The Princess's Affection

Chapter One

Bianca Shiola's POV

Growing up as a child hadn't been all rosy and easy for my family and me. At that time, dad was still alive and had suffered in sponsoring my education, believing that I would get a job that paid more than what my father used in sponsoring my education when he was alive.

While I was in secondary school, I was always ridiculed by my friends for the way I behaved, and sometimes I would want to change my ways. But luckily, the pressure was not much until I entered the university; then I knew what the meaning of peer pressure was.

I got tired of being good, but when I remembered that my family depended on me, I did everything possible to make them proud. I kept the candles on and read books, trying to burn the candles and become someone in life. I graduated from university with first-class honors, a moment of triumph that was bittersweet because my mother couldn't be there to celebrate with me due to her ongoing illness, which had already taken a toll on our family.

As I stepped onto the university campus, the thrill of new-found independence coursed through my veins, but soon I found myself suffocating under the weight of expectation, feeling like I was losing myself in the process of trying to meet everyone else's standards.

Dad had always tried his best to make himself available for both his sick wife and his children. When he came to the university that I had graduated from, he was a proud father, and I was celebrated by him. At that time, I had a little business that I was running until a tragic incident happened that made me lose everything.

Life became hard, and I couldn't start from the beginning as I had lost everything in a fire outbreak that destroyed all the goods that I had gotten from what customers had purchased from me, and when that happened, I had to find ways to refund their money back to each person who asked me to buy some things for them.

Then, in my national service year, I ran a side hustle that sustained my family and myself. But what broke the camels back was when my dad died after I had finished. Like two years later, when everything seemed to have started working out for my family and me.

But you can say that life can never give you something for free without taking something away from you that is precious and worth an effort. Like the death of my father, the whole responsibility of taking care of my siblings and sick mom fell on me.

When dad was still alive, it was a 50/50 shared responsibility, but as he is dead and late now, the whole responsibility is mine and no one else. I cried like I was going to join him because his death pained the hell out of me. The money that I had for business was never enough to pay for my father's burial rites.

Rejection letters piled up like autumn leaves, each one a stinging reminder of my failure. The silence from potential employers was deafening, and I couldn't shake the feeling of inadequacy that clung to me like a shroud. But I held onto my faith like a lifeline, praying that someday, somehow, things would turn around.

My friend helped me out with my rent, and I wasn't happy one bit that I was entirely dependent upon her and she wasn't of any importance. How would I be able to provide for myself and my family, who depend on me? I was consumed by a suffocating despair, my mind racing with anxiety as each passing day magnified my fear of failure.

How could I blame myself? I sometimes thought to myself that maybe life was indeed painful and sometimes had a partiality complex towards those it wanted to favor, and I was among those it never wanted to favor.

As I landed a job at a local restaurant, a small victory felt like a lifeline, but the weight of responsibility for my siblings' well-being hung heavy on my shoulders, and I knew one misstep could send everything crashing down.

Some nights, I would starve myself and cry myself to sleep, as I didn't have much money left. I would take what I had left with me and send it to my siblings, and I would trek from my home to where I worked. I would wake up so early to trek in order to get there on time, and if Ola found out how I starved myself, she would send me money and assist me with my siblings upkeep.

I couldn't thank her enough for all she had done for me in my most difficult and desperate times. I would like to thank her and the creator who made me. When she had come to pay me a surprise visit, she found out how slim I had begun and complained until I had an ear full.

I had to promise her that I would never starve myself like I had and make sure that I would eat and get myself in check, especially my mental and emotional state as it was before everything happened. But who the hell was I kidding? How could my mental and emotional states be good when all this was happening to me each single day?

I decided to let the sleeping dogs lie by crying myself to sleep in order to wake up earlier and go to work before my madam comes to work. If anyone dares to resume work late, their salaries will be deducted for lateness as a punishment. But if one keeps coming late, just know that month, there wouldn't be any salary given to the person. Falling into a dreamless world of sleep, I just prayed that tomorrow was full of happiness.