Chapter 2: First Day

Fillip's POV:

After leaving Fleur's room, I made my way back to my office, where I told Luc to wait. He stood up immediately when he saw me entering the room, "What the fuck was that about?" he asked, surprisingly annoyed.

"What the fuck was THAT about?" I asked back in disbelief. "When did I ever say you could touch her?"

"Well, you didn't, but isn't that the reason she's here? That's why Alberto gifted her to you and why you accepted her, so she could get fucked-"

No, that's not why she's here. It's not." I was starting to get irritated with him, and his bargaining was not helping.

"Since when?"

"Since I fucking said so, Luc. She's here to be a maid; she's not to be touched. Above all, don't question what I do again. Do you understand?" I yelled at him.

Alright, brother, whatever you want," he said, walking out the door.

"Tell Christian to come in; I want him," I called back after him.

Moments later, Christian came into the room, and I told him to station Leo in front of her room for when she woke up. Yeah, Leo would take good care of her. I did not forget to mention that no one touches her, at least not the way Luc was going to. God, I don't even know who she is, and I'm here annoyed with the thought of my brother touching her.

Sitting on my chair, I sat and listened to the silence. Some might say that this silence is peaceful, but I despise it. I hated when my wife stayed silent, laying on our then-simple bedroom floor compared to where I am now. She bled between my arms, and I couldn't do anything for her except call her name and plead with her to answer me, but her silence taunted me, and it still does to this day.

I couldn't bear the silence anymore, so I stood up from my chair and started heading to the gym. It's the only place I could get everything—every unwanted emotion and every unwelcome feeling—out of me. I got out of my room, and I found Leo standing in front of her room.

I was supposed to continue; I wasn't supposed to stand in my place and hesitate. I wasn't supposed to open her door and check on her, but I did anyway. I didn't stand for long. I just stood there for some reason, making sure she was okay. Looking somehow distressed in her sleep, there was a frown taking over her face. I silently closed the door and walked past Leo to the gym. If he thought I was acting weirdly, he said nothing about it.

***

Fleur's POV:

I woke up after what felt like a few hours; I hadn't had that dreamless night since...forever. Whatever Sebastian gave me was good. I still felt like I wanted to sleep and had a headache that felt like it was splitting my head, but I thought that was enough sleep for now.

Looking around, I searched for a clock, and I found one beside me on my nightstand. It read 3:55, I slept for almost 6 hours. Quickly, I stood up and started walking towards the door. I don't know why I was so nervous—maybe because Alberto would not let me sleep that much back then.

I was walking out the door when a hand held me. Not this again. Can't these men keep their hands to themselves? I turned around and was stunned by this beautiful man looking at me. I mean, truly beautiful.

He had black hair that was combed backwards, with a small strand of it falling on his face. I didn't know if he did it intentionally or not, but it looked great anyway. His face was entirely emotionless while he stared at me with glowing hazel eyes.

"Fillip wants you to change these clothes and get ready because he has a job for you," he started talking. His deep voice was scary, I have to say.

"What job? Also, I have no clothes. Before I could continue complaining, he cut me off.

"We left you some things to wear on the chair next to the door; take a better look. Also, it's not my place to answer you about your job; if you want to know, ask him. And that would not be happening now because you are going to get in there, change, and come back out so I can escort you to your workplace."

I stared at him, dumbfounded. Seriously, all these men, and not one of them has the decency to even talk to a woman respectfully. Saying nothing, I went back inside and took a look at what they left on the chair. There was some underwear and also a dress, a tight red one, that stopped right before the knees.

I changed quickly; there was no need for a bath since I had taken one just today before I left Alberto's prison. I brushed my hair with a brush that was on the sink. It was new; thank God for that. My hair was so damaged from the cold water that I just put it in a bun and went back outside.

This mysterious man studied me, then nodded, and I started following him. Walking through the house, I just kept getting overwhelmed by the architecture.

