Chapter 3

Aisha Henderson POV:

My breath hitched. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to disappear. The words were already out there. My mother's disgust, Christopher's fury. What did I hear? Everything. But I couldn't say it. Fear, cold and paralyzing, choked off my voice.

Christopher didn't wait. He moved, a blur of anger. His hand clamped around my arm, pulling me roughly to my feet. Pain shot through my injured head, and I swayed. He dragged me, stumbling, through the hallway, past the gaping faces of the staff, past the horrified expression on the doctor's face. My mother's voice, now a shrill, complaining whine, faded behind us.

He didn't take me back to the staff quarters. Instead, he forced open a heavy oak door, revealing a room utterly devoid of natural light. It was a study, dark and imposing, filled with towering bookshelves and heavy leather furniture. The air was thick with the scent of old books and Christopher's raw anger. He shoved me into one of the ornate chairs, the dark leather swallowing me whole.

He stalked across the room, his movements precise and menacing. He pressed a button on a sleek remote, and a large monitor embedded in the wall flickered to life. The screen glowed, illuminating his harsh features.

Then, images appeared. Not of a paralyzed captive, but of my mother. Deborrah. Laughing. Radiant. Her arm linked with Fredy Burke, his charming smile wide. Kaylee skipped ahead, holding Deborrah' s other hand, looking like the perfect, happy family. One video showed them on a yacht, Deborrah' s hair blowing in the wind, Fredy feeding her grapes. Another, in a high-end boutique, Fredy paying for an armful of designer clothes for both Deborrah and Kaylee.

Christopher's voice was low, devoid of emotion, yet it chilled me to the bone. "Look carefully, Aisha. This is your mother's life now. A life of happiness. A life of luxury. A life you know nothing about."

He paused, letting the images sink in. Deborrah looked younger, freer than I had ever seen her. The woman in those videos bore no resemblance to the fragile invalid I had cared for.

"For five years," Christopher continued, his voice hardening, "you were her burden. Her confinement. Now, she has a chance at joy. A chance at a fresh start. And you, Aisha, are a relic of a past she doesn't remember. A past I want her to forget."

He walked closer to me, his shadow looming over me. "Do you understand? You will remain here, in this house, but you will not interfere. You will not approach Deborrah. You will not speak to her. You will not remind her of anything that might upset her. Her memory is fragile. Her happiness is paramount."

His eyes were like chips of ice. "If you so much as breathe a word that causes her distress, if you upset Kaylee, if you even look at Deborrah the wrong way... I will make sure you disappear. Not just from this house, but from this city. From her life. Permanently. Do you understand the consequences?"

My throat was dry, my tongue thick. My head throbbed. All I could do was nod, a small, jerky movement. The words were a bitter poison, but the threat in his eyes was real. He could do it. He had the power.

Inside, a part of me screamed. This wasn't my mother. This wasn't fair. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. But the logical part, the part that had survived five years of silence and despair, knew I was powerless. I was nothing.

From that day forward, my life was confined to the staff quarters. I became a shadow within the opulent mansion. My days were spent performing menial tasks, cleaning rooms, polishing silver. I ate what the staff ate – mostly basic, unseasoned food – but even that was often picked over, the best portions reserved for the favored household members. Sometimes, I found myself eating what looked suspiciously like scraps.

I never saw Deborrah or Christopher. They lived in a different world, a different dimension of the house. The only faces I encountered were those of the other staff, most of whom regarded me with a mixture of suspicion, pity, and thinly veiled contempt. I was the girl from nowhere, the unwanted guest.

Sometimes, though, I saw Kaylee. She seemed to seek me out, her cruel eyes finding me even in the most obscure corners of the estate.

One sunny afternoon, I dared to sit on a rarely used bench in a secluded corner of the sprawling gardens, soaking in the fleeting warmth. A small, ragged book of poetry was open on my lap. It was the closest thing to escape I had.

"Look at you," a saccharine voice floated over the roses. Kaylee. She stood a few feet away, her arms crossed, a smirk on her face. "Playing at being a lady. Don't you know your place, little maid?"

I closed my book, my heart sinking. "I'm not playing," I said softly, my voice barely a whisper.

She laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Oh, I know what you are. You're a thief. You're always lurking, trying to steal something, aren't you? My mother's attention, my position, anything you can get your grubby hands on."

"I'm not stealing anything," I insisted, my voice gaining a little more strength.

Her face twisted. "Liar! I saw you eyeing my new bracelet. You think I don't know what you're up to?" She picked up a heavy, ornate garden gnome from a nearby pedestal. It was made of solid concrete.

My eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

"Teaching you a lesson," she snarled, and with a surprisingly strong swing, she brought the gnome down. Not at my head, but at my knee. A searing pain ripped through my leg. I cried out, collapsing onto the ground. The gnome bounced off, leaving a deep gash and a growing crimson stain on my uniform.

She stood over me, her eyes burning with a chilling, malicious glee. "You don't belong here. You never will. Go back to whatever trailer park you crawled out of. You're trash, and you'll always be trash." She spat the words at me.

Then, she turned to Zeus, who had appeared silently beside her. "Get her, boy!" she commanded, pointing at me. "Show her what happens to little thieves!"

The Rottweiler, without hesitation, lunged. Its powerful jaws clamped onto my arm, not biting down hard enough to break bone, but dragging me, tearing at the fabric of my sleeve. I screamed, not from the pain, but from the raw terror. My knee throbbed, my head ached, my arm was being ripped.

Through the haze of pain, I looked towards the mansion. My mother' s bedroom window. It was open. Could she hear? Could she see? My eyes met hers for a fleeting second. She was standing there, a distant figure. My mother.

Help me, my silent plea echoed in my mind. Please, Mom. Help me.

Her eyes, those beautiful, familiar blue eyes, held my gaze for a split second. Then, she slowly, deliberately, reached out and pulled the heavy velvet curtains shut.

The last flicker of hope died. My mother had seen me. And she had chosen to turn away. My world, already shattered, crumbled into dust.

Zeus continued to drag me, his teeth scraping against my flesh. I stopped struggling. A strange calm washed over me. It didn' t matter anymore. Nothing mattered. My mother, my own blood, had abandoned me.

Suddenly, the screech of tires on gravel startled the dog. A sleek black car, different from Christopher' s, sped up the driveway. It wasn' t coming to the front door; it was heading directly towards the garden path.

An older man, with kind, shrewd eyes, burst out of the back seat. He wore an expensive suit, but his face was etched with urgency. Augustus Winters. Christopher' s father. The family patriarch.

"Zeus! Stop!" Augustus roared, his voice carrying surprising authority. The dog, as if recognizing the voice of ultimate power, immediately released my arm and retreated, whining.

Augustus rushed to me, his eyes filled with genuine concern. He knelt beside me, gently examining my bleeding arm and knee. "Good heavens, child, what has happened here? Are you alright?"

I could only stare at him, tears finally streaming down my face. My body was numb, but my heart was a gaping wound.

I was rushed to the emergency room in Augustus' s car, leaving Kaylee, who looked utterly bewildered, standing by the rose bushes. The hospital was a blur of white coats and hushed voices. Bandages, antiseptic, a searing pain as they stitched my knee. My head was still throbbing, but the emotional pain was far worse, a dull, constant ache. I felt nothing, yet everything.

Suddenly, the doors to my trauma room burst open. Christopher, Doria, and Deborrah rushed in, their faces tight with worry. My heart, against all odds, fluttered. They came for me!

"Oh, Kaylee, my poor darling!" Deborrah cried, rushing past my bed.

My gaze snapped to the other side of the room. Kaylee lay in another bed, a small bandage on her forehead, tears streaming down her face. She looked up at her 'mother,' her face a picture of innocent distress.

Christopher immediately went to Kaylee' s side, stroking her hair. Doria stood over her, her face a mask of concern.

"What happened to our precious Kaylee?" Deborrah sobbed, cradling Kaylee' s hand.

A nurse, a kind-faced woman who had been tending to my bandages, stepped forward. "Miss Deborrah, your daughter, Kaylee, sustained a minor bump on the head during an incident in the garden."

My daughter, Kaylee.

The words echoed in the sterile room, hammering against my bruised heart. They weren't here for me. They had come for Kaylee. My mother, the woman I had just literally bled for, hadn't even looked my way. My hope, the tiniest, most desperate flicker, was extinguished.