Behind the billionaire's walls

The Pierce Mansion stood like a fortress against the evening sky, its glass walls reflecting the city lights below. From the outside, it was a palace of wealth. Inside, it was a place of silence, cold, polished, and filled with a feeling of lifelessness and lovelessness, though this mansion if decorated with the best interior decors anyone can think of, from the smart bullet proof doors, to the softest and coziest furnitures, art pieces from all over the world worth millions hanging at different parts of the mansion, It's room sizes were like that of an event hall that could fit in 100 guests at a time, the multi-million chandelier placed strategically at different parts of the mansion, laying emphasis on the one in the living room which was really massive and attractive that one had to stare at it with 100 percent focus for up to 30 minutes to fully grasp the details of the design. Its light could light up a whole town. “ Get the car ready, we leave in 10 minutes”, said Alexander Pierce an heir to the Pierce empire, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate. Who lost his father young, grew up emotionally detached, and was raised by a distant mother who remarried, bringing Nathan into his life and a long list of nannies and maids from different parts of the world and different ideologies. Some were genuinely happy to raise him, while some were doing it for the money. The others were just criminals who used him for their own benefit to get money from his father, he was completely left at their mercy because his father was always away trying to build the empire that he is running now, these workers whom he believed were instrumental to the death of his father abused him in every way possible. He is an Intelligent, disciplined, emotionally guarded, strategic thinker, quietly compassionate beneath his cold exterior, sitting behind his mahogany desk, his gaze fixed on the financial reports glowing on his laptop. The twenty-eight-year-old billionaire was known for his icy demeanor. Employees admired him out of respect for his personality and body structure, others feared him, and some envied him. But nobody really knew him. They only saw the cold and straight-to-business side of him. Though he was professional with them and also always kept them at arm's length, this made them very distant from him, coupled with the class (status) difference between them. But, among these employees was Elena Carter, a bold, confident 24 year old maid who didn’t fail to notice the way his shoulders tensed up when he thought nobody was watching, or how his eyes lingered on the old photograph of his late father whom he knew and loved as a child but was grusomely murdered by what seemed like an in house plot hidden in the corner of the office. Elena, who grew up in foster care after losing her parents in mysterious circumstances, is a street-smart girl, resilient, with a strong moral compass, brave, intuitive, compassionate but not naïve, and highly observant. She was unlike the rest of the staff. While the others moved like shadows, afraid to be seen or heard, she carried herself with quiet confidence. She was new, just three months into her job as a maid, but she was observant. Too observant and sensitive to her environment. As she dusted the large study that night which was a daily ritual because the study is the Boss’s best place to be, so it must always be clean, she overheard a hushed voice in the hallway. She paused, pressing herself against the wall, recognizing the voice immediately. “Nobody suspects a thing,” said Nathan Douglas, Alex’s charming but shady stepbrother. Whose mother bore him in her second marriage of convenience, his birth seems like a disservice to the world at large, and not just the occupants of the Pierce mansion alone. “Once he’s out of the way, the company will be mine.” Elena’s breath caught in her throat. Her fingers tightened around the duster as she listened quietly. A second voice, which sounded cold and unfamiliar, responded, “Make sure there are no loose ends. The accident must look natural.” Footsteps approached. Elena quickly moved, pretending to clean the bookshelves that she had already cleaned earlier. Nathan walked past with his smirk, giving nothing away; he only appeared confident in the solidity of his plans. Her heart pounded so badly at that moment that she almost gave away her presence, which would have put her on Nathan’s radar. Was she imagining things? Or had she just overheard a plot to kill her boss Mr Alex? She whispered to herself. That night, as she retired to her not-so-spacious room in the servants’ quarters, Elena wrestled with a decision whether or not she should warn Alex. Would he even believe her? It’s common knowledge that Billionaires didn’t take advice from maids. Yet something deep inside told her this wasn’t just about her job. This was about a man she didn’t want to lose as she admired him( Alex ) much more than she was allowed to admit openly. Across the mansion, Alex stared outside the window at the busy city, unaware that the walls around him were not enough to keep danger far from him as danger was actually accessible to those walls. And in the shadows, Nathan’s plan was already in motion