Paintings that looked expensive filled the walls, while red carpets lay on every floor we walked on. Golden chandeliers hung from the ceiling like twinkling stars. They were amazing. Paintings gilded in gold were on every wall; they looked like they belonged to museums. We came to a stop in front of the kitchen; it wasn't less luxurious than the rest of the house. Snow-white marble filled the whole room: the kitchen counters, the floors, even the inside of a cabinet. Two enormous fridges were placed next to each other, and the stove took a big place in front of the wall.

"What's that we have here?" said an unkind voice. I was so in awe of how the kitchen looked that I got startled. I looked around, and I saw a woman standing five feet in front of us. She was old, like really old—maybe 60 or even older. She was also short and a bit overweight. Whitening hair had taken off at her temple and started taking over the rest of her scalp. Frowning, she looked like she was about to kick me out.

"What's this?" she asked again.

"This has a name, by the way," I shot back immediately, not caring for the hazel-eyed man that stood beside me.

She frowned even more, and before she could get any more poison out, the hazel-eyed man spoke, "Fillip got her to work here; she will be a maid. He said you should take care of her." I wanted to slap him for his audacity. Who were they to choose me to work as a maid?

"I ain't taking care of no one. Also, where did she come from? People like her don't work with me."

That hurts. I knew exactly what she meant, and it had hurt me despite not being real. I wasn't like the women Fillip fucked, and I also didn't choose to be here, so why did her words hurt so much? Maybe because a small part of it was true, I wasn't that unsullied, was I? Never would be, not after all those years of going around all those houses and getting ruined by all those men.

I couldn't hold back any longer. "What the fuck do you mean by people like me, old woman?" I asked, not caring to sound kind or even polite. She doesn't deserve it. She swivelled her head towards me as surprise took over her face. What the hell did she expect from me after what she said? Did she expect me to smile?

"You should watch your language, girl; I'm way older than you." I didn't wait for her to continue; she was in no place to tell me how to speak after what she said about me, not even bothering to get to know me first.

"And you. Old, well-mannered woman should know how to speak about people you just met. So don't come here and try to educate me after what you said."

This time, her face wasn't surprised; she was angry. She was fuming, and she looked at the man. As if he would stop me even if he wanted to, but I did look at him to see what his expression was. He was smiling; he was so clearly enjoying this that he didn't bother to stop us.

"Leo!" she called for him. Ah, so that's his name. Leo did nothing. He just looked at her and asked what she wanted. That angered her even more. Her face was so red it was practically a tomato, and she took a step towards me. So that's how things went around here? It's going to be the same as being in Alberto's estate. If you anger someone, you get hit. If I'm being honest, I'm in the house of the Don; how else would they operate? Also, that woman looked like she had zero tolerance. Not that it was scaring me.

She raised her hand and was about to slap me; it was so obvious she couldn't have made that any slower. Before her hand reached my face, Leo stopped her. I didn't need him; I could have stopped her just as well.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, still angry.

"Fillip won't be so happy about that. He asked you to take care of her. You don't want to do so; it's fine, but don't lay a hand on her." He spoke calmly, but it was clear that his rules, or at this point, Fillip's, were not to be broken.

Shaking her head with a string of Italian curses, she walked out of the kitchen, not looking back at us.

"You really are trouble, aren't you?" Leo asked while smirking.

I smiled at him and asked as innocently as possible, "Who? Me? What did I do?"

He chuckled and kept staring at me, which changed my sarcastic demeanour into a tenser one.

"I heard you gave Luc a hard time."

"Well, he deserved it." I couldn't come up with anything else to say to him.

He chuckled again, this time a little higher. "Yeah, I guess he did."

I looked at him, startled, and it clearly showed. "Don't look at me like that; just because I work for Fillip and I'm loyal to him doesn't mean I don't think his brother is an asshole and treats women badly." He told me, and it was my turn to stare at him in amusement. For some reason, what he said felt genuine, and it warmed me a bit inside. Maybe I can trust someone here after all.

He nodded and left me standing all alone in this huge kitchen, not knowing what to do. After all, this mean woman left and hasn't come back. It's almost 5 now. I bet they had lunch earlier, and there were no dishes that needed cleaning.

