A Marriage of Lies and Secrets

Chapter two - Natalia Wayne

"Natalia!"

The scream echoed through the house. Natalia jerked upright so fast that the book in her lap crashed onto the floor. For a split second, panic stole her breath.

Then she smelled it……burnt porridge. "Oh no." Her heart dropped. She rushed from the tiny room she occupied at the back of the house and ran toward the kitchen. Smoke curled from the pot. Natalia immediately switched off the gas and yanked it away from the heat.

But it was already too late. The bottom had already blackened. Her stomach twisted. She was dead.

"NATALIA!"

The second scream came louder and closer. Natalia squeezed her eyes shut then she forced herself to move. Every second she delayed would only make things worse.

By the time she entered the living room, Bianca Wayne was already waiting. The older woman sat rigidly on the couch. Her expression alone was enough to make Natalia's pulse spike.

"Come here."

Natalia obeyed. Always obey. That lesson had been beaten into her years ago.

Bianca rose slowly."You left food burning."

"I'm sorry ma"

A sharp slap snapped Natalia's head sideways. She didn't cry out. Experience had taught her that crying usually made things worse.

"You think money grows on trees?"

"I'm sorry ma"

“Pak” Another slap.

"I'm sorry ma"

“Pak” Another slap.

Natalia kept her gaze lowered because she knew the routine. All she did was apologize, endure and wait until it passes. Eventually Bianca stepped back. Disgust filled her eyes.

"Useless girl”, Bianca said.

Natalia swallowed hard. The words shouldn't hurt anymore because she had heard them thousands of times. Yet somehow they still found fresh wounds.

"Dinner will be served when my husband gets home," Bianca said.

"Yes, Aunt."

"Then stop standing there looking pathetic."

Natalia nodded and hurried away. Only when she reached the kitchen did she allow herself to breathe. Her hands were shaking again, always shaking. She gripped the counter until the trembling eased. Then she quietly finished preparing dinner.

Nobody thanked her. Of course, they never did. The Wayne Villa was enormous, too enormous and every part of it screamed wealth. From the marble floors, crystal chandeliers and the high end imported furniture.

Even down to the guest rooms that sat empty for years yet somehow there had never been a decent room for Natalia. Well, at least not inside the house. Her room sat behind the main building. It was an old staff quarters nobody used anymore.

The paint peeled from the walls, the roof leaked whenever it rained and the bed bug infested mattress had long ago been discarded. She slept on blankets spread across the floor.

According to Bianca ,her aunt, she should have been grateful. According to Benedetto, her uncle, she already had more than she deserved. Natalia had stopped arguing years ago, infact she never learned to argue.

After dinner she washed dishes alone. By the time she returned to her room, darkness had swallowed the estate. She locked the door not because the lock offered protection but because pretending it did helped her sleep. At least, sometimes, not often.

But sometimes she sat on the floor and stared at the ceiling because the silence always felt familiar. Loneliness had become familiar too.

Twenty-two years old, a university graduate with first-class honors in Cyber Security and somehow still trapped. The irony would have been funny if it wasn't her life. Her professors had once predicted an incredible future, one had even tried helping her secure an internship.

The offer disappeared. Another opportunity vanished months later. Then another and another. At first Natalia thought she was unlucky before she discovered the truth. Nothing in her life happened without Benedetto Wayne knowing orr allowing it. The realization had terrified her because it meant the cage was larger than she thought.

Natalia rubbed at her tired eyes. Sometimes she wondered what her life would have looked like if her parents had survived. She remembered very little about them. Just tiny fragments from a kid's memory, nothing more.

Most of her childhood memories belonged to her grandparents. They had loved her fiercely and completely. For a few precious years, Natalia had known what safety felt like. Then they died too and everything changed.

A tear slid down her cheek which she wiped it away immediately. There was no point crying anymore. No miracle was coming and no rescue was waiting for her

Every morning she woke up in the same house and every night she went to sleep in the same room. Every year slipped by exactly the same until one day she would wake up old and realize her entire life had been spent surviving.

The thought terrified her more than death ever could because Natalia didn't want to survive, she wanted to live.

Although there was one exception. One person who occasionally reminded her she was human. Reynolds, Benedetto's son. Natalia still didn't understand him. Growing up, he had been no different from the others. He was the usual cruel, mocking and dismissive, just like his mother had taught him and his siblings.

Then something changed. She didn't know what but two years ago he simply stopped. He stopped the insults, the pranks and the deliberate cruelty. Instead he began leaving books where he knew she would find them.

Always iffering quiet help, pretending not to notice when she looked exhausted.

It wasn't much but to someone drowning, even a small piece of driftwood felt precious. Natalia didn't trust him completely. She wasn't naïve. She knew that people rarely changed overnight yet she couldn't deny that his presence made life slightly less unbearable.

In the Wayne's Villa, the clock showed 2:17 a.m. Sleep still refused to come. Natalia rolled onto her side then onto her back, then onto her side again. Insomnia had become another unwanted companion. Eventually , her exhaustion won and her eyes drifted shut.

Darkness swallowed her and the dream began. No, not even a dream but a memory. A little girl stood crying and begging. Her voice shook so badly the words barely made sense.

Someone was there. More like a shadow, a figure that was too large and close. The little girl kept pleading again, and again and again but nobody came and nobody helped.

The room smelled wrong. The air felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. The little girl cried for her grandmother. She cried until her throat hurt, until her voice disappeared, until she realized no one was coming and no one ever came.

"N-no..."

Natalia tossed violently in her sleep. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. Her breathing quickened. Her body remembered what her mind desperately tried to forget.

"No..."

The shadow moved closer and closer and closer. Natalia's chest seized. She couldn't breathe. Neither could she run nor scream. Her eyes snapped open. A strangled gasp tore from her throat.

Darkness still surrounded her. Natalia curled into herself . Her entire body trembled. The nightmare was gone but the fear remained. It always remained. She pressed a shaking hand against her mouth to stop herself from crying too loudly.

Outside, the estate slept peacefully. Inside the tiny room behind the mansion, Natalia sat alone on the floor wide awake and terrified, desperately wishing morning would never come.