The Sinclair Household Like A Trap to Live In
Just days after another awful confrontation, and Zoey began to painfully awaken to Lily's stare, more sharper than ever before. Now, she feels that everything she does has turned into a test: a slight mistake would bring down around her head attack from Lily. She walked the halls of the mansion with echoes of Lily following her. For her, every day felt like walking on very thin ice.
But there was that one word from Alex that night, which always hung about her:
"You mean something to me."
In her mind, these two strange moods keep playing endlessly. Confusing yet warming for the sake of their warmth.
Morning of Consequence
Within seconds, Zoey snapped on her apron and raced off downstairs to survey the conditions of the breakfast site. The air was thick with what it seemed to hold.
At the table sat Mr. Sinclair reading Financial Times, while Mrs. Sinclair fawned over invitations to some other affair, and narrowed her eyes at Lily in an unsettlingly smirk. Alex, of course, was late.
Stirring her tea slowly, Lily said, "Zoey, I hope you haven't been… distracted of late," her ton sweet b ut poisonous below.
"Wonderful. I wouldn't want to think you stepped out in, well...or something else." The last word had been reserved, and before she could finish speaking, the doors opened to admit Alex. In unison, all heads turned to him. His face darkened as he noticed the smile of Lily towards Zoey.
"Good morning, Alex," Lily sang. "For today, you are late. Must have been a long night of...thinking."
It was a gaze he couldn't bear to meet, but it was thick in the air with a gentleness that would resemble a searching eye.
She turned away and hurried toward the kitchen. She wanted to escape from this atmosphere, which felt as if it was entirely suffocating.
The Dangerous Revelation
Was the flaxen-haired child interested at all in the mysteries of that afternoon? Indeed, this must have been 'alone' for her, as she used the remainder of her energy scrubbing the front steps; if she had an abstraction of silence being quite alive in her moment, the next moment she would hear voices coming from the parlor window, either Mr. Sinclair or Alex.
"I expect you to honor the agreement with the Walkers," Mr. Sinclair's deep voice cracked open.
"I know my business, dad," came Alex's cool response.
"The engagement with Lily secures our future. You will marry her," was a Dictate by Mr. Sinclair, closed to all arguments or debates.
Zoey froze. The very heart seemed to have trembled. She had known about Alex and Lily getting married; but now it was confirmed to her, that very confirmation making her feel as if hit by the end of a hammer.
"So that's all I'm to you? Just a business tool?" Alex's voice was lower now but defiant.
"Keep your foolish emotions out of this," Mr. Sinclair snapped.
So Zoey's hand trembled on the scrub brush. She should not listen, she knew, but was unable to tear herself away.
The Garden Meeting
That evening, once again, Zoey was found assigned in the garden. It was a cool evening and the wavering flowers danced to the tune of a faint twilight. It was while watering the roses when she was suddenly startled by a voice.
"Zoey."
She turned, her eyes meeting Alex's behind her. He looked like he was really at odds with himself, quite finally throwing his cool facade out of the window.
"Mr. Alex," Zoey whispered, backing away. "You shouldn't-"
"I had to see you," he interrupted quietly, and his eyes held hers. "Did you hear what my father said?"
Zoey's silence was answer enough.
He sighed and stepped a little closer. "They want me to marry Lily. But you know that already."
"I don't see why you're telling me this," she said, voice tight, eyes downcast.
"For the sake of it," said Alex with the utmost intensity, "you are everything, Zoey. "
She shook her head; her tears were on the verge of spilling. "No. You can't say that. I'm just a maid. You're… you're everything they want for Lily. That's how it's meant to be."
"Predestined does not concern me," came his firm reply. "I care what is right. About you. "
Zoey felt his words break her resolve, but fear held her back. "It can never happen," she whispered, her voice breaking.
Alex stepped closer, his hand grazing her cheek. "Zoey…."
Before he could say anything else, they were interrupted by an intimidating voice ringing through the garden:
"What is going on here?"
Lily.
Lily's Fury-
Lily stood at the edge of the garden, a mask of barely contained rage upon her face. Her gaze shifted icily between them, resting longer on Zoey, like a predator sizing up its prey.
"Zoey," she said, her voice as cold as steel, "what are you doing here with Alex?"
Her heart was racing at full speed, and she quickly stepped back. "I was just—"
"Don't lie!" shouted Lily, her voice raised. "You think I don't see what's going on? Pathetic, a servant thinking that she's more."
"Lily, stop." Alex came in sharply. "This isn't what you think."
"Oh, I know exactly what this is," spouted Lily with shimmering eyes of victory. She then swung round to Zoey. "You think you're special? That someone like Alex could ever want you? Let me make this clear: you're nothing, Zoey. Nothing."
Tears blurred Zoey's vision. She couldn't defend herself. Couldn't move.
"Get out of my sight," Lily spat, turning back into the shanty. "I'll settle it with you later."
The Weight of It All.
That night, Zoey was trembling in her little bed like a helpless little ball, experiencing aftershocks from Lily's merciless words. She's still stuck in the same scene over and over again; Alex closing in, Lily mad threatening, and her being in real danger.
What she wanted was Alex no doubt, but that was quite a dangerous kind of love. If Lily thought of Zoey being tortured, then she knew that she would never escape from that enemy.
Then there was a soft knock on the door, dragging the mind out of darkness into thoughts twisting about. Her heart jumped; for a moment she'd thought it was really Alex again.
But there stood Lily with a candle to her pretty, sickly sweet smile of comforting.
"I told you I would take care of you later," Lily hissed, malice dripping from each syllable.
Zoey's blood turned to ice.
To Be Continued...