BEYOND A SERVANT

Chapter 25

Maxis blames the cake for making him stop reading the reports earlier at the dining table. Those delicious cakes make him ask Butler James to send him another slice to his room after he is done with the report.

He was reading up the reports when he needed another document to counter check with the information on the report. He stood up and walked over to his desk when he accidentally knocked his knees at the edge of the sofa so hard that he fell backward and hit the floor. He screams in pain the moment he falls.

"BEARMAN!!" he heard someone call him that name, he looked up and saw AJ was running towards him worried that he fell down. AJ went to him,

"Are you alright? Come on, I'll help you up to the sofa!" said AJ as she immediately helped him up to the sofa. Maxis was in pain when she helped him up to the sofa. AJ looked around the chamber and saw his medicine on the table, AJ quickly walked over to his desk, took the pain medicine which she always gave him when he was in pain before and a glass of water rushed to Maxis and gave it to him.

Maxis took it and second later the pain subsided. AJ still knee on the floor, pull up his trouser to see if there was any wound but there are only light bruises. AJ stood up and was about to run out to call anyone to call out the royal doctor to check on Maxis when AJ felt her hand was being pulled back, Maxis pulled her hand towards him and had made her tumble down beside him.

She sat beside so closer that she could hear him breathing. Maxis looked at her, his eyes were full of questions and uncertainty. He does not know what to believe, to believe that AJ was innocent or she really did steal her mother's things? AJ stood up and pull her hand away, as she was about to go Maxis says,

"Thank you!!" AJ looked at him in shock to hear that he was thanking her.

"For?"

"For making me walk and change me back to my almost old self!!"

"You're welcome! But...."

"But how could you..."

"I did not steal your mother's precious thing!! Why would I?"

"Because.."

"Because you think I need the money for my father's operation! Because I looked like this, because I just looked like a regular person, a servant, that's why!!"

"How would I know? The things were inside your closet!" Maxis said in anger.

"And you trust what you saw and the fact of how I looked and what I told you about my father!"

"Yes...is that wrong? Who knows even when you are rich..."

"Oh...don't go there! I am who I am whether I am wearing servant clothes or some rich designer clothes! I would never hurt you or betray your trust, I was going to reveal myself to you soon but it was too late. Moreover you trust someone else more than me, I am just a stranger to you anyway!" said AJ expressing her thoughts that she kept. AJ did not want to stand any longer, since Maxis already made up his mind.

"I'll get someone to check on you!" said AJ as she walked out of the study chamber. Maxis wanted to stop her, wanted to tell her what she did to him but when he was about to stand up he felt the pain coming from his knee which made him fall back onto the sofa with both his physical and emotional pain.

---

The canteen was quiet that night right after the dinner, Bethany took her cup of tea and sat down at the bench. Since she has a bit of time before she goes to bed she wanted to do some light reading first and the canteen somehow is much warmer than her room.

Bethany opened her classic romance novel by Gabriel García Márquez Love in the Time of Cholera, she had read it half way through for the last 3 weeks, she was so busy that she could not finish her novel. Bethany opens to the last chapter she read which she had popped a piece of white torn up paper to be her bookmark and start reading.

The page turned quickly as she read the novel, the author already sucked her into the book so fast that she did not realize that Anna was sitting in front of her until she was about to sip her hot tea.

"Anna!!" called Bethany when she put her cup down after taking a sip.

"Ma'am!!" Anna responds weakly. She could not sleep nor she could not do anything, her mind was filled with all the information that AJ had given her that afternoon.

"Are you alright Anna?" Bethany asked as she placed her close to her book and gave Anna all her attention. Before Anna wanted to say anything her tears started to roll out from her eyes, her heart could no longer stay in her heart without telling anyone, it's too big for her to keep.

"Oh...Anna what is going on my dear? Why are you crying?" said Bethany as she took her hand and held it tight. But no word could express what was in her heart.

"Anna...what's wrong?"

"I don't know what to do? How can I trust her after she lies about who she is? And the information that she gave to me, how can I trust her?"

"AJ would not make it all up! Why would she?"

"Why did she lie about who she is? Why can't she tell us who she was?"

"Anna...I don't know why she lied about who she is but you need to know she was looking for her sister so that she can bring her sister to meet her dying father."

"Ma'am I don't know what to do? Even though she said that we are related, I still don't trust her!"

"Just because she lies about who she is? She has given you proof that you are both related but you did not want to believe it? AJ is the nicest person I have met, she did lie but it was for a good reason. If she came in and said that she is looking for her sister, everyone would volunteer to be her sister because of what and who she is." said Bethany angrily.

"You have been with her and shared a room. You know who she really is, you know what she is on the inside. You don't have to care of what she wear or who she is, just care of the truth, the truth that you and her are sibling and right now she need you so that you can follow her to see your dying father for the last time, Anna what different does it make if she tell you that she is rich or not? She is still your sister with the same parents that share the same blood line." said Bethany again as she stood up, took her book and her tea up. She wanted Anna to think of what she wanted to do with AJ.

"Whatever you decide, I'll be here but I know and I believe that AJ is the best sister anyone can ever have!" said Bethany again before she walked out of the canteen. Anna looked at the table while she remembered what AJ had told her, the truth about her family, to think that her father and AJ had gone through a lot to be where they are now. She can't judge AJ for lying when she was doing it to find her. They were looking for her so that she could have a family again. 

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