#Chapter1

Prologue

/"You sent for me ma'am?/" A young brunette walked into a study room, she had a long face, honey colored eyes that will invoke every ounce of passion in one. A medium full pink color lips. She looks thin, her long wavy hair covering the rest of her face, seeming to bury her in her own self. She stood fiddling the hem of the apron she wore on a loose fitting knee level gown. Her head bent as she studied her black leather sandals which looked old with mere looking at it. With one look, one can tell she was trembling. The air condition in the room was moderate but she was trembling and definitely not from cold but because of the woman, sitting opposite her on a sofa, casually sipping her coffee.

The woman has short blonde hair, transparent gray eyes, a few wrinkles is seen on her face but she still looked exquisite, graceful with the way she sips her coffee. She was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, dressed in a designer's top and a plain black pants. Her shoe's heels were pointed and looked quite sharp. She gently placed her coffee cup on the saucer then place it on the stool beside her, /"what are you in my house?/" She asked in a voice that sounds gentle but sends chills down the girl's back.

/"I don't understand ma'am./" she whispered.

/"What are you in my house?/" The woman repeated but with her voice chilling a few degrees.

The girl trembled and her fingers shook but she gulped and answered, /"a maid ma'am./"

/"Good. So you know you are a maid, why do you go after my son?/"

At the question, the girl's head sprang up, one would see the look of horror on her face, she opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.

/"Lillian, I'm going to say this once, it will be my first and last warning to you. The very day I will see you acting coquettishly near my son, is the day you will take your last breath./"

/"But ma'am I.../" She tried to protest.

/"Let me finish!/" The woman's voice was law as the girl clammed up immediately, /"I have received complaints about you and God help me Lillian, the day I will see for myself,/" she shook her head, /"pray, that I show mercy for I won't./" she looked at the girl, /"do I make myself clear?/"

/"Yes ma'am./"

/"Stay away from my son, stay away from Shane. You are a maid and a maid remains a maid. A maid works like a maid, will be paid like a maid and will die as a maid, do you understand?/"

No matter how much the girl rejects her words, she still nodded, /"yes ma'am./"

/"Whatever dreams you have with my son, abolish it. For no son of mine will be together with an imperfect girl. Follow in your family's footstep. Your mother married my servant, I have many more male servants, if you really want to be with a man, I can gift one to you but you will never, not in my house, not in my life, be with my son!/" Her face tightened as she made her last sentence, /"never./"

Lillian's eyes welled up but she stifled her sob and nodded, /"yes ma'am./"

The woman stared at her like one will look at an unworthy object in disgust, /"get out of my sight./" she shooed her and the girl curtsied before turning, opening the door and running out of the office. She closed the door after her, her legs grew weak when she was out.

She cupped her hand on her mouth to silence her sobs as the tears came pouring down her face like waterfall. She took a step, then a second one before slumping on the floor, her shoulders shook with her silence sobs and she wondered what kind of life she was born into.

Footsteps sounded on the hallway and she scrambled to her feet immediately, she dabbed at her eyes with the back of her hands, sniffling in the process to clear her nose.

A tall, black haired guy appeared at the end of the hallway, he has a transparent gray eyes just like the woman, his black hair was slicked back, parted at the side, his jaw was strong, his nose pointed and a thin line for his lips. A one week old stubbles were visible under his jaw, he froze for a second when he saw her and then was by her side in quick strides. He grab her shoulders tightly, a frown written on his face, /"Lilly, what is it? Why are you crying?/" He looked up at the door beside her and understanding dawned on him, /"what did she say to you?/" He whispered.

Lilly sniffed and shook her head softly, she forced a smile his way, /"nothing, she just called to ask me a few things./" she gulped.

/"What did she ask you?/"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, opening them again, she looked at him, /"I'm sorry sir, but if there is nothing else I will do for you, I will like to return to the kitchen./"

The young man was visibly shocked at her words, /"Lilly what do you mean?/"

/"I'm sorry sir but can I go now?/"

/"Lilly.../" He wanted to say something when the door opened and the woman from earlier stood beside it, he quickly let his hands on her shoulders drop to his sides. The woman looked from the man to the girl, she communicated to the girl with her eyes.

/"I'm sorry sir, if there is nothing else, I will leave first./" Lilly looked at the woman and bowed her head slightly, /"ma'am./" then to the man, /"sir./" she walked off immediately, not daring to look back. This is how it was supposed to be. This was how she had wanted it to be, do her job, earn her salary then carry on with her dream to go to college but her heart betrayed her, it fell for the one man she can never dream of having in this world. The one man that will never be hers.