So I sat on one of the stalls around a long counter in the middle of the room and waited. I could have gotten something for myself to eat, but I didn't know what this woman would do. It's not that I was scared; I just didn't have it in me to fight with someone, especially someone like her. As if on cue, she entered the kitchen, looking me up and down. I held her gaze and made sure to give her a scowl myself. Suddenly she shoved something into my chest, and I held it quickly before it fell.

"What's that?" I was puzzled.

"Haven't you had gardening or house chores in school, girl? Oh yeah, I forgot that women like you don't go to school. That's a shovel; you take it out and you start working on the white lilies on the side of the garden pavements." She ordered me as if she were a military Colonel or something, with heavily accented Italian.

"I'm here as a maid, not a gardener; you sure could have found someone else." The words I just said weren't convincing in the slightest, not even to me. I was not here to work as a maid; at least, that is not what Alberto intended, but I also didn't want to do the gardening.

"I sure could have, but I chose you. Now you could either get out of here and start doing what I told you, or I could go tell Fillip that you aren't obeying me and that he could throw you out to the streets or whatever place he got you from in the first place." She replied coldly.

I stared at her. I couldn't believe her. Truly couldn't. Why was she being that mean to me? I just met her 15 minutes ago. I mean, yes, I did talk to her a bit disrespectfully, but why did she take it to that extent? My nose flared, and I walked past her, making sure that my shoulders bumped hers on the way out. She wanted childish, she got it. Walking out, I heard another string of Italian curses shouted behind my back, but I paid no attention.

***

God, I have never hated lilies this much in my entire life. How convenient that it was my name! I never knew why my mother and father gave me that name; it was French because mom was French, but rarely did we have any French traditions in our family. I can barely speak it, and I don't have an accent. I don't even get why they chose to live here, in America, in the territory of the Italian mafia and under their protection; only a fool would do that, and apparently, my parents were.

I was still gardening the lilies, pulling out the roots and picking up the dead ones, but that was it. I was done. Dirt was covering me head to toe, and I really don't want to see how my face looks right now. I was tired and a bit hungry, which I haven't been for days now, but I guess being in the garden for 3 hours gardening lilies with that tight red dress that has every man walking by looking at your ass does get to you.

Standing up, I tried to get as much dirt as possible off of me, but I was still nasty. God, I hate that woman. I walked back inside, not through the kitchen doors, which I had long moved away from, but through a door that led God only knows where because I didn't know where to go.

When I did find my way into a room, I regretted my entire life. I had walked right through the dining room. Where everyone was sitting and eating. Two other maids were stationed beside the table and on the outside walls of the kitchen, waiting to be asked for anything. I recognised the room I had walked through earlier, and embarrassment crept through me.

I stood there, heels in one hand, shovel in the other, my hair a mess and covered in dirt. The men at the table stared at me when I came to a sudden stop, as did the two maids. Then suddenly, their laughter erupted through the room. Every man on that goddamn table laughed at me as I stood there like a doe in the headlights. Except for one, Fillip. He didn't laugh; he looked me up and down, slowly taking my body in. His eyes lingered on my thighs as he smiled, a full-toothed smirk while he chewed his food. That's when I realised that my dress had been pulled up, and I didn't notice.

Red flooded my face as I pulled the dress down and walked through the room as quickly as possible, passing through some of the whistles and laughs of these barbaric men. Then I ran into someone. I found a woman smiling at me, and then the smile faded just as soon as she spotted my glossy eyes.

She was a bit taller than me, but much prettier. Blond hair was laying just above her shoulder, and green eyes that felt familiar were staring at me with concern. I reckoned she was a maid because she was wearing the same red dress I was.

"Are you Fleur?" She asked, sounding concerned, but right now I hate every single soul in this mansion.

"As if anyone cares," I told her, and I started walking away.

"Alright, I do. Now calm down, and where are you going?"

"I don't know. I don't care. To hell, if I have to, I just don't want to see anyone."

