Chapter 3

Aliyah finished taking her bath and felt a little comfortable. Relaxed enough to finally take in the view of the whole room, the mixture of modern European decor in the room was masterful and eye-pleasing. 

An elaborate space filled with imported furniture of the highest command. Vintage aesthetics and artistic wall frames. Nothing was lacking.  She, all her life, had never seen such a seamless array of exotic interior designs explored to perfection. 

Aliyah's family belonged to the middle class of their society. They were on a well-to-do scale and were quite affluent in their own right, having an unrivaled mansion and always donning outfits people around them fawned over but right now, This was of course a next-level luxury. 

The architecture, furnishing, and decor were charmingly classy seeming like a meticulously carved wing from a contemporary manor of a regal fantasy world. 

In comparison to what she was used to and often bragged about, the difference was like heaven and earth. 

As her mind wandered around the expansive bedroom it, boomeranged back to Ben's evil daring gaze once again, the owner of the abode. 

Did he always have such money and power? If only I knew, I would not have looked down on him back then, She thought to herself. There was no way she could change anything now. Especially not in the past. 

Aliyah was not feeling the least bit sleepy, how could she go to sleep easily after all that happened, she was trying to mentally prepare herself for all that was yet to come in the form of Ben's unkind, hurtful deeds. 

After staying awake for a while she dosed off slowly and was fully passed out on the bed after a few minutes. 

Tick! Tack!

Tick! Tack! 

Aliyah was fully asleep yet could not help but react to the sound she was hearing, accompanied by the flickering of the antique light bulbs in her room. 

She slowly opened her eyes and noticed that there was a blurry figure right in front of her face staring intensely at her. 

  

“Aaahh"

Aliyah shrieked in fear and backed away from the figure in her view. Now wide awake, she was well aware of who the person was. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?.” she lashed out. 

pfft! He scoffed as he climbed onto the bed. 

“Perhaps you've forgotten so quickly that I own this house and every single thing in it, everything thing" he emphasized as he closed in on Aliyah. She backed away in fear, wondering what he was trying to do here. 

The space between them was so little that a kitten would not be able to fit, she could hear him breathe but could hardly breathe herself. 

“What...What are you trying to do?." she stammered. He stared directly into her soft eyes for a moment and then backed away quickly.

“mmmm... That's my line, I think I should be asking you that" Tyler responded. “I don't remember permitting you to rest yourself upon my specially designed, high-end mattress, do you know how much these beddings cost? Not just anyone can lay on it you know. especially not disposable trash like you ”

As those words reached her ears, Aliyah wondered what exactly Ben thought she was, Dirt. Filth?. Every word he seemed to utter was an attack on her already fragile self-esteem. 

Ben was visibly irritated, He made for the bed sheet and pulled it from beneath the bed, messing  it up and pulling everything to the ground, as well as Aliyah who was sitting atop it, 

Thud! 

She crashed forcefully to the floor right on the bed sheet and was visibly shocked to the point that she was speechless. She stared daggers at him looking above her head from the floor, with sleepy eyes. 

“You've sullied my expensive sheets, you might as well keep them or throw them out. Try to be comfortable, on the floor, where you belong" Ben wasted no breath and walked out on her before she could think of anything to say. 

She remained still for a while and recoiled onto the floor with teary eyes wondering how long she was going to survive his cruelty, his hellish treatment, his extreme pettiness. 

this is barely day one with him, if it went on this way I wouldn't last a week. She thought

Before he opened the door to exit the room, he turned and stared. 

“Oh..be mindful of what you say. What was that you said about a lunatic again? The walls have ears," he said with a finger tapping gently on his earlobe. “I look forward to having my meal tomorrow"

 He banged the door behind him. 

Aliyah was a little puzzled, did he hear that? What kind of psycho places bugs in the bathroom of his guests? She thought. 

She remembered the last thing he said about looking forward to his meal, but was not sure what he was yapping about so she shrugged it off. 

The last look in his eyes was pure irritation and disgust. it was as if he could stare right at her filthy soul. 

***********************************************

Next morning 

Aliyah was woken up by the maid as early as 6 a.m. She was a little drowsy, she could barely sleep the night before, and waking up that early wasn't something she was used to. 

“Umm... What's your name again? " the maid asked with an apprehensive stare as they both stood in front of the kitchen counter. With a lot of stuff placed on it. 

“Aliyah” she replied. 

“Oh. Aliyah," she paused. “the master has ordered for his steak to be cooked medium-rare and Eggs benedict perfectly made"

The insides of her eyebrows slanted still not sure what the hell was going on. 

“Umm, I've never.... "

“That'll be all. I'll leave you to it okay? Get on with it now, you've got all you need right here"

She slammed both her hands on the counter and left. 

“I... I... "Aliyah tried to draw her attention. 

The maid did not even wait to listen to whatever Aliyah had to say. She couldn't care any less, her work for the day was cut out for her, and she wasn't gonna waste time babysitting a newbie. 

Aliyah did not get to tell her that she had never done this before in her life, there was always somebody to do it all for her, a spoilt brat she was, how was she going to make this in line with his request? 

“How hard can it be," she said, a poor attempt to cheer herself up as she braced herself for the task before her. 

It took over an hour for Aliyah to wrap things up, and like it was planned the maid came back into the kitchen to check if she was done. 

the made had set the table and by the time Aliyah came to drop off the meal she prepared, Ben was already sitting at the table. 

She dropped the meal in front of him and stood a few steps away waiting for him to dig in. She has tried her best. 

Ben stared at her briefly examining her as she was awaiting his review, he noticed the bandages wrapped around her fingers and then he proceeded to dig in. 

“What manner of rubbish Is this... Is this supposed to be what I asked for? Huh? " he said as he took a slice of the steak to his mouth, after chewing for a while, his brows furrowed with obvious disappointment. 

He took a napkin and spat out the morsel of meat into it. “The steak is overdone, I've never seen such a disastrous symphony of poorly cooked food"

Aliyah was obviously unpleased with his reaction, for her, she had put her all into that and he trashed all her efforts like it was nothing of note. 

“What is it you are good for actually? Huh?. of What use can you be to me?"

It was beginning to seem like this wasn't just about the food she made, it was beyond that. 

“Celine! Celine! ” Ben roared 

“Yes Master, is there a problem?" 

“Yes there is, it's obvious that your interest in keeping your job has dwindled, it appears you left her unsupervised to run riot in my kitchen. "

“No Sir, Forgive me, Sir, I had told her exactly what you asked me" the maid trembled in obvious fear of Ben. His every word. 

“You are entirely forgiving, but I will no longer be requiring your services, you are fired."

“You" Ben called to the lady standing right beside Celine. “You are in charge now"

“Thank you Sir" the lady replied emphatically. 

“I want her nowhere near my kitchen until she learns how to make something properly fit for human consumption" Ben warned pointing a finger directly at Aliyah. 

“Yessir, I'll do all I can" She was spared for now. This was unusual, a single error was always enough for the master to fire everyone within his sight, but for some reason, she was spared but she couldn't say the same for her senior, Celine, Thank goodness, she thought to herself. 

He got up abruptly from the chair 

“Go take off those rags you're wearing" He bluntly said. 

“Take off? What do you mean?" Aliyah finally spoke,  her mind wandered far and wide. 

“Are we going somewhere?” 

“You've ruined my morning and you are going to have to make up for that somehow," Ben said before he dashed away.