A Wife for the Billionaire
Chapter 95: SOFIA

Chapter 95: SOFIA

It was a miracle that I found sleep four hours before dawn.

And by the grace of whatever or whomever was in charge of dreams, my sleep was dreamless. What I did to deserve it, I don’t know. But maybe, it kinda discovered that I was becoming good.

That on the morrow, I was going to turn down a dream job, because I couldn’t take it at the detriment of another.

"Wake up, child. Wake up" it was Sir Felix shaking me awake at 6am.

But I was too sleepy to care and too tired to rouse. Until...

Tahh!

A stinging slap to my cheek.

That did it, I was up immediately.

"Sorry kid, I had to. It’s either that or worse in the hands of our Madam or her pranksters"

I think I forgot to mention that after Alicia sacked the other helpers, my duties and chores increased. Now, I cook while also doing my previous chores. Sir Felix helps, but I mostly feel weird asking him for help or seeing him toiling at his age.

"Good morning, Sir Felix." I greeted, massaging my right cheek. "Thanks for this, you are right, I rather welcome your slap than theirs"

"Save that for later, hurry, we have much to do before they wake" he said, exiting my room.

Dashing to the bathroom, I quickly rinsed my face, brushed my teeth before joining him in the kitchen.

He was already off to a great start, it even looked like he had been preparing breakfast for a while before he came to wake me up. I could have hugged him at the moment. But we still had a lot to do before our mistress and her daughters woke up.

By 6:56am, I was setting the table when Alicia appeared.

"A bit late, aren’t we?" She mused.

"Good morning, ma’am. Just finishing up" I supplied.

I often wonder why she died this almost every morning. She wasn’t leaving until 8am, but to taunt her servants and me, she would wake up as early as 6am to have her breakfast.

Her daughters, those lazy asses, would join her on most days. Their reasons, especially Anna centering on hunger. The girl was a glutton, always going to bed with tons of snacks and yet, at 6am, she would still wake up with an empty stomach ready to be stuffed again.

Thanks to her mom’s perfect body which nature bestowed on them, no matter how much she consumes, age barely added a few tons which a week of early morning runs took care of.

As for Mira, she joined in the early morning breakfast because she was just as cruel as her mom, if not crueler. One time, Alicia woke up to see dear old Agatha, not at all finished with their breakfast. Alicia was still reprimanding her, when Mira decided that it wasn’t enough and threw a steaming mug of coffee at her.

That was the day Agatha retired. She died a year later, God bless her kind soul. Now, it’s just me and Sir Felix, enduring hell at the hands of those we call employees.

Alicia took her seat and I poured her a cup of coffee, black like her soul. Coffee was the first thing she had, her tea cane after breakfast, just before she left the house.

She ate her breakfast of toast, bacon, cheese and scrambled eggs in silence. Not making any complaint once, like other mornings. If anything, she occasionally smiled while munching, or could it be my damn imagination.

Or perhaps, it was the lingering effect of her date with William.

Whatever it was, I was just glad that for the very first time since I became a member of the Blake household, Alicia was eating her breakfast without complaints.

"What time would you be leaving for work?" She asked, pushing her tray of crumbs away.

It took me a moment to realize that she was talking to me, collecting the tray I answered,

"Charlie opens by 8am, so I should be there 30 minutes later. Is there a problem, ma’am?"

Her scarlet lips twisted into a wry smile,

"A problem?" she repeated.

Wondering what she meant by that, I kept mute.

"And why would there be one?"

Her tone now suggested that my mere asking had been a problem.

"I... erm, I don’t know, ma’am" I stuttered, perplexed as to this drastic

turn of events.

"Exactly," she crooned, "you don’t know. Well, let me educate dumb skull, you are the problem, from the moment your con of a father brought you to my doorstep, you’ve always been. All it took was a simple question for you to ruin my morning. Asking if there’s a problem, as if you are fucking indispensable. Get that tray out of my sight and tell Felix to attend me. I don’t want your cursed face to ruin the rest of my morning"

"Yes, ma’am" was all I could manage as I turned towards the kitchen.

How could I have been so naive? Someone with cruelty as her bone structure like Alicia, can never change. Even if she’s touched by the metamorphic hands of love, as I suspect in the form of William, she would never change. Even if her entire memory is wiped, Alicia will still find a way to return to her cruel ways.

I think some people are just like that. Created inherently cruel, that nothing would ever make them change.

"Sorry Miss," Sir Felix said as he walked past me, a tray consisting of a delicately designed jug of Alicia’s favorite tea and teacups in hand.

So he heard it all.

I dropped the tray with a clap, anger building at me. Here I was trying to be good, to do better, whereas they are people that are not even making any attempt. People like Alicia.

Perhaps the problem is that they don’t think what they are doing is wrong, that their attitude is evil and downright diabolical.

In approximately 5 hours, I will be meeting another person like her. Richard-pissing-Wellington.

I doubt there will be anything in this life that would make the billionaire less cruel. Even if he’s stripped of all his power and wealth, I don’t think he will change. If anything, he is sure to become crueler. Throwing back at life the same cruelty it handed to him.

Surrounded by inanimate objects and appliances, I found myself questioning my decision to turn down the job offer.

"Take the job and rub it in Alicia’s face. And with this job, you can save enough money to move out or better the course of your life" a voice boomed within my mind.

With my back to the sink, I folded my arms and nodded to the words of the voice. It was making a ton of sense, life has been so cruel to me that it would be stupid to be anything, but cruel in return. If not crueler.

Why must I be the one to change, to forgo the same behavior life in its cruelty taught me?

Why must nurture the idea of change, when those whom life has always smiled upon frown on it?

People like Richard and Alicia, all their lives, I don’t think they’ve ever had it bad. I don’t know much about Richard, but he has always been the son of a billionaire, never lacking anything or comfort that money can’t afford. His life must be marked with luxury right from the moment fertilization took place.

While it’s true that I don’t also know much about Alicia, especially her past, but she had been the daughter of a Congressman.

Her father, Sir Malik Dane, though wasn’t really an active man in the affairs of the state, but he was a congressman nonetheless. Her family has always been one accustomed to fame, wealth and respect. Even before she became the wife of Francis Blake.

Her connection with my father remains one of the blanks I can’t fill. According to my calculations based on the twins’ birth, Simon had been fooling both women at the same time. Though the twins never let slip their actual date of birth or discuss their age around me, but I wager we were of the same age. Perhaps they might be older by a few months or I might be.

Nothing of Alicia’s life depicts a relationship with my father. The twins don’t even seem to know who Simon was, the only father they’ve known remains the late Mr Blake.

I think her exceptional talent in covering her tracks was one of the qualities that attracted Simon to her. Had he not told me who Alicia and the twins were, I would never have guessed that they ever had anything to do with him.

"Don’t just dwell on those people, remember Cole, Hermosa, Gary - the cab driver, Harry, these people have treated you with nothing but kindness. Doesn’t that matter, does it not mean anything to you, at all?" The smaller voice whispered.

I hated how rational and right it usually is, and yes, there have been times that I silenced it and went ahead with the booming voice, but unfortunately, the present didn’t seem like one of those times.

Don’t get me wrong, I want this job more than anything else, but if I have it at the cost of another, then I’m no better than Alicia or Richard. Besides, I doubt I can ever be capable or give it my best, when the still voice taunts me daily of how I blindsided a man into taking what’s his.

It wasn’t easy, but I kept convincing myself that I was doing the right thing, over and over again. As if cementing my resolution.

I was going to turn down the job offer.