The servant's daughter and the aristocrats' son engage in a prohibited bond.
Melanie moves in with her mother to work in the Kingstons' household, who have just had their son, Kai, come back from a mysterious absence.
After Kai walks in on her at...
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I lived my whole life as an only child, but it wasn’t a privilege in my case. To think I had a potential sibling was crazy.
And a criminal boyfriend.
A month after my mother’s death, I was back in class. Finals were approaching, but I was unmotivated. I felt as if I had no reason to study anymore. I had a loaded boyfriend like Mum wanted, right? I needed no degree or job.
I considered it a coping mechanism rather than moping around Kai’s place and overthinking possibilities. Kai refused to listen to his mother and stay around her after the way she had degraded me. I hadn’t confronted him about his past yet, however. Mum’s mail didn’t settle right in my head, so I couldn’t face him about it.
Considering the overall vibe of the mail and the way she ended her life, she simply could’ve been bluffing or holding incorrect information. Moreover, I had a more significant personal issue: decrypting the similarity between my eyes and Ryan’s.
Although he was closer to blond, I discovered we had the same hair type, skin tone, and eyes. I was darker than my pale British mother, a rarely found skin tone among the original Europeans around me. Ryan’s, who claimed to be Latino, was almost identical to mine. There was a possibility I was merely seeing things as well.
I dropped my pen and palmed my face. I couldn’t wait for that lecture to be over. Why? I didn’t have anything to do anyway. I was jobless since I didn’t work for two weeks without further notice, so they fired me. I was turning into a leech, like my mother wanted me to be, living on what Kai offered me. Not that I ate much or asked for anything anyway—I only needed a place to sleep and shelter myself from the rain.
I sighed, probably loud, because the professor asked me whether I was good.
“Actually, I’m not,” I responded, eyes gazing at my lap.
He was unfazed, neither were my classmates. It went like an unspoken rule on campus to let Melanie González be.
“You may take a break if you wish,” he offered, his eyes dripping with pity.
I nodded and left the classroom straight to the toilet. I stormed inside, knowing well who was there touching up her makeup at that time of the day. The girl winced. She quickly collected her belongings and dumped them in her bag. I felt like a monster she needed to avoid at all costs.
She had apologised a tonne through the last month. It took me some time to go back to normal with her. Besides, even if I hadn’t fully forgiven her yet, I needed her in my plan.
If she wanted to prove she was sorry, she ought to help me.
“I need your help, Massie.”
\
“Ryan, hey,” I greeted once he came from behind the butler, throwing myself on him in a hug in front of the Martinez mansion.
Ryan was wearing an apron and had a few flour specks on it. He felt stiff in my arms, but he quickly regained his cool and hugged me back. I might or might not have lingered a little more in his arms to test how it’d feel like to hug… a possible brother. He felt warm and welcoming. He hugged Massie briefly after and let us in.
