Prologue 2

"I see."

That was my only response to everything Stella told me, it was the only response I could give.

Demand that she get me my meal? Yeah, right, like that was ever going to work. It would only make me look desperate and stupid in front of everyone and that was exactly what those three wanted.

I wasn't interested in entertaining them so I turned and headed for the stairs.

I caught sight of Cecilia's lips moving as I glanced past her but I was never good with lip reading so I failed to make out what she was saying.

Anyway, I returned to my room and after closing the door, I stood there and stared at my bed, my face riddled with dejection.

I was never good at handling hunger so it was obvious that it was going to be a day of torture for me.

I knew that because I had tried to join my mother in fasting some time in the past and although I was able to make it to eleven, I felt like I was going to die. My mother on the other hand could go a full day without eating anything, even till now I can't tell how she's able to pull that off, was she even human?

With my gaze still on my bed, I contemplated what to do about my stomach which was starting to get wilder now, the growls coming from them serving as evidence.

It was at that moment that an idea popped into my mind, it wasn't something that would solve my current hunger problem but at least it would take away the unbearable pain of going through this for hours.

I was going to take a nap.

I had read somewhere that the best way to deal with hunger when there was no chance of getting anything was to sleep.

That sounded stupid to me because I was sure if I tried that, I would just wake up feeling more hungry than I did before I fell asleep, that's what I thought back then, but at that very moment, I did not have a choice.

"I just hope I don't wake up before evening," I muttered as I made my way to my bed, forgetting that I had a test that afternoon.

Accepting my fate, I slowly lay down on my bed and closed my eyes. That wasn't hard to do since my eyelids had already been weakened by hunger, making them feel heavier than usual.

That was how my eyelids felt so I believed it would be a breeze to fall asleep, however, I was left bewildered when I lay crouched up on my bed for over five minutes without being able to fall asleep.

The cause being that my heavy eyelids had a formidable rival born of the same mother, the hunger pangs coming from my stomach.

It was hard to fall asleep with that much pain and on top of that, I had a lot of heavy thoughts running through my mind, things I wouldn't think of doing under normal circumstances.

Well, my current situation was anything but normal.

Anyway, I tried to get myself to fall asleep even though I had the demon in the form of my hunger pangs standing in my way.

At the end of the day, it was just like pouring water on a rock, all my effort just brushed across the surface and disappeared like I had done nothing to begin with.

Thirty minutes had gone by since I entered my room and at that moment I was lying on my back, my eyelids as heavy as lead as I stared at the ceiling, its image constantly getting cut off and reappearing milliseconds later.

"I wonder what we'll have tonight, definitely a feast with lots of pork to make up for what happened this morning," I muttered with a forced chuckle.

My delusions were starting to take over and I was letting them because that seemed to relieve my pain a bit or maybe it was just in my head.

Either way, I was going to keep what I was doing or so I thought until I heard her voice.

"Hey, Ezra, I'm coming in."

That voice was like a wisp of light that I had unknowingly been trying to catch in a dark valley for so long but somehow it managed to fall into my hands, its feeling of warmth reassuring and its light bright enough to keep me moving through the valley with no fear.

"Cecilia," I muttered with a smile as I slowly sat up on my bed.

The door was slowly pushed open afterward and in walked the only ray of light I had in the world.

I called the other maids orangutans and that was exactly what they were when compared to Cecilia at least.

She was a striking beauty with lovely, long brown hair and vibrant green eyes that sparkled with warmth and intelligence. She had this gentle smile that hinted at a kind and caring nature, something that reminded me greatly of my mother.

Her physique was gentle yet curvaceous, moving with a graceful ease that holds a quiet confidence and her fair skin was smooth and radiant, with a soft glow that added to her natural charm. Overall, the type of beauty she exuded was effortless and understated. Unless I was the one doing the stating of course.

All that said, I wasn't really focused on her the moment she entered the room as I happened to have caught sight of something in her hands before I had the chance to do that.

She was holding a basket covered with a cloth and without even looking inside, I could tell what was inside.

I thought she was just coming to talk and comfort me but I seem to have underestimated her. My dear, Cecilia was coming in clutch to save the day.

The smile on my face suddenly grew wilder as I uttered, "You're amazing, Cecilia."

"Keep your voice down." She hushed me with her index finger on her lips as she slowly closed the door.

I took the hint and refrained from saying anything, my reward was the grand basket as expected.

"Here you go, I know you can smell it." She smiled as she handed me the basket.

I did not hesitate in taking the basket off her hand, my hunger instincts fully taking over. I pulled the cloth covering the basket off afterward to reveal the cupcakes I had been smelling, their scent more stimulating and mouth-watering.

There were two bottles of water by the side but I didn't notice them at first as I began stuffing my face with cupcakes as soon as I had full access to them, ravaging them like a hungry beast.

"Hey, take it easy," Cecilia Uttered. "You wouldn't want to eat all of that now, your father won't be back this afternoon so you should save some for then."

Hearing those words, I suddenly slowed down and began to take small bites from the cupcake I was holding.

"I guess that's true," I remarked after swallowing what I had in my mouth. "But can't you just bring me more?"

"I can't." She sighed as she shook her head. "I was only able to bring these because I bought the ingredients for these with my money, those three monitor my movements like it's some kind of competition."

Those words resounded in my ears over and over again, as what was left of the cupcake I was holding slowly fell off my hand back into the basket.

"You used your money for this?" I asked, my tone tight with restrained anger and a hint of sorrow.

