is over."

She tried her best to convince Kiara otherwise, but Kiara would not hear anything of it.

The day was very stressful for Tessa. Each time she was with Kiara, she was hoping and praying that the boss lady was going to change her mind, yet that never happened. Instead, as the day progressed, Kiara seemed more determined to execute the plan.

When everyone was at the dinner table, and they were just chatting, for they had already finished eating, Tessa, who was in the next room, answered a call. She spoke in a loud voice,

"What? Again? Oh no, are you well then, mum?...You want me to come over? I might not be able to, mum. I am working and I have been taking a lot of time off lately….oh mum…" she started to cry.

The lady of the house summoned her in and asked what the problem was. Tessa narrated it all, giving gravity to the illness of her brother.

"Which hospital is he at?" lady Pinkerton asked with care.

"I...umm, currently he is at home."

"Why aren't your parents taking him to a hospital?"

"The last time he went he got treated and we all thought he was back to his normal health. But today they…my parents didn't think that the sickness was going to come back and be this bad. He umm…he should go to the hospital now."

"So what are you planning to do? Do you want to go there? Kiara? Will it be OK if Tessa goes off tonight?"

Kiara shifted a bit in her seat and said, "umm, today I really had plans of sleeping until 2AM. I was hoping that Tessa was going to be with Vincent, but seeing that there is an urgent issue with her brother, I think she can go."

"Thank you ma'am," Tessa sobbed.

"As for the child, I will take him. I can bring him back to you at 2AM as per your wish. Just make sure you give me everything he needs," the old lady beamed.

"Thank you so much grandma. Sometimes I really feel the need to have some undisturbed sleep. And I thank you so much for always helping with the child."

"He's my grandchild, and I love him," the lady smiled brightly.

"Gareth, give a meaningful amount of money to Tessa. It's for helping with the medical bills," lady Pinkerton gave an instruction.

"Thank you very much ma'am," Tessa bowed and expressed her heartfelt gratitude; then she excused herself.

Kiara excused herself, stating that she already felt dizzy due to spending too many sleepless nights, and she stated that she was going to sleep already.

When Kiara opened her bedroom door, she saw Tessa looking as terrified as ever, standing in the middle of the room.

"We have a problem, ma'am. We have a big problem," she cried out.

"What?" came Kiara's response.

"Ma'am, I had to sneak into the control room and I managed to get hold of the chauffer's timetable. You won't believe it, but Driver 0024; the very same man who drove us out on that day, is the same man driving tonight." Tessa sweated profusely as she narrated the matter.

"You're joking right?" Kiara hoped it was just an excuse by Tessa not to carry out the task at hand.

"I wish, ma'am. My greatest fear now is, Driver 0024 is surely going to smell a rat, for how can the events of a day repeat themselves in the exact same way like that?" Tessa kneaded her fingers in vast trepidation.

Kiara thought about it for a while then she said, "We will have to make a way."

She picked the baby bag which Tessa had packed earlier on, and she went to leave it in lady Pinkerton's room. When she came back, Tessa was ready to leave, and Kiara quickly changed into her uniform.

"This is the plan. Both of us will go to the basement, and I will be in hiding. The most important thing is, you are going to make sure that the driver unlocks the car and soon after he does that, you will have to destruct him. And I will hop in."

"Ma'am please don't make me do this, please I beg you…" Tessa cried.

"It's easy, just find a way of destructing him." Kiara completely ignored Tessa's tears.

"Oh," Tessa wiped her eyes and wished she was never promoted to become the new madam's right hand person. She genuinely wished she was still a simple maid doing her job without any complications.

The mission started; and off went Tessa. She did not need to dodge any camera, for her being caught on CCTV was not an issue. She went all the way down, and Kiara was following, doing her best to evade the cameras whose positions she had already mastered.

The driver, since he had already been informed about a maid going out, was already waiting downstairs, and he smiled at Tessa.

"Oh, miss Tessa! It's you again today. I understand your little brother is not feeling well?"

"Yes," Tessa responded and faced down, tears already running. Her conscience was fighting her; for she was being forced to do something which on her own accord, she would have never done.

"Oh, don't cry. It shall be well, please don't cry." The driver tried to comfort her.

He pressed the remote control and the car lights flickered.

Tessa became alert : Car doors now open! She dried off the tears and walked towards the car. The driver had already opened one of the doors. Tessa looked in the hiding place and saw Kiara nodding at her in encouragement.

"Oh, I…I may need to go with my bag. It's a bag of books, would you mind helping me carry them downstairs?" Tessa asked the driver.

"Of course not, let's go. Where are the books?" The driver asked. When Tessa closed the car door, the man immediately locked the car.

"Why do you need to lock the doors? I mean, we're in the basement!"

The man tittered a little before saying, "I'm used to locking the car each time I leave it. It's already in me."

"Oh, ok." Tessa said. The driver walked ahead, and Tessa followed behind. She turned to look at Kiara, and the latter signaled for her to do something.

Up the stairs they went, and Tessa immediately let out a scream, "ouch!"

"What is it, miss Tessa? Are you well?" the driver asked with a lot of concern.

"I…I must have strained my ankle. Is it ok if I ask you to go to my room and get the bag for me, please? I really can't go up all these stairs?" she pleaded with puppy eyes.

"We can use the elevator, then," the driver suggested.

"No, please just go pick it. It's already on my bed," she lied.

"Ok. What colour is it?"

"Black bag full of books," she lied again.

The driver handed the car keys over to Tessa and he went up the stairs.

Quickly, the young girl ran back and opened the car.

"Jump in ma'am," her shivering voice said.

Without wasting any more time, Kiara ran and jumped into the trunk of the car. With sweating wobbly hands, Tessa closed it. She ran and took her seat in the car.

Her phone rang, and since she was already a mess and feeling extremely guilty, the ring startled her so much that she jumped and hit her head on the roof of the car. It was the driver calling.

"Your bedroom door is locked, miss Tessa. Should I ask the butler to find me a spare key?" he asked.

"My bedroom door?" Tessa answered, feeling the pain from her head.

"Yes, I want to collect the bag of books, remember?" the driver was rather amazed that Tessa had already forgotten, but he ended up telling himself that the young lady was depressed by her brother's sickness.

"Oh, sorry about that. Please just come down, let's go. I won't need the books today."

"Are you sure?" the driver was surprised at the change of events.

"Yes I am," Kiara assured him.

Within a short while, the man was seated in the driver's seat, driving Tessa to her home.