Chapter Two

"Buenos días Bonita! (Good morning beautiful)" The gardener, Carlos greeted me as I got to the garden with a tray containing his food in my hands.

Carlos Rodriguez was a forty-three-year-old man. He was the first friend I made in the US. It was about five years ago, I remember that night I had been around a dumpster searching for plastic bottles to be recycled for money when this guy walked up to me and stole all my plastic bottles. I took off chasing after him and ended up bumping into this man that appeared out of nowhere.

I had immediately brought out my knife to defend myself as I had thought he was one of those men that tries to take advantage of young girls, I had encountered a few of them before that night. Carlos had raised his hands and said 'I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help you' in Spanish and I had been a bit surprised by his Mexican accent. 'Are you Mexican?' I had asked in Spanish and he had replied 'Sí'.

To cut the long story short, Carlos was the reason I started working at Amelia and Dylan's house. And just like me, he doesn't have his papers but not once had Amelia threatened to call immigration on him.

I guess it was easier to bully a woman like herself.

"Better not let Ms. Amelia hear you say that." I said with a small smile on my lips. Carlos and I used to converse in Spanish as it was a lot easier than conversing in English but when Amelia found out, she forbade us from speaking in any other language besides English as 'she couldn't afford for us to plot her murder', her words not mine.

"You brought my breakfast?." He asked and I nodded. Most days he usually goes to the kitchen to get it himself but I took his food to him that morning because I figured he was busy planting the flowers Amelia had told him to plant.

"Yup." I said popping the p.

He smiled at me and thanked me before washing the mud off his hands so he could collect the tray from me.

"Ah Dios mío!" He exclaimed and then looked at me when he moved the lid covering his food and saw the extra chicken I added for him. I smiled at him and gave him a wink before proceeding to walk inside the house. Amelia would have my head if she found out I gave an employee more than one chicken.

"HERA!" I heard her scream from somewhere in the house I think it was the living room.

I rolled my eyes as I started to walk to the living room at a leisure pace might I had. I hated that she screamed a lot I mean she already had an annoying voice, her screaming was like a gun to the head.

"You called for me ma'am." I said with a polite voice as soon as I got to the living room. My eyes were fixated on my feet with both hands behind me. I knew she was glaring at me but I dare not look up to confirm that. I had to find out the hard way that Amelia hated eye contact. I would never forget how hard she had poked me in the eyes with her fingers the first time I spoke to her while making eye contact.

"What took you so long!" She spat and I flinched from how loud and scary her voice was. I didn't think I could ever get used to it.

"I-I was cleaning the rooms, ma'am. Rita isn't here yet and I know how much you hate it when every corner of the house isn't clean." I said with a shaky voice. I hated that I had no control over my voice when I spoke to her. I hated that she could see just how much I was scared of her.

"Why is Rita not here yet!" I don't think this woman has ever spoken calmly before in her life. And it wasn't me and the other employees she yelled at, she yelled at her husband too and sometimes, her daughter. Poor Brie had gotten so used to it that she doesn't even cry about it anymore.

"I don't know ma'am," I told her the truth. Rita was one of the cleaning ladies that started working at their mansion after I started there. Unlike Nina, Carlos, Peter, and I, she didn't live in the mansion. She wasn't Mexican but she too was in the country illegally. Actually, all of Amelia's employees were illegally in the US. I know she only employed illegal immigrants just so she could pay them way below the minimum wage and have them unable to do anything about it.

My job in the house was to clean the kitchen and cook the meals. I was also in charge of Brie, bathing her, and getting her ready for school. But most times, I do more than that and clean the rooms when Rita didn't get to work on time. Amelia had OCD so she hated when every part of the house wasn't sparkling clean. She would freak out if she saw the slightest crease on the bedsheet or the tiniest dust on the furniture. She wouldn't care if the person in charge of cleaning those places wasn't around, she would take the anger on me and Nina.

She made an order to have all the rooms in the house got cleaned every day even the ones that no one entered or slept in.

"You tell her that I do not want to see her here anymore that is if she still wants her legs attached to her body. Now stop lazing around and go bring my handbag in my room. And don't you dare waste my time, you have thirty seconds!"

I took off running immediately as I inwardly counted down from thirty. I knew the best thing for me was to not spend up to the thirty seconds she gave me. By the time I reached her room, I was panting hard. I dashed to her dressing table and picked up her bag taking extreme caution to not touch anything else as the last time I made the mistake of bumping into the chair, she almost burnt my skin with a hot iron. I could never understand how she found out 'cause I made sure to move the chair back to the position it had been before I knocked into it but somehow, she knew it hadn't been the way she had left it.

I spent exactly twenty-nine seconds to and fro her room. I handed her her bag as I tried so hard not to pant (she hated the sound). My lungs felt like it was going to collapse at any minute.

She gave me a look of contempt before walking past me outside the house, her heels clicking against the tiles as she walked away.

When I was sure she was far from earshot I fell onto a couch and took proper breaths, placing a hand on my chest.