I knew she would do almost anything for me but to use the little she earned from working here to feed me when I had a millionaire for a father, that was heart-wrenching

I did feel a whole lot of gratitude under that but thinking about how she would never have to do this under any normal circumstances just made me lose my appetite.

Noticing my reaction to what she just said, Cecilia let out a soft sigh before reaching for my mouth with her yellow handkerchief.

"If you feel that unhappy about it then you can pay me back sometime in the future." She said as she slowly wiped off the bit of smudged cream on the side of my mouth.

"That's not the problem." I shook my head. "But it's not like anything I say will change anything."

"If that's what you think, then there's no reason to allocate much thought to it." She responded. "You just have to believe that things will get better and I'll always be here for you just like today."

Hearing those words escape from her lips made my heart flutter. What was I saying? Her mere presence made my heart flutter.

"Hey, Cecilia," I called under the influence of the tingling feeling in my heart.

"Huh?"

"Once I turn eighteen, let's get married and get out of here."

That was the first time I was saying something like that to her so her reaction was nothing out of the ordinary, just her usual smile, an expression that suggested that she believed I was only joking.

But to be honest, I wasn't, despite her mature appearance, Cecilia wasn't that much older than me, she was still nineteen at that moment and was only going to turn twenty the next month. Just four years ago in age, which wasn't too much in my opinion.

"I've been thinking about it, trying to choose between you and Miss. Nicole but you seemed to have just edged her out. To be honest, I'd like to marry you both."

The smile on her face widened as soon as I was done saying that as she slowly placed her hand on my head, her touch still as soothing as ever.

"When you turn eighteen, huh, well we'll just have to wait till you get there, you still have two more years." Her voice sounded like a soothing lullaby as she gently rubbed my head.

"Does that mean you're saying yes?" I inquired.

"You'll have to wait till you turn eighteen to get my answer." She responded.

"Hmm, I guess that's fair."

The room suddenly fell into a state of tranquility after that with the only bit of sound coming from her gently caressing my hair.

I guess she got tired of the quietness after a while and decided to ask me a question.

"Hey, Ezra." She called.

"Huh?"

"I looked at your total score on everything from last semester and other than Chemistry, you scored below sixty on everything else, why's that?"

"Oh, that," I responded, a hint of nervousness in my voice. "I guess I'm just that good at chemistry," I added with an awkward chuckle.

_____ _____

Since I didn't know how to handle hunger, I decided to join my father for dinner that night although I hated eating with him and when I got there, he was already slurping down his fine plate of spaghetti and as expected there was nothing on my side of the table.

"Good evening, Father." I greeted before slowly taking my seat and just as always there was no response from him.

The man used to be so clean but since my mother passed away, he's been letting his beard overgrow, he stopped putting in the effort to take care of his hair and he was lacking sleep, the circles under his eyes providing sufficient evidence for that claim.

He pretended I wasn't there as he ate his meal and I also pretended that he wasn't there as I waited for whoever was in the kitchen to bring me my food.

It didn't take long before Cecilia showed up with a plate of pasta in her hand and I couldn't help but smile as soon as I saw her but for some reason, she didn't return the smile which I found to be strange because she always returns my smile even in front of my father.

She didn't say anything to me and just dropped the food in front of me before stepping back to stand by the side.

I could see a hint of sadness in her face but I also wasn't sure because she was trying hard to keep a straight face.

'Maybe father told her to stop smiling at me?'

That was what I thought at that moment as I picked up my fork but before I could dig into my meal my nose caught something.

I turned to Cecilia afterward and this time it was clear, she really did have a sad expression on her face and it wasn't just that, it looked like she wanted to tell me something but wasn't able to.

"You can leave now, Cecilia, there's no reason for you to stand there." My father said,

"Okay, sir," Cecilia responded.

I could see the clear hesitation in her steps as she walked out of the area and after walking a few distance, she turned to look at me before moving on.

I turned to the food on my plate after that, and after staring at it for a while, I got up on my feet. Something just didn't feel right to me.

"And where are you going?" My old man asked.

"I want to grab something from the kitchen, I'll be back," I replied already making my way into the kitchen.

It was just my intuition but I hoped that I would find whatever I was smelling in my food in there.

Looking for something I had no reference to was bound to result in me finding nothing especially because Cecilia was the one in the kitchen that night, she always cleans every nook and cranny of the kitchen after she's done or so I thought.

I got tired after looking for a while and I couldn't afford to stay there for too long or my father would get suspicious.

I rested my hand on the fridge and was about to give up and go back when my gaze slowly shifted to the trash bin which seemed to still have some stuff in it.

'She didn't throw it out?'

I made my way to the trash bin and as soon as I got close to it, my eyes widened because I could smell whatever was in my food in there except that the scent was stronger now.

I reached for the basket and in no time I pulled out something, a small black bottle, and taking a sniff at it, I could tell it was what I was looking for.

My face sank in shock at that moment because the bottle had the word 'Cyanide' clearly displayed on it.

'Cyanide? This stuff is known to kill people in seconds, why would Cecilia put this in my food?'

I didn't want to believe it but the evidence was staring me in the face.

'Did he force her to do it? But even if he did, Cecilia would never agree to do something like that, she wouldn't.'

I was in utter denial, as I saw a vivid image of my world that was barely clinging on to the surface, suddenly getting pushed off, its pieces being carried off by the wind one by one as it descended.

I was trying really hard to make up a good excuse for why she would do this for her sake, and while I was struggling with that, I heard the backdoor move.

It was pushed open a second later and when it did, I saw Cecilia standing there with a small plastic bag in her hand and the moment she caught sight of me, she froze, her eyes like that of someone who had just seen a ghost.