The Message

''Is that so? '' Tiana asked, her eyes widening in surprise; if the rumors are true, then it was good news for her.

''Yes, our boss hasn't been seen with any woman, so everybody presumed that he was gay, I think the rumors were getting too much so he wanted to silence it. I think his grandfather had got him a woman, but he didn't want her, so he got a mistress so he could keep his grandfather off his matters for the time being.

Tiana thought to herself; the explanation really made sense; he could have chosen a million things to do with them but he wanted a mistress; a mistress whom he would never touch. Now she thought about it, he never looked at her body the previous night! The more Tiana thought about it, the happier she became; if he was gay he would never ever touch her, right?

And when everything had calmed down, he would let her go?

That was the happiest she had been since she started living in the mansion.

''… and the boss is scary at night, how did you both sleep together?''

Bella's question kicked her out of her thoughts;

''What did you say? ''

She asked; her brows creasing;

Veronica sat there, watching them, seeing she could not stop her talkative friend from gossiping.

''You don't know? the boss has a disease, he doesn't sleep without his sleeping pills, and even at that he cannot sleep peacefully; his night is always troubled by nightmares, that's why no-one stays in the second floor because sometimes, he sleeps walks and it was heard that he brutally injured a male worker who had gone up to the second floor at night.

It was then we realized why no-one stays on the second floor. ''

Tiana was shocked, there were really many things she didn't know about him; now she thought about it, she remembered seeing him swallow some pills the night before; so they were sleeping pills?

''Why is he so wicked? Was he always like that?'' She asked again; although she didn't want to seem like she was asking too much, she wanted to know what kind of demon she was dealing with.

''Well I don't know, but I heard that something happened to him that changed him, but no-one knows. ''

Bella explained; Tiana wondered what must have happened to him to make him so heartless;

She wanted to ask another question, but Bella and Veronica stood up;

''Sorry, we have to go; we need to wash the vegetable for dinner. We'll chat some other time! ''

Bella said with a smile as she walked away with Veronica.

Tiana waved them goodbye, and she watched their backs disappear into the mansion.

Her mind still on what Bella had said; maybe he was gay, he did not even glance at her body for the second time that night and he had sent her away with repulsion written all over him. Now she thought about it, he must have done so to disperse the rumors. But that didn't change the fact that he had told her to stripe just to humiliate her! Thinking about it, her throat tightened with disgust. He really was a maniac!

Tiana was still sitting on the bench when a guard approached her;

As he drew nearer, she recognized him; he was one of the men who had locked her up in the darkroom, and her brows creased into a frown;

''The boss says I should deliver this,'' he said, handing over her phone;

Tiana took the phone from him, without a single word to him; the man stood for a moment before he turned around and left; she took the phone and inspected it; it was as they had taken it from her but it was switched off;

She turned it on and checked through her inbox for any messages; there were a few messages from Gwen and there was a message from a certain someone; someone that hadn't contacted her for so long;

Her heart skipped a beat as she stared at the message, reading it over and over again.

'Darling, I'm coming back tomorrow and I'll be coming to see you once I get into the city, I'll explain everything to you. Love you.'

She felt a hammering headache as her eyes became blurry; 'How could he come back now?! She had been waiting for him for so long and he was coming back after she had accepted to be a mistress?! Why!

Tiana's hands flew to her mouth as she bit the insides of her palm, trying to hold in the tears;

She checked the date of the message; he had sent the message that morning, which meant that he'll be coming back the next day.

Her heart stammered as she thought of a million things about to go wrong.

Adrian was her childhood love; he left the country for his studies and had promised to come back for her and she promised to wait for him; they had been in contact for a while then for over five months, he was no longer reachable, her calls could no longer go through and she wasn't receiving any calls from him, and suddenly, he was coming back the next day?

What was she going to tell him? That she was someone's mistress now? How was he going to take it?

Tiana couldn't even think straight; she loved him so much and she didn't want to lose him but if she refuses to be Nicklaus's mistress, he would take her sister and she wasn't sure he would let her live either.

There was no way out; the only solution to her mess was to explain everything to him; if he would wait for her; she would come back to him after the five months is over when Nicklaus has no use for her anymore; since he was gay, there was no way he would want to keep her for too long.