"The witch is gone." Nina suddenly said as she entered the living room and I jumped, I was a bit startled. She chuckled. "It's so easy to frighten you."

"You can't blame me." I shrugged my shoulders. "You are done with cleaning upstairs?." I asked and she stared at me like I was crazy.

"Are you crazy? Done cleaning? Have you forgotten how big this place is?." She said with slightly wide eyes.

"Of course I haven't, I could never." I slid down the couch, settling on the floor.

"Where do you think Mrs. Johansson always goes to because the last time I checked, she doesn't work. It's all daddy's money." Nina said and I shrugged my shoulders. She had always liked to gossip about Amelia and her husband and everyone in general and I have indirectly tried to tell her that I wasn't interested in gossiping about other people but she was slow. I wasn't the type to call people out or directly voice out what I wanted or thought. I know that will make her feel bad and I hated making others feel bad.

"She makes Mr. Marshall do all the work and still nags him." She shook her head. "He deserves a lot better than her, I mean she's not even that pretty and she wouldn't even take his last name even though they are married! I wish she knew how lucky she was to have a man like Mr. Marshall as hers." She let out a dreamy sigh "I would feel on top of the world if he was mine."

I guess I'm not the only one head over heels for Dylan.

Knowing that Nina liked Dylan too didn't sit well with me, it somehow made me sad.

"What do you think the party tonight will be like?." She asked after a moment.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Like it has been every year. Boring, standing for hours, making sure I don't lose sight of Brie."

Mr. Richard Johansson, Amelia's father always threw a business party every year and Amelia would make me, Nina, and Rita attend so we could help the waiters with providing the best service to the guests.

"Yeah true and cleaning up the mess after but on the bright side, we get to see those gorgeous and wealthy men that look too good to be true."

I nodded. She wasn't wrong about that but most of the time, I was usually too preoccupied with making sure Brie stayed playing with the other kids and not run off somewhere else.

"What dress will you be wearing?" She asked excitedly.

"I...don't know. I haven't given it much thought." I would probably wear one of my old dresses, the one that hadn't faded color yet. "Um, what about you?." I didn't ask because I was interested in knowing about the dress she will wear. I asked because she looked like she wanted me to ask.

She clapped her hands excitedly. "I bought this dress from the thrift store a few weeks back. I can't wait to have it on, I'm gonna look like a princess. Who knows, I might find my Prince Charming tonight and leave this damn place." She had a wide smile on her face as she thought about that night, I couldn't help but smile too. Her smile was contagious.

Evening rolled in and we were all getting ready for the business party. Nina, Rita, and I were usually the first people to leave the house for the venue, Amelia, Dylan, and Brie usually came in much later. But that night, it was just me and Nina as Amelia had fired Rita for not being punctual that morning.

I heard a knock on my door as I was about to pull the zipper of my dress.

"Um, coming." I said, holding my dress to my chest. I knew it was Nina at the door. She probably wanted to ask me how she looked.

The door was pushed open and standing in the doorway wasn't Nina as I had been expecting.

"Mr. Marshall." I said, unable to hide the surprise I felt. I held on to my dress tighter and took a few steps back.

"Hey, I just wanted to er give you this." He raised the paper bag in his hand slightly. I was going to ask what was in it but I couldn't find my voice. The thought of Dylan seeing my bra straps as my dress fell from my shoulders made me experience a temporary shock. "I will just drop it on the bed he said." And I bobbed my head like a fool. "So er, I'll see you at the party." He said and started to head outside my room. Just before he could close my door he stopped and said "Don't tell Amelia I gave you this." I bobbed my head frantically, I still couldn't speak yet. He chuckled at me before closing the door and just like that I released the breath I didn't know I was holding.

I walked over to my door and locked it behind me just in case he thought of coming back. I walk to my bed and slowly peeled in the bag to see what was in it. The first thing I saw was red and silver crystals.

It almost looked like a...

A loud gasp escaped my lips when I pulled out the dress in the bag. My jaw was practically on the floor as I stared at the beautiful dress that lay on my bed. It looked like the type of dress only a princess would wear.

I didn't think twice before getting out of the dress I had on. It looked so tacky beside the red dress Dylan gave me. I put on the red dress and walked over to the mirror. My jaw went slack when I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. I looked different, very different.

It was a one arm off shoulder dress that exposed a bit of cleavage. The high slit exposed my left leg and although I wasn't keen on exposing my body, the dress made me look so elegant that I didn't mind the skin showing. I had to wear a strapless bra as the dress didn't allow the first bra I wore. The dress fitted to my body like a glove and flowed down to the floor. The silver crystals sparkled so brightly it left me dumbstruck.

I couldn't believe the woman in the mirror was me. I couldn't believe Dylan had bought me a dress as beautiful as that and expensive too. Why did he buy me a dress? Did he get one for Nina too?

My second question was answered when I saw Nina's dress. The shock on her face when she saw my dress was enough to tell me that Dylan had gotten a dress for only me.

But, why?