Icebound Vows

CHAPTER 2 – A Fiancée Without a Home

POV: Elara Reyes

The reporters and lawyers finally left the main room, and I stood there holding my small bag, expecting someone to show me to a regular bedroom since Victoria had just announced I was staying, but the older housekeeper grabbed my arm without a word and led me away from the grand staircase. We walked down a narrow hallway, past the kitchen, and down a flight of concrete stairs that led straight into the basement, where she pushed open a small wooden door right next to the noisy laundry room. I stepped inside and saw a tiny mattress on the floor, a single metal chair, and absolutely nothing else, and when I looked around, I saw there wasn't even a window to let in any natural light or a proper closet for my few belongings.

"Put your things down, because Mrs. Voss wants you back upstairs in the kitchen immediately," the housekeeper said, her voice completely flat as she turned around and walked away without checking if I was okay with the room.

I dropped my bag on the mattress and hurried back up the stairs, and when I entered the large dining room, Victoria was sitting at the table while her daughter, Lila, sat next to her, scrolling through her phone and looking up with a mean smirk the moment I entered.

"Since you are going to live under my roof, you are going to earn your place here, because the Voss family does not give out free handouts to anyone," Victoria said, leaning back in her chair and folding her hands on the table while she stared at my cheap clothes. "You will help the staff with the daily cleaning, you will serve the family meals, you will wash all the dishes, and you will do whatever else the housekeepers tell you to do around this mansion."

"So our future sister-in-law is really just a maid," Lila laughed openly, tossing her phone onto the table and looking at me with absolute disgust. "Ryker is going to love this, because he already hates your guts, and now he can just order you around like the help."

"I can do the work, Mrs. Voss," I whispered, keeping my head down because I didn't want to provoke them or give Lila another reason to laugh at me on my very first day.

"Good, then you can start by scrubbing the long hallway and preparing the evening tea for my son, because he is in the study and he does not like to be kept waiting," Victoria replied, waving her hand to dismiss me as if I were totally beneath her notice.

I spent the next three hours on my knees scrubbing the floors until my back ached, and then the kitchen staff handed me a heavy silver tray with a hot porcelain teapot and cups, telling me to take it up to the private study on the second floor. I walked carefully up the stairs, balancing the tray with both hands, but as I turned the corner near the heavy study door, Ryker suddenly stepped out into the hallway, and before I could stop myself, I bumped right into his massive chest. The tray tilted, and a few hot drops of tea splashed directly onto the sleeve of his dark jacket, making him stop in his tracks as his face darkened with instant fury.

"Are you completely blind, or are you just stupid?" Ryker growled, and without a single second of hesitation, he snatched the heavy tray right out of my hands and dropped it straight onto the hard marble floor.

The porcelain cups shattered into hundreds of sharp pieces, scattering all around my bare feet and splashing the rest of the hot liquid across the clean tiles we had just scrubbed.

"Clean it," Ryker snapped, stepping closer until his boots were right next to the broken pieces, his voice dropping into a harsh whisper that made my whole body shake. "And don't ever touch me again, because you are nothing but a servant in this house, and you need to remember your place before I lose my temper with you completely."

"It was an accident, I didn't see you coming out," I said, my voice trembling as I immediately dropped to my knees on the hard floor and began picking up the sharp shards of glass with my bare fingers because I didn't want him to call his mother.

"I don't care if it was an accident, just get it out of my sight," Ryker said, standing over me and watching coldly while a sharp edge of porcelain sliced right into my thumb, making bright red blood drip onto the white floor tiles.

He didn't tell me to stop, and he didn't call for help, and after a few seconds of watching me bleed, he simply turned around and walked down the hallway, leaving me completely alone to gather the rest of the broken glass. I wiped my hands on my skirt and kept picking up the pieces, ignoring the sharp pain in my fingers until the floor was completely clear and the stains were wiped away.

Late that night, I finally crawled into the tiny mattress in my basement room, turning off the single light bulb and pulling the thin blanket over my shoulders as the sound of the laundry machines hummed through the wall. The heavy physical pain from the chores and the deep emotional sting of Ryker’s cruelty finally broke me, and I pulled the pillow over my face, quietly crying myself to sleep so the staff upstairs wouldn't hear my misery.

Hours later, a soft rustling sound right outside my bedroom door woke me up, and I sat up fast on the mattress, listening closely to see if Aunt Carmen or Victoria had come down to give me more work. The footsteps walked away quickly, and when I cautiously pushed the door open and looked down at the dark concrete floor, I saw a brand-new pair of pink ballet slippers sitting right on the mat, though there was no note, no name, and absolutely no clue who had left them there.