A young girl rushed into a house in joy with a white envelope, it was her acceptance letter, she has been accepted in her dream school, University of California, she had worked really hard for it, had many sleepless nights because she was studying. As the only hope of the family, she didn't want to disappoint her hardworking mother who is the caretaker of the family. As she shut the door forcefully behind her, she regretted it immediately for the door fell off its hinges, /"Christ Lillian, when are you going to learn to be gentle with this door/" she muttered to herself before clasping the envelope under her armpit and gently but with a enough force to lift up the door, she perfectly fixed it into its hinges again.

She looked at her work with satisfaction before taking the envelope from her armpit and ran towards the kitchen. The floor creaked under feet like in horror movies but she paid no mind to it, she was quite used to it. The house looked clean but empty. It has only two single sofas, an old looking coffee table, the windows had little or no curtain on them. There was no television, no stereo or anything to make it look like a living room. As she ran into the kitchen, she paused, /"oh, looks like mama isn't back yet/" she whispered, tucking her wavy brunette hair behind her ear, her honey colored eyes scanned the whole kitchen before stopping on the vegetables on the kitchen counter.

She sighed then turn and left the kitchen, she entered the only door in the lobby, it's a room she shares with her mother. Her father had died when she was eight, although she still missed him but she remembers little of him. Her mother has been her all in all, the reason she finished high school now is her mother who works tirelessly at the Lockwood's mansion. Her father had worked there too and according to her mom, she said she had met her father there and they had fallen in love and gotten married.

She remembers little of the big house, she often visits there when she was little, she still remembers the kind man that often plays with her, he will carry her on his shoulder and run around the garden. He is the only one that plays with her, her parents were often busy that they only bring her to work and forget all about her. This kind man will often give her lollipops then play with her. She can still remember his face, his black hair, his blue eyes and his very soft beards that she often twists when they will be laying down on the soft grass. Although a little child but she never forgot the face of the man who showed her kindness.

There was also a boy in the house then but he was in high school and very much older than her, he always gifts her cupcakes and chocolates when he returns from school, and do play with her too. So many times she had heard him say he wished she was his sister.

Lilly smiled at the distant happy memories as she knelt down and brought out a safe box from under the bed, she gently opened the lid then place her envelope inside it with such gentleness like it's a delicate child that can't afford to be hurt. She knew there was a reason she stopped going to the mansion, she can't remember it vividly but she can still recall that she was playing hide and seek with the older boy in his room when they heard shouting, she had been scared and rushed out from her hiding place under the bed immediately. The boy had picked her up in his arms and left his room.

There was a woman shouting at the man who often plays with her, she had seen the man held the woman's hand and say something but the woman had slapped him causing the boy carrying her to take a sharp intake of breath, thereby making her wail. The woman had looked at her in disgust and had said something that made the boy's hold on her tightened but her mother had rushed out of somewhere and took her from the boy's hand. When she was being carried out, she looked back at the boy and had seen him fighting to hold back his tears, his very beautiful gray eyes that always look at her in complete gentleness and tenderness were red and the tears were threatening to fall down.

She had smiled and said sorry to him but he had only smiled painfully and waved at her, she waved back, promising to see him the next day. But after leaving through the door that day, she never went back. She was often left alone at home every day when her parents will go to work. She would stay hungry till when they will return late at night. Many times she had fallen asleep on the cold floor only to wake up with a cold the next day and for her to discover that her parents had left her alone again.

Many times she had wished for the arms of the young boy and for the lollipop of the man. Many times she had wished she was his sister too, and as a five year old child, the only warmth she had received where not from her parents but from a strange father and son who treated her like their own. Her lonely days ended when her parents came home one day and told her she would be going to school. She had been so happy for she thought she would see the boy, after all, he was the one that told her then that he often goes to school.

She had left for school happily the next day to see her handsome Prince, but all she saw where children like her and a big aunty they called teacher, she had searched everywhere that day but couldn't find him and had gone home and stayed up till midnight when her parents arrived and asked them about him. They told her she hadn't gotten to his stage in school yet and need to study hard in other to get to his school. That was where her zeal for education came from, she took school work seriously so that she can get to the stage of her Prince.

But the older she got, the more she understood, the man was Eric Lockwood, and the boy was Shane Lockwood. And through the help of a so called friend, she came to realize that her parents are servants for the Lockwood's. No wonder they were always busy whenever they went there. Her father was already dead, leaving only her and her mother. With time, she forgot about studying to meet her Prince but rather to grow big and have money so that her mother won't be a maid anymore. But sometimes, just like today, she would often remember far back, the father and son duo, who treated her kindly.