The Shocking Proposal

Athena finished cleaning the last room and gathered the cleaning stuff before exiting the room. She walked slowly through the dark corridor of the third floor. Only Roman Morin lived on this floor. The walls of the corridors were painted in light blue while the floor was wrapped in red carpets making it look bright and vibrant, opposite of what Roman Morin's character was. 

Athena chuckled lightly while shaking her head at her thoughts.  She shouldn't be thinking about those things and focus on her work instead. When she reached the second floor she heard Lexi calling her name. Athena turned around and smiled at her. Lexi was one of the maids in the mansion and was good towards her. She had light blonde hair, fair skin, and light blue eyes. She looked like those pretty mean girls from opera soap but her personality was the opposite. She was an introverted type of girl and didn't talk much. But she was kinda friendly towards Athena. 

"What's the matter, Lexi?" Athena asked while taking steps towards Lexi. Her hands were occupied with the cleaning stuff and she couldn't wait till she put them away. 

"I have been looking for you in the whole mansion. Where were you?" Lexi asked with a scowl, ignoring her question.

"Oh, I was cleaning on the third floor. What's the matter?" Athena replied with a small smile and then asked again? Lexi nodded and then heaved a sigh.

"Senior Morin is calling you in his study room. He said he has something important to talk to you about." Lexi informed Athena with a frown, maybe thinking what Henry Morin wanted to talk to Athena about. But as usual, she didn't voice her thoughts aloud.

"Oh, alright! I will go and see him. Meanwhile, can you take these things and put them away?" Athena asked while gesturing to the cleaning things. 

"Okay." Lexi nodded and took the things from Athena.

"Thank you." Athena thanked her with a smile and moved her legs towards the study of Henry Morin.   

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Upon reaching the door of Henry Morin's study, Athena knocked two times with her fingers and waited for his response. When she heard the faint come in, she decided to enter the study.

She slowly pushed opened the door and peeked her head inside first. Her eyes landed directly on Henry who was sitting on his desk's chair while crossing his both hands with each other. His elbows were resting on the table. His posture was neat and elegant. He looked like a true king.  

When his gaze landed on Athena he smiled softly at her. 

"Athena! Dear, come inside." He said in a warm voice making Athena smile. Athena smiled back and nodded before pushing her whole body inside the office through the door.

"Hi, grandpa! Lexi told me you were calling-" Her voice stopped abruptly the moment she looked towards the left side of the room where two sofas were placed. In front of her eyes, sitting elegantly on the sofa were Gabriel, Helen, and Roman Morin. She didn't notice their presence earlier so she looked at them kinda awkwardly. When she finally came out of her shock zone she looked towards them and smiled. Goerge and Helen smiled back at her but Roman glared at her. 

"Uhmm grandpa, why do you need something?" Athena asked after a moment of pause. 

"No, dear. But I want to talk to you about something important." Henry informed her in a warm voice while getting up from his seat. No one else present in the room said anything. 

"Okay. What's the matter?" Athena asked, a bit nervous? She didn't know why he called her with his whole family's presence and what he wanted to talk about. She just hoped they didn't decide to fire her just because she had bumped into their elder heir for the 7th time this year. She couldn't lose the job as she didn't want to lose such a good fortune.

"Well, you see I'm getting old with each passing day and I don't know how long I will live, but before dying I want my grandsons and granddaughter to settle down with their own family." Henry started by stating his concern for his family. But Athena didn't understand what it had to do with her nevertheless she listened to him attentively.

"Oh, I understand your concern." She said sweetly, making Henry smile at her. 

"As you already know, my oldest grandson is Roman, so I want him to settle down first. I'm looking for a suitable bride for him and for our family who could manage our family well and keep our family tradition. But there's no one more suitable for my grandson than you. That's why I want you to marry Roman and be my daughter-in-law." Henry finished and looked carefully at Athena who had a sweet smile plastered on her face.

"That's nice of you and I think- wait what!" Athena suddenly realized what Henry had said and looked at him with eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

"What? I think I heard you wrong, you want me to what?" Athena asked with a frown as her voice was filled with pure nervousness. Henry couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction. He already expected this type of reaction.

"You heard me right, Athena. I want you to marry Roman and be my granddaughter-in-law." Henry repeated his words making Athena look at him in disbelief. Athena then looked towards her left where Roman was sitting on the sofa with a blank look on his face. From his reaction, she guessed he already knew about this including his uncle and aunt.

"You want me to marry him?" Athena asked as he pointed at herself with a finger first and then at Roman who was sitting there with legs crossed, his eyes already fixed on her. 

"Yes, Athena," Henry replied with a chuckle, making Athena look at him with a frown.

"Why? You aren't joking right?" Athena asked while looking at everyone suspiciously. This time Helen got up from her seat and heaved a sigh before coming towards her.

"No Athena. This is true. We want you to be our daughter-in-law." Helen said in a warm voice while holding Athena's hands. Athena looked at her in shock. She didn't know what was happening to her. 

She was nobody but a lowly maid in their mansion who spent her whole life living in their pity. 

She had no education, no etiquette, and no qualification to be the elder daughter-in-law of the prestigious Morin family.  But still, they are asking her to be their daughter-in-law. Why? 

"Why me?" Athena asked, her voice filled with confusion, worry, and nervousness.

"Because there's no one more suitable than you to be Roman's bride," Helen replied sweetly. Athena was about to say something when Henry stopped her 

"I would like to talk to you about something, alone," Henry said in his authoritative voice. His message was clear. He wanted everyone else except Athena to leave the room. So one by one Helen, Gabriel, and Roman left the room without saying anything. Roman just looked at Athena coldly one last time before finally exiting the room, leaving her alone with his cunning grandfather who was hellbound to get him married to that girl!

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