THE SECOND CHANCE

LIFE IN STEPHANS HOUSEHOLD Alicia's Pov "Alicia! Will you get down here immediately!" It was the voice of my madam, Beatrice calling me harshly. I quickly dropped the mob I was holding and rushed downstairs to meet her in the sitting room, looking over the center table as if she was inspecting it. "Yes ma, you called me." I said to her immediately I got to where she was. Twark! She slapped me. The slap was her way of responding to my acknowledgment. The slap was very painful, and I was tempted to rub the spot with my hands, but I knew better than to do it. I have been warned by Madam Beatrice severely never to touch my face whenever she slapped me. According to her, it used to make her feel bad or like she was a wicked person that was just deliberately being wicked to me when all she was doing was correcting me, if only that was true. Twark! She slapped me again . "Ma, please what did I do?" I asked her after I waited for a while to tell me my offense, but she slapped me again. That second slap was also my fault because, according to her rules, whenever she hit me without telling me the reason, it was my responsibility to ask her about it, and so I forgot to do so just now when she slapped me the first time, and she had to slap me the second time as a reminder. The first slap was for whatever offense I might have committed, while the second time was for forgetting to ask her my offense. Complicated, right? "I thought you said you had cleaned this place?" Madam Beatrice asked. "Yes Madam Beatrice, I have, not quite long before I went to mop master Roland's room." I answered her. Master Roland was Madam Beatrice's only son and one of the greatest bullies in the house. "You claimed to have cleaned up this place but why do I see a speck of dust on the center table?" Madam Beatrice asked me. Slowly and cautiously, I moved towards the center table and gently touched it and I noticed that truly it had a stain on it. I wondered how possible it could be because the center table had a stain on it that was not even there before I cleaned the table that morning, so how come there was a stain so visible there after I had just finished cleaning it. "You have gone deaf and dumb, right, is it that you did not hear what I said, or you have suddenly become dumb that you cannot answer my question?" Madam Beatrice asked me, already prepared to give me another slap if I chose to keep quiet again. "Madam Beatrice, I sincerely don't know how it happened because this stain was not here on the table this morning before I cleaned the table." I explained to Madam Beatrice. "So if the stain was not here on the table this morning even before you cleaned it, how come it is here now? After you cleaned it, and such a big stain at that?" Madam Beatrice asked me again. "That is the issue, Madam Beatrice, I do not know and, honestly speaking, this stain is just too big l for me to overlook if it was here while I was still cleaning the center table." I explained, trying to point out what Madam Beatrice did not notice. "Or rather, maybe because you were too blind or shortsighted to see it!" The mocking voice came from behind me. I turned to look at the owner of the familiar voice and, lo and behold, it was my greatest bully in the Step Hans household, Mistress Mia. Though I was constantly being bullied by everyone in the Stephans household, no one subjected me to as much maltreatment as Mistress Mia and Master Roland. Mr. Stephan and Madam Beatrice, the master and Mistress of Stephans Manor, had three children. Two girls and a boy. The eldest being Master Roland, followed closely with just a two-year gap by Mistress Mia and lastly by Mistress Chloe. Mistress Chloe was the last born, and she was just ten years old. She was the sweetest and also the only respectful one among the full family. Mistress Chloe was the only one who respected and treated me well in the entire Stephanie's family and I loved her dearly. The Stephans were nobles in the Blue moon pack while I was just a lowly Omega who was sold to them by my family as collateral for not being able to repay back a loan they took from the Stephans' family. "So mother, I guess we might just,, gauge out those useless eyes of hers, since it is obvious that she cannot use them well," Mistress Mia wickedly suggested. It is common knowledge and not a secret in the entire pack that Mistress Mia was a proud, snobbish and very lazy person, which was why she was still single at the age of twenty-five, because no man in the pack wanted to become a scapegoat to her bad character after her last engagement to one of the sons of a fellow noble went down the drain two years ago due to her bad character. Everyone in the pack knew about her bad character, but no one had dared to ever say anything to her face due to the Stephans family's high influence, not just in the Blue moon pack but also on other packs, and no one wanted to have issues with the Stephans household. The last person who had engaged her and suddenly called off the engagement publicly after she embarrassed him at an eatery suddenly disappeared shortly after and, up till now, his was still unknown and had remained one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the pack. Though many people had pointed accusing fingers at the Stephans believing they had a hand in the boy's disappearance,, none of them had been able to say it to their faces, and though the Pack's security team, which is the Gammas, had at a point questioned them, the matter was not pursued. Due to lack of evidence, but I can bet you, since I stayed with the Stephans and I know how cruel and brutal they are, I know for sure that they had a hand in the disappearance of the boy. "Oh come on Mia, let's not be too harsh on the girl, lest the pack members accuse us again of having something to do with sudden blindness." Madam Beatrice said mischievously, smiling at Mistress Mia while I shivered in fear. "Silent accusations you mean mother, because they will not be able to get any proof as always." Mistress Mia said and laughed evilly. I know that Mistress Mia has always been more wicked than her mother, Madam Beatrice, and so I always tried to avoid getting into her bad books because she always dealt with me like I was an inanimate object, and she does not have a heart. I dared to look up at Mistress Mia only for me to notice that she was holding a tea cup and the cup had stained circles under it. It was then I knew that the stain on the center table had come from the cup in Mistress Mia's hand, probably when she placed it on the table. "Look Madam Beatrice, there is a stain on the cup Mistress Mia is holding which means that the stain on the center table came from under the cup probably when she placed it on the table." I pointed out to Madam Beatrice excitedly. "What!" Came the sharp and angry reply from Mistress Mia with a deadly look on her face and I knew then that I had walked. Into the den of the lions with my own two feet. *********************