Outside the room in which the girls slept in peace, exhausted from the long day and excitement-filled Roxana's tiring hours of playing dress-up, stood a shady figure in the shadows.
"These two are getting too close, too soon. I didn't think it was possible before. But, now," She clicked her tongue, rubbing her palms together in distress.
"I have to sow discord somehow between the girls, otherwise everything will go to waste. Yes, I have to hurry. Before he comes back." Saying this, the woman returned to her room, conspiring the entire time.
Soon the dark night descended, bringing with it a bright new morning. The sun sparkled, sunlight pouring in to the room, through the window and onto the sleeping girls.
Valeria was the first one to wake at daybreak, an early riser since always. It helped that it was a hard task for her to fall asleep in the first place.
She got up from beside Roxana, who was lightly snoring, still lost in her dreamland.
"When will you come back, my love? How long do I have to wait before our joyful reunion?" Valeria did a double take when these words left the sleeping girl's mouth.
'What is she muttering? Love, who?' Valeria's intelligent mind had encountered nothing of this sort ever before. This teen was oblivious to the signs of a lovestruck adolescent. She understood little about the emotion of love, either.
Ignoring the sleep-talking girl, she slid off the bed and observed herself in the full-length mirror.
"Pink looks good on me." She mused to herself, before changing into her tracksuit that she received from school.
An hour later, a scream echoed throughout the mansion.
A pair of feet came running down the stairs at record speed.
"Valeria's missing!" Roxana screamed at the top of her lungs. Julian, who was calmly reading the newspaper while drinking his morning tea, almost choked on the hot drink. His mother, who sat on the sofa beside his armchair with her spectacles perched on top of her nose, looked up at the girl from her book in confusion.
"What? " She inquired the heavily breathing girl.
"Valeria is not in the room. We slept in my room last night after playing, but when I woke up, she was not there anymore." Roxana was visibly worried. Her wavering voice and the fast pace at which she talked clearly showed her panic-stricken state.
"Wait, you had a girl's night together? Darling, that's great!" Julian was ecstatic. Both his girls seemed to get along well.
Helen smiled and asked, "How was it? Was she happy? Did you have fun?"
Roxana got side-tracked. " Oh, yes! I loved dressing her up like a doll! She looks good in almost every clothing. She seemed to take a special liking towards the color pink. And- wait, shouldn't we think about finding her first?" Roxana was trying hard to keep her negative thoughts at bay and stop herself from overthinking. But, it was proving to be too difficult.
Did Valeria leave because of her? She didn't want to know because she feared the answer just as much as she needed it, if not more.
"Of course, " came the shrill voice of a 'worried' Dahlia. "Why would she go missing this early in the morning? " Her voice wavered, as she hesitated to speak further, "Auntie Helen, what if that girl ran away from home? "
This preposterous suggestion angered the old matriarch of the house. "Think before you speak! How can you say something like that?"
Dahlia immediately put on a guilty look, seeming very upset. "I am sorry, but I say this for your own good. That girl could be the flesh and blood of the great Beaufort family, where honor and honesty come before everything else. But, that girl didn't grow up with us, she is not like our dear Roxana. How would she have the same values as her? For all we know, she could have stolen precious items and absconded back to the streets where you picked her from."
Julian threw the newspaper on the ground and slammed his fisted palm on the desk.
"Stop spouting poison, you vicious woman! It's only out of respect for you as my dead wife's only remaining family, that I allow you to stay here. This gives you no right to speak in my family's matter. Especially concerning my daughter whom you know nothing about. Leave, Dahlia, go to your own house. You're not needed here."
Seeing the usually mellow and calm man burst out like that was quite scary. Roxana agreed her aunt spoke without thinking. She communicated more clearly with her heart than her mind, and it told her Valeria was not such a girl.
Helen smiled satisfied upon seeing the horror-struck expression on Dahlia's face.
"Look there, " she pointed to the door, and right that moment a sweating Valeria came inside running.
Roxana flurried down the stairs and almost flew across the room. She pulled Valeria into her arms and burst into tears. She burst out indignantly, "Where did you go? I thought you left us. What if something bad happened to you?" Valeria was shocked still by the weeping girl who clung to her. She felt like a doll being being hugged too tightly.
Roxana sniffled, "I am sorry. If you don't want me here then I'll leave, but don't walk-out from their lives." She gestured towards the mother and her son who looked quite alarmed now.
Valeria didn't find herself repelling to the blonde's touch. Seeing the girl look down at her so keenly with red rimmed eyes and a blushing nose, the heart-wrenching broken expression on her angelic face. She could swear her heart would have melted.
"I was just out running. You were snoring so peacefully that I didn't have the heart to wake you up to tell you. " Valeria replied kindly to stop the girl's rambling. Although, she spoke with a blank face she had a twinkle of mirth in her sequin orbs.
Roxana gaped, spacing out as she absorbed what she heard.
"I don't snore, " she denied with a pout, rubbing her itchy dry eyes. She almost lost her cool again when Valeria wiped off a tear from her cheek.
