Maid Bride

Chapter 2

Athena's P.O.V

I couldn't sleep. My thoughts were taken away from me.
I rolled to the left side of the bed keeping my left hand under my head, with knees up to my chest.

When I looked at the bedside table I saw the frame with my mother's photograph. Her bright green eyes were twinkling and a small smile plastered on her face. That photograph was taken by my father years before I was born. She always treasured that photograph because it was a memory that my father had left us and not to forget that's the only photograph of my mother. And when she died, that photograph was the only piece of peace that my mother had left for me in this world.

My mother is a memory. I no longer felt her hands patting my head as I sleep. Her voice calling out for me to help her was never heard. The way she looks at me was never seen. She is no longer with me. She was my everything and I couldn't even get a final glimpse of my mother as she bids farewell to her journey in this world.

I never knew she was a tumor patient until she was gone away from me. She hid it from me because she knew that I would fall to the ground and never get up. She worked really hard day and night even when she was sick. I saw my mother becoming pale and sick day by day but I never understood what was wrong with her. She took all the hatred thrown at her way by Agatha and Joshua. Even when Joshua hurts her she endures it because she always cared for him.

My lips were trembling as tears were running through my cheek and a lump formed in my throat as my heart was clenching with the pain of losing my beloved mother. I cried for taking my mother away from me, taking the only happiness of my life and making me alone in this cruel world.

I stood up from the bed and walked to the toilet with shaking legs. When I stood in front of the wash basin I could see myself. A sudden bitter realization came to my mind.
Joshua was right! I am ugly and not a good sight to have a glimpse every day. I am miles away in looks compared to the girls he had dated. Those girls had the body of models and not to forget their perfect face which was highlighted with makeup. I am so plain and I don't even know how to carry myself like those girls. He had always mockingly pointed out how tall and curvy I am. My mother was the only person in the world who had called me beautiful.

I was cut off my thoughts by a loud knock on the toilet door. I quickly splashed water on my face to make an impression that I wasn't crying.

"Athena, are you coming for dinner?" it was Lily, another maid and my roommate since my mother's death. She had recently started working for the Walker family and became a good friend of mine.

"Yes, I will be there within a minute," I said as I dried my face with the towel.
I came out of the toilet after making sure that Lily had gone from the room.

We, maids, eat the food at the Walker mansion because Uncle Robert is a kind man and wants to make sure that everyone gets proper food.
The servant's quarters is just behind the mansion. I put on my worn out slippers and started walking towards the mansion.
When I reached there I could see the maids standing in a queue to get their portion of the meal. I was the last person in the queue since I was late. The worst thing about coming late to get the food is washing the dishes and cleaning the place. There are around twenty-five maids working and I get to wash their plates, glasses and other utensils because I was the last person to come and most importantly clean the place with the help of other latecomers. It will take hours to clean the place and wash the dishes. These rules were laid down by Miranda, our head-maid.

After waiting for more than fifteen minutes I got my portion of the meal. I quickly went to my usual place, pulled out the chair and start digging in my food. I want to eat my food faster so I could finish my work earlier.

As soon as I finish my food, I ran to the washing area to start doing my work. When I get there, there were already some vessels to wash. I squeezed the washing liquid into the sponge and started scrubbing the vessels. Whenever I complete scrubbing one vessel, another vessel is added to the sink. I took me hours to complete washing the vessels.
To my relief, other maids who had been late had cleaned the lawn where we had food.

As I walking back to the courters I saw a figure walking towards me. From a single glance at the person's physique, I understand who is that. My heart was beating so fast and loud. I was scared of him and I am sure he is here to hurt me. His words can be too much swallow as it involves something that makes me weak.

His steps were quicker and soon I was engulfed by the fragrance of his Cologne, Musk.
His ocean blue eyes were glaring at me and the distance between the two of us was so short. I could feel his hard muscles touching my body and his breathe was fanning on my face.
He gripped my arms harshly as I could feel his fingers digging on my flesh. Letting out a deep laugh, he gave me his signature smirk. The devilish smirk.

"Aren't you little surprised my sweet Athena? Do you not want to see the face of your future husband?" he asked looking straight into my eyes. I know that his words are dripping the essence of sarcasm but all I could do was endure it.

This is what I am..

I am weak

I can't blame it on anyone because it is my circumstances that made me weak and never I am I going to win against him.

"My Sweet Athena, what did I tell you about insulting me?" he asked gripping his fingers more harshly on my arms.

Fear crossed over my face as he removed his fingers from my arms. I could feel his fingers moving along my shoulders to my neck, which had made my legs wobble. Then he removed the tiny strands of hair from my face to behind my ears.

I was looking straight into his eyes. I was clueless about what was going to happen and what he was doing to me. He inched closer to me, our noses were barely touching. He let out a sigh and smirked at me.

What he did next was shocking. I was on the ground with a new wound on my right leg as he had gripped my hairs and pushed me hard to the concrete walkway.

With tears flowing from my eyes I try to get up. There was fresh blood oozing out of the wound. I felt like a kid who is being bullied.
As soon as I was on my legs, I looked at him and saw that he got a warm pleasure by seeing me hurt.

As usual, I didn't give him any response and tried to walk away with my aching leg. But my journey to my destination was short-lived as I have pushed again to the ground, the only difference between both falls was that this time I had fallen in the dirty muddy ground, which is so muddy due to some repairing works.

I started sobbing softly as his behavior had pulled a string out of my heart and it was too much to take but what hurt me the most were the words he had let out the next moment.

"Bitch, this is what a dirt like you deserves. You deserve to live in the dirt and deserves to die in the dirt. You are going to see your end soon, my dear sweet Athena whore!" He told and walked towards the mansion. He stopped in the middle and turn towards me and let out a deep chuckle.

All I could do was to cry...

What did I do to deserve this?