Vanessa hugged her knees and rested her chin on them as she cried silently in her room. It seemed nobody, not even one person, understood how she felt. They all thought of her, as an arrogant and selfish lady. Was that even true? She spent most of her time being selfless as much as she could. Why can't they see how hard she was struggling to put everything behind her and live her life like a normal person? If anything, Raymond broke her first! Why did she have to suffer, when he was the root of everything? Why was everyone being unfair to her?
****
"Well, I think I've watched enough comedy shows for the day" Arnold replied as he smiled at Maya.
"I..." Maya began only to be interrupted by Arnold.
"You don't have to say anything, my lady. I'm sure i know how this works" Arnold replied.
Raymond looked sarcastically at Arnold and turned to climb the stairs stifling a laughter. He knew Arnold believed not a single word said by Maya. Raymond, himself, was waiting patiently for his mother to tell him everything was a prank to scare him. Somehow, his intuition told him everything he heard was true but his brains told told him it was too fictional to be true.
"Are you leaving us here?" Mary asked, snapping Raymond out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm going to check if the butler is still around." Raymond replied and turned to Arnold; "Kindly keep them company while i am away" wearing a knowing smirk, which earned a chuckle from Arnold.
"Alright, Aunty Mary and Aunty Maya, you may have seats. I know you're tired but bear with us for a few minutes hopefully. We'll sort everything out" Arnold said wearing a broad smile.
"You know, you can steal the hearts of innocent young women with that smile" Mary said as she made herself comfortable.
"I bet he's stolen a lot already" Maya replied wearing a sarcastic expression, which made all three of them burst into laughter.
"I guess yours hasn't been stolen by me yet" Arnold asked Maya playfully.
"Not yet! It would take more than that smile to win my heart" Maya played along.
"Strong willed, headstrong, unyielding,....a warrior. That's what's my intuition tells me about you" Arnold said.
"How reliable is your intuition?" Maya replied.
"Ninety percent reliable" Arnold replied
"Such a reliable intuition!" Maya retorted, which earned broad smiles from both Arnold and Maya. "What did your intuition tell you, when i told you I was older than Mary"
"Well....I don.. don't" Arnold began to stutter.
"I know you didn't believe me though" Maya said wearing a smile. "But i don't blame you though, I'm trapped in the body of a young girl" Maya replied sarcastically, easing the tension which was slowly building up.
"I'm sorry if I offended you with my actions earlier, but I still find it difficult to believe you are older than Mary when you barely look sixteen" Arnold retorted.
"I agree" Mary chipped in.
"Not you too, Mary" Maya cried and they all burst into laughter.
Raymond relaxed when he saw how humorous the atmosphere was, as he descended the stairs with the butler beside him. The butler was an average looking man, about the age of forty. When they got to where Arnold, Mary and Maya were, the butler halted in his tracks which made Raymond looked suspiciously at him.
"Maya?" the butler cried.