"Dahlia? " Helen turned sharply to the woman, who wore an anxious look with a pointed gaze. "You were leaving?"
"Of course,"
The old woman's spine-chilling glare took its effect on the woman who in a fake gentle tone said, "Darling, your sister and I were so worried when we didn't see you. You should inform someone before going out alone."
"I informed Martin and asked him to tell grandma," Helen smiled widely. "And I didn't go out. The estate is big enough."
"Of course, I see. Good. I'll get going then." Dahlia sounded awfully awkward. "I am sorry, brother-in-law, I spoke without thinking." Finished speaking she departed quickly and Martin closed the door after her.
No one stretched the issue, and it ended.
"Girls, quickly take your baths and come down. Your father and I are waiting to eat breakfast with you." Helen could almost see the negativity that woman brought in this house flee with her exit and she was full of smiles now.
"Alright!" Roxana responded, being her cheerful self once again. She took her sister's wrist and pulled her along to their rooms upstairs. "Let me choose your outfit today."
'I have a feeling this is going to become a frequent thing from now on.' Valeria sighed mentally.
She was still a bit puzzled and wary over Roxana's strange mannerisms. Besides her two friends, she had no companions around her age. Except one whom she left behind.
Because of her reserved attitude, she appeared cold and condescending. But, truth be told, Valeria was still exploring herself. She did not know what it meant to be herself and act freely. She was just learning to become a free human and a teen after all the years of being a puppet slave.
Growing close to Roxana, though, was not proving to be so difficult, since the girl did most of the bonding in the relationship, anyway.
The breakfast was uneventful.
Julian and Helen tried to make small talk with Valeria to get to know the girl more. Her answers were brief and to the point, she spoke no more than necessary, not without Roxana's constant urging. They were quite amused to learn about their new addition's healthy appetite.
Valeria enjoyed the delicious, filling breakfast. Seeing all these dishes made her think of her two friends who were still back at the orphanage. They should be having breakfast now too.
"Valeria, would you join me in my study, please? I need to talk to you about something important." Julian spoke up when he finished his breakfast and stood up from his seat to slide the chair back in. He gazed at her expectantly.
Valeria stiffened, half-a-mind to shake and refuse. But then he did say important. She hesitantly nodded and gulped down the last of her juice. She stood up as well and followed Julian down a long hallway and into the room at the end.
Roxana peered at their back with worry.
"They'll be fine. Let's go to the garden?" Helen distracted her.
Roxana nodded, and the two went away.
The study was decorated in an archaic fashion. There was a sliding glass door opposite the study table. The room was so well illuminated by the incoming sunlight that there was no need to switch on the lights during daytime.
Most of the furnishings were of wooden oak- the table, the shelves and a few other articles.
Julian took out a thick album from somewhere under his desk. The position gave away the fact that it was something he looked for quite a lot.
Flipping it open, he kept the open book on the table for Valeria to see the contents on its pages.
There were old photos pasted in the book. Most of them included a beautiful woman with long flaming locks and king-looking coffee color eyes.
Valeria stepped closer. She remembered seeing the enormous portrait of this woman in the large hall like living room, right beside the frame, which contained a picture of a stern looking old man, who was apparently her grandfather.
First section of the album showed wedding pictures of the euphoric couple. In all of them, their smiles were blinding. There was also a large old family photo, including faces she didn't yet know.
She turned the pages.
The next section showed the stages of the woman's pregnancy. She glowed unlike ever before in all those pictures. The last picture was of Julian carrying his very pregnant wife in his arms, bride-style, laughing teasingly while she appeared to be punching him with her small fists that did little harm. There was a scowl on her face, but the merry twinkle in her eyes told a different story.
It was a strange sensation; the warmth bubbling in her chest. Valeria didn't know how to feel now that she finally got to place a picture in her mind whenever the word mother came to mind. Beside a fixed one, that will always be there, unchangeable.
"Your mother was always so vivacious, kindness her biggest virtue though sometimes weakness as well. She could be the toughest in the most difficult situations." There was a longing look in his eyes as Julian stared at the pictures with a glassy stare.
"The light to my night, she called me her knight." Upon remembering an old joke, a weak chuckle escaped him.
"I love her so much." He whispered softly with spirit.
Valeria sensed the longing of this man who called himself her father for his wife. Looking at this man's sad face with which she had only recently familiarized herself, this inexplicable urge to comfort him overcame her.
She almost raised her hand to put it on his shoulder, but then held back and let it fall down.
Her lips pursed.
"How did she die?" She asked. She doesn't know how, but the words just slipped off her tongue.
Her father stiffened, and she noticed how his fingers curled up to tighten into fists. It wasn't her intention to agonize him like this, because it was obvious how much broaching this topic pained him.
But she was hurting too, and she needed to know.
She had never cared about anyone except a handful few, was used to causing pain with her words or actions with no remorse.
She wondered if she considered him as someone she didn't want hurt in the short time she had known him.
"That fateful accident is the reason I lost your mother, and you, my daughter. It is also how I found my other daughter, Roxana."