Their Masks

The Rich Girl's Mask (Part 2)

The trip to Italy did absolutely nothing to lighten the load that was on Amelia's mind. If anything, she was feeling worse with a hangover and several people passed out in her jet. Why did she even decide to go to Italy again?

Oh right. She was proving something to herself about money and her assistant.

Such a stupid thing to do.

But that was her reputation in this world. People expected her to do stupid things so that they could have something to talk about. They wanted her to be a nuisance to society so as to sell more publicity of her. Any trait that did not paint her to be as a glorified, money-spending machine was frowned upon by all her PR people. That would do them no good at the end of a business day, to be honest.

At first, it did not seem like such a bad lifestyle to Amelia. It was actually kind of fun for her to be able to board a jet and go pick a fight with a model in China. That seemed like a reasonable thing to do when you were a teenager.

But she was growing older. She needed meaning in her life that all this fake glam and glitz did not provide. Her money should have been sufficient enough to buy her a real life. Get her settled down in the mundane world these inferiors below her did not appreciate fully.

But it couldn't. It seemed only good enough to buy her a week's worth of hangovers and jewellery.

There was an announcement from the pilot that the jet would be landing in about thirty minutes. That's how long she had to be her true self. Thirty minutes before the vultures with lenses would get their pick at her image with their cameras.

She rose from her sitting area, passing bottles and bodies she had no idea of how they got on her plane. She was in the bathroom when she glanced at the mirror.

She didn't recognize who was staring back at her. Nothing about the appearance would ever convince Amelia that she was the same girl who used to play with her father in the pool of their mansion at six years old. She couldn't be the same girl who took long walks in the park with her mother and their beautiful Lab Terrier, Molly.

The child in those happy memories was dead the moment she and Molly walked in on her father and that skunk of a woman in their own home.

Now her family was but a mere image in the papers. The only time the three of them were together was when a public gathering was required. There would be no more walks in the park. No more swimming in pools.

Amelia couldn't understand why her mother was still "married" to her father. In all senses, the man was a monster. That maid was just but a few of her father's evil deeds. He was a monster that her vision as a child could not see until she was old enough.

Her mother would cry her eyes out in the evening and smile lovingly at her husband at a dinner party. That seemed impossible a thing to do for Amelia. Why would her angel of a mother put up with that kind of life?

Amelia wanted to believe it was because the woman loved her daughter. That she didn't want to expose her to more physiological trauma than what she had seen at just six years old. But that damn woman just had to ruin even the small hope Amelia had of her family being good.

She was only there for the money. After years and years of living off the wealth and fame of the Ventica Empire, Amelia's mother was unwilling to leave it behind even with all the carnage her soul was put through.

There was no love in that house.

Everyone was in it for a reason that had nothing to do with the offspring they both sired together. Amelia learned to live without them. She learned to find solace in the millions in her bank account. She learned to buy the company and friends she needed. Her childhood might have been a horror show, but there was no reason her adult life should suffer the same fate.

She glanced at the mirror again and realized that the tears were running down her beautiful face. This face that been a cause of much envy and desire. This face was a mask she was not sure she wanted anymore. Her mother had despised her completely because it was a mask that greatly resembled its father's.

"All you need is you." She reminded the crying girl in the mirror. She had to remind her that she needed nothing else but herself. She didn't need pity for a life she had no control of being born into. She would find enough comfort knowing she was still better than millions of people in this world.

That brought a smile to the crying girl's face in the mirror, and it stayed there as she went about beautifying her mask. When the plane finally touched down and everyone in it was somehow upright and able to walk, Amelia Ventica was glowing just as she was expected to.

The tabloids would have nothing but criticism about her lifestyle. That much would always be true with how she conducted it. But they would be written alongside stunning photos of her. That was all that mattered. Her image was never going to crack under any kind of pressure that her childhood had failed to accomplish.

She was two feet away from the plane when she noticed her car waiting in the hangar, her chauffer and her personal assistant standing beside it. They were two people she had already grown used to their masks. She didn't particularly care enough to know their names. She probably wouldn't even care anyway.

But she had always noticed how people conducted themselves in her life. It was necessary after she had been played for a fool by her father all those years back. She had never known the driver to be attracted to her assistant. But today his hand was over her shoulder, offering whatever kind of comfort to the girl whose face seemed blank in both feelings and thought.

She had never seen her assistant looking this way. The girl had always been a bubble of joy that would do anything for her. That was the reasons she had lasted long enough as her assistant anyway. So why in the world did her mask resemble greatly that of her mother when she had found out about her father's devious deeds?

The two noticed her arrival and every form of casualness evaporated completely. The driver hurried to the driver's seat and the assistant's face lit up as she welcomed Amelia back to the country and briefed her on what she might want to give her attention to.

"Jasmine was very sorry that you couldn't meet her at her party. She asked you to call her when you got back. The new bathroom is installed and ready too."

It was the same enthusiasm that Amelia had come to expect from the girl. That much was still the same. But why did it feel... forced? Amelia thought about the entire ride down to her house. She had once envied this girl's life. But what would be this horrible that would make her bundle of joy be forced to conjure up a bright smile in her presence?

Wasn't this the girl's dream? She had wanted to be her assistant. The work she had put in all this time was evident enough that she just didn't need this job for money. She needed it for identity. Maybe her life was not something Amelia should covet so carelessly.

"Is there anything you need, Ma'am?" Amelia couldn't quite put her finger on it. But she knew something was wrong with that smile of her assistant. It reminded her of a past she did not want to remember. She had successfully run away from it since she was six years old. This mask in front of her was threatening to shatter all her hard work up until now.

That was something Amelia was never going to allow from anyone. Not even this mask that had dedicated four years of its life to her.

"Yes... your resignation."