chapter 2

Peroni Eraykah Hawthorne, mother calls from downstairs.

oh no! I'm in trouble, mother only calls us by our full names when we're in absolute trouble and she's angry.

And when mother is angry , everyone including dad gets an earful.

I surely but carefully make my way downstairs with a pounding heart, I could literally get an heart attack from how fast it's pounding.

The squeak on the stairs as I make my way downstairs means it's just mopped them. Miss Alice,the our oldest help would have my head on a platter if she finds me walking on the freshly mopped stairs.

I hear the birds chripping outside as if to wish me luck.

It seems like eternity, when it in fact took only few minutes before our beautiful hall comes in view.

I found my family downstairs, including dad, which is rare because he's hardly at home, always busy with work.

Scott looks at me as if to say, what did you do this time Peroni? While Brianca looks at me with pity in her eyes, but I can't read dad's expression.

And mother … oh if looks could kill, I'd be dead by now. Mother is sitting with her arms folded and has a stern expression on her face.

Where did you go last night when everyone was asleep? Mother say with malice. Oh no! Mother knows about my secret, and it's not helping that she said it so calmly and deadly.

With the look on the rest of my family's faces, they don't know what mother 's about.

A lump froms in my throat and I try to swallow, I..I went for a walk, I say trying to hide my trembling . I could literally feel the sweat streaking down my back.

Mother can't know about my secret, no … if my family finds out about my secret I'm dead.

And if those judgemental family friends find out, it will give them more reason to criticize and look down on me.

A walk you say? She says it with that lethal calm voice that make shivers run down my spine.

My siblings and I have gotten into our fair share of troubles, and when mother uses this voice, you just pray you get out of whatever it is alive.

At least father 's quiet, which is a good sign right?

It's definitely not fun to be at the receiving end of mom's temper, it's only fun when it happens to Scott. I bet he feels the same way about me being at the receiving end instead of him.

Don't lie to me young lady. Mom I promise,It's was just a walk.

Bring me my purse, mother ignores as she asks the servant who just enters .

The servant brings mother her purse and leaves immediately. The tension in the room is so palpable you can cut through it with a knife.

Mother opens her purse and brings out photos and drop them on the table. Care to explain which type of walk you were taking in these photos?

Bile roses in my throat threatening to come out, I've never been this scared in my life. Dad takes the photos on the table and his expression goes from calm unreadable to rage.

I might just died just here at this point, mother being angry is one thing, but both dad and mother being angry? I'm grounded for life!

My legs finally give out and the floor welcomes me .

Care to explain this, dad says with such coldness in his voice that , it could have frozen the entire room.

I didn't even realize when dad got infornt of me, I raise my hand to take the photos from dad's outstretched hand when I realized I was shaking and the ringing in my ears tuned everything out.

The photos in my hands are of Kai and I holding hands talking, sitting on the green grass together , Kai hugging me goodbye , Kai feeding me berries he plucked from the blue berry tree at the river side… our secret spot .

People hardly go there so we decided to meet there from time to time to spend time together. He always makes sure he gets there first, and if there are people there he'll leave a mark on the tree to let me know he was there but left, we then meet up the next day .

Even though Kai and I sneak out to meet eachother at night, we've not done anything serious apart from the occasional kissing and hugs.

But will parents believe me. I stopped at the fourth photo because I just couldn't bring myself to keep going through the photos.

I met Kai at last year horse race event, where I was able to sneak to my favorite spot at the river to have some alone time and read my smutty book.

It's only this time of the year that I could sneak out easily without much trouble since everyone is occupied with other things to pay any heed to me.

I found Kai sitting under the tree with his eyes closed , the view of the sunset from here is ethereal. And the golden light reflecting on Kai….took my breath away.

Even though he's not a commoner, he isn't also as wealthy as my parents would want.

I'm sure they've already chosen a "suitable " candidate for me, even though they've never said anything about it.

Scott comes for the photos in my sweaty, shaking hands and he seem so say something but I zone out and didn't hear anything he said.

Mother and Father were talking and I couldn't make out what they were saying, all I gathered was that ,I was grounded and will stay in the house training for the horseback riding race and help the servants with the chores, after the event I'm leaving for boarding school and it's not up for discussion.

If I found out you sneaked out to meet that delinquent again, I will destroy his life and his father's business, dad says.

Go to your room and don't come out in till you're called. Father say .