Love In Crimson

Chapter Eight - Natalia's new reality (3)

“Nataliaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

Natalia woke up startled from her not so peaceful sleep as a result of Ace calling her. With the volume of Ace's voice,she was sure that he was only few steps away from her room. Natalia hurriedly climbed out of bed,put on her slippers and headed out of her room.

Just like she presumed, Ace was standing just few steps away from her room. With her previous experiences, she knew that someone calling her in that manner meant trouble.

“Good morning Sir Ace”,she managed to stutter while looking down at her feet. Locking eyes with the man standing few inches away from her won't end well.

After staring at Natalia furiously for what felt like hell- like eternity, Ace finally talked. “What is good about the morning when you've ruined my day before it even started,huh” “ answer me”!!!, he barked.

The shout echoed sharp and sudden in Natalia's ears, her body flinches as if it made contact with a naked electrical wire . Natalia's heart began to pound against her ribs. What could she have done to warrant this beastly display from Ace early in the morning.

“I clearly warned you not to touch my things. Do not invade my space is what I said. Do you care to explain why the files in my study were rearranged” , Ace said, all in one breath.

Natalia instinctively took a step backward, with her eyes down, staring at the floor like it promised her safety. “I…..I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to... to cross. It was an accident. Please don’t…..be mad. I.. I'm s..ss.soo sor..ryy sir”, Natalia said trembly.

‎Her voice broke and she stopped talking. She tried to contain her trembling by twisting her fingers together. Oh what bad luck she has. Can her luck get any better. She never thought of the study as a personal space.

“Look here lady, I don't care how sorry you pretend you are, you should never go near my personal spaces when I do not authorize you to do so , do I make myself clear “?, Ace roared in one breath.

Ace was furious, she didn't just invade his space, she even rearranged how he arranges his things. His files were arranged differently and what gave her the guts to rearrange the racks as well!! Even his keyboard placement was changed!! Ace was more than furious.

Natalia nodded to all that Ace said while making sure her head was down. She didn't dare speak. Now she was even questioning herself if she was jinxed because that seems like the only explanation to what she did. But she only wanted a healthy environment with him and she thought that by so doing, she'll win his favor.

Instead,it backfired greatly and she even made the dragon prince angry. Oh how pitiful her life is, Natalia thought to herself.

Ace looked at the trembling woman in front of him and for a split second, he had a complex expression. Why was she jittery, is this a coy just to get his pity. Ace scoffed at the thought of this and said to Natalia, “will you go to the study and put things back to how you met it”!

Natalia thought she didn't hear him right. As in,she should go back to where he scolded her just for cleaning it up,and to do what?, rearrange things to how she met it!! How on earth was she supposed to do that. Okay ,the furnitures can be rearranged but those files, how will she do that.

Amidst her barrage of thoughts, Natalia made her way to the study and tried her best in making it look like how she met it- very disorderly.

Ace was obviously not satisfied but he left her alone seeing that she had at least tried in making it look like how she met it.

“Hope you didn't forget your duties, get to them immediately I'm out”, Ace said to Natalia.

Natalia replied with a positive nod and a soft hum of yes. Natalia initially thought that Ace was just trying to scare her by saying that she will take over the whole household chores of the mansion alone, but it turns out that she was wrong.

He was serious about it, she has been doing it ever since. The devil ordered her to clean out the whole mansion, from the unused rooms and toilets, everything must be cleaned.

Natalia sighed exhaustedly, her life was really getting harder as opposed to the hopeful thought she had. It was as if the heavens really said , let's make you pay for ten lifetimes of your built up karma in this life.

Natalia made her way to her room. She really wanted to cry out her emotions. Why is life so hard on her, she's just a girl that wants to be loved and not locked up and transferred from one cage to another. If only her parents were alive, or even her grandparents.

How she wished they all didn't have to leave this world early.

Natalia remembered that some household essentials and some of her cleaning supplies were almost exhausted. She really wish that she'll be the one to get them. At least anything to feel the world outside this mansion.

Natalia made her way to the study again. She knew that Ace stays in the study before heading out. But wasn't she doing something stupid after the near death experience she had with his anger this morning.

Putting on an imaginary bravery robe, Natalia decided to push for her luck . Natalia made her way back to the study and finds the door closed. She huffed in and out trying to muster the courage to knock on the door. She gets close to the door, raises her hand to knock and stops midway.

She heard Ace talking over the phone and felt it won't end well for her if her knocks disturbs his call.

Waiting at the door, she leans in to hear what he was saying.

The study door was shut fully but the empty hallway and the scarcity of furnitures other than the table, chair and few racks in the study made the echoes of his voice loud and clear.

Natalia stood at the door, her fingers subtly gripping the edge of the doorframe. The sound of Ace's voice slipped through.

“Yeah, it’s done,” Ace said into the phone, low and even. “The contract’s signed. All the clauses.”

A pause. The voice on the other end mumbled something.

He let out a short laugh, not amused. “No, she’s not a problem. Not really. Just… extra weight . Her uncle offloaded her to me like she was an afterthought. She doesn’t talk much but she's nosy.”

Natalia's chest tightened. Extra weight he said. But not her right?

“But,” he continued, “sometimes extra weight has its uses. She was very necessary for the transaction,you know. Having her doesn’t leave me with loose ends.”

“Useful, then?” the voice asked.

“Could be,” Ace said. “She’s quiet. Just not so obedient. And she has nowhere else to go. Her uncle made sure of that.”

Another pause. He lowered his voice further. “So I keep her. For now. She doesn’t cost much, and if things go sideways, she’s a clean cover. Better to have ballast than to drift.”

That line clicked hard on Natalia.

Natalia didn’t move. The word ballast sat heavy in her mind, something you throw into a ship so it doesn’t tip over. Something you don’t notice until you need it.

Her uncle had married her off hurriedly and easily. She flowed with his plan almost easily because of course she has no where to go, no one to run to.

Now Natalia was tying the pieces together, she was just a part of a transaction between her uncle and Ace, her husband on papers.

Her knees felt weak. She knew that her knees giving out at the door was not an option. Natalia dragged herself unnoticed from the study back to her room.

On getting to her room, she just fell silent, the kind of silence that comes with numbness. It was far worse than crying, she's feeling a flood of emotions right now and all she could do was just stare into the void in her room.

Ace's words continued to ring in her ears. Is she that unworthy, is she that unlovable for her to be treated like this. Her life ever since her grandparents’ deaths had been nothing but hell.

Natalia just lay on the bed staring at the ceiling for what felt like long hours. Is she even safe in the hands of this devil. Natalia didn't even know what to think.

She heard the gate open and a car driving out. He's out of the house but his words are being replayed freshly in her head.

Natalia didn't start her chores for the day until evening, she knew she was making a great mistake that would of course attract another punishment but she was just too mentally drained for the day.

Natalia pulled the heavy vase from the corner to sweep behind it, her back aching from the strain. Dust puffed into the air, and something thin slipped out from under the base.

It was a photo. A photo of sick people shot in a localized setting. Both young and old were obviously sick in the photo. The image was disturbing. A crowd of sick people.Thin, Pale. Some looked terribly weak. Children clung to their mothers. Men sat slumped on the ground.

But why would he have something like this in the house, and for what exactly, that, she does not know.

Natalia dismissed it as something unimportant and discarded it. If only she knew the kind of fire she just got herself into.