Layla was going insane. She was growing more and more desperate by the day to get out of there. Which is why when the doctor allowed her to walk around the castle to improve her leg strength Layla could not be more excited. She was going to find a way out of there.
The nurses helped give her support as she limped with her plastered leg out of the room while the doctor followed. Unbeknownst to her, Yasmin could read her glassy eyes far too easily. Anyone could.
The little hope for escapade in them as she looked around the grand castle in a mixture of awe and alarm. Looking for a route to escape but being distracted by its magnificence. As much as Yasmin hated her for taking up her exclusive time and services, she would admit the girl had a flair of beguiling innocence to her. It made sense why Qais was enamored with her. He enjoyed breaking fragile things.
Layla's heart beat raced as she walked in the grand corridors. The carpet softer than her bed back home, even more beautiful than the one draped miraculously in that street. The walls were full of millions worth of paintings and antiques. And the Victorian windows looked out to hectares of heavenly gardens. She stared longingly at where the gardens connected with the dense forest.
It looked like a dream. But it felt like a nightmare.
The beauty, the magnificence, it was all a remembrance of him and his power. The master of the castle. She had seen his authority over the police that day, but now she saw his wealth surpassing over aristocrats and beaurocrats. There was no way she could escape him.
They descended the gilded staircase, too slowly due to her leg, her gaze fixed on the large oak doors guarded by two uniformed servants. She just had to walk out of there to be free. It was so close yet so out of her reach. But as she walked closer into the main hall her breath was knocked off her.
Her silk scarf, from the closet full that Qais had the provided her with, slipped slightly as she craned her neck to ceiling. The breath knocking off her lips.
It was the grandest chandelier she had ever seen. Like something out of an artist's dream. A diamond miner's lifetime. An immortal beauty. Like raindrops of heaven.
But there was an eeriness to it, just like the rest of the castle. The extreme beauty of it was almost haunting. As if it was a façade to hide something ugly. Something so ugly it needed to be so beautifully covered.
If the nurse hadn't helped her she would surely stumble.
She gulped the shock. How could someone live so extravagantly?
"It's a sight to behold, isn't it?" Yasmin's voice cut off her overwhelm.
Layla looked at her speechless.
"It's the prettiest castle in all of the province. Some would say even prettier than Shalimar Palace. Of course only very few know about it."
And with a burning curiosity the question rose in Layla's mind again, piercing through her racing heart. "Who is he?"
A smile tugged at the doctor's red lips. "I don't think you want to know that, love."
Layla's heart fell to her gut. She was in a deeper mess than she thought.
Her eyes instinctively shifted towards the main entrance door as her flight response rose.
Yasmin's foxy eyes noticed that. "I'm afraid that's where your freedom ends right now. He's not given permission for out of the house."
Layla's eyes cracked in dejection. She could make a run for it, but the place was littered with guards. And her leg was not completely healed either.
Indignation and frustration marred her expression. Hazel orbs tearing in helplessness. Even the large castle felt like a suffocating cage.
Yasmin noticed her extreme distraught. Even more than Layla herself, Yasmin wanted to get rid of her. She was far too qualified to be playing a measly caretaker.
YOU ARE READING
QAIS
Romance"She was his mirage, a dream he could only chase. He was her living hell, a nightmare she could not escape." Layla Mustafa is the only girl in her family allowed to go to university. Belonging to a strict patriarchal background, Layla, the shy and s...