"It's not your choice; you have work. You have to get back to it," she said from behind me, and that just added fuel to the fire.

"What work?" I'm furious right now. "Gardening? Is that why he chose me? Out of all the women that he could have had? To pick up his dead flowers and for this ugly old woman to humiliate me like this, I didn't even ask for work. What is this for?" I threw the shovel on the ground beside her; it didn't seem to bother her.

"Alright...," she stopped for a second, then continued, fine, let me take you to your room; I know where it is." She didn't wait for an answer and started walking alone in front of me, so I followed her.

When we reached my room, she stopped and looked at me, asking, "What happened?" She tried again.

"Nothing,"

"It doesn't look like it."

I didn't say anything; instead, I stayed silent.

Look, staying here can be hard. I'm trying to be a good person. I'm trying to be your friend."

I gave her a 'really' look and started to go for the door.

"At least tell me a name or just a thank you."

I gave her the same look again. "Didn't you already know my name?"

"No?" She laughed. "I assumed it was you, but you didn't answer me. Just because there are a lot of people in this house doesn't mean I know everyone, but now I know you are Fleur, and it's only fair if you know my name." Her hands reached out for me, and she carried on, "Alessandra, close people call me Nina." She gave me a wink. That made me smile a bit as I shook her soft hands.

See, it's ok to make a friend or two here." She bumped my shoulder. "Do you still not want to tell me what happened?"

"That fat, mean woman made me garden the lilies till my knees were about to bleed and I was tired. When I got back inside, I walked right into the dining room, where men were sitting and eating. They all laughed at me and Fillip. He looked at my lifted dress, and people started whistling, and I had my heels in my hand, and it was embarrassing," I blurted out, overwhelmed by the whole situation. "Satisfied now?" That was mean. I shouldn't have said it, but I was tired. I just wanted to sleep and do nothing else.

Alessandra said nothing as she listened to me; she didn't seem offended by what I had just said. She just nodded in understanding, saying, Well, you don't have to care about them. Men are all shit, and I also heard you gave Luc trouble," she winked at me again.

God, did everyone hear about that?"

"Everyone is talking about it. He is so embarrassed about it and how Fillip yelled at him that he went out for the night; he wasn't seated at the table. There is not a woman who has ever said no to Luc, at least not the ones he brought home. That's why I wanted to meet you all day. I guess Agnes gave you a hard time."

I gave her a questioning look.

"The old fat, ugly, mean lady that made you do the gardening just to be her—that's Agnes," Nina answered.

An 'oh' came out of me while nodding in understanding; even her name is mean. We stood there in silence; it wasn't awkward, but we just stood.

"I should let you go now; you look like hell. If you want anything, just ask for me. Everyone here knows who I am."

Another questioning look from me, "You don't sleep in a room like that one?"

"No, we don't. We all stay in the maid rooms; I don't, though I have a room of my own, and now you do too. I guess Fillip saw something interesting there. Goodnight." She gave me a third wink as she walked away. God, she does like to wink, doesn't she?

No, I hope he didn't," I said to no one in particular as I entered my room.

It was warm and inviting, and I couldn't wait to get rid of this awful dress and take a shower. So I did. I undressed, got into the shower, and warmed the water as much as my raw skin could bear. I stayed in the shower for as long as my feet could still hold me, and then I got out. I pulled the bathrobe in the bathroom around me as I walked back into the room.

Does that wardrobe have any clothes? I thought as I walked towards it, opening it. It had only two more red dresses, just the same as the one I had worn today, and a single white nightgown. Not complaining, I took it and searched the drawers for underwear. At last, I did find some, and I chose a simple white lace pantie. After finally getting dressed, I got into bed and laid my head on the pillow, as sleep came to me so quickly from exhaustion.

Whenever I tried to sleep, today would replay in my head. God, I had just come here today, and all that had already happened. Fillip yelling at his brother because of what he did. What was that about? And his gentle hands...

No, I'll stop; I won't think about that, and I'll go to sleep.

Eventually, I did sleep. While trying not to give this day a second thought, I dozed off for the second time on the same day.