The Victor Langley estate was big and expansive. The grass had been cut to perfect precision. The mansion was gleaming, and scents of rose fragrance hovered around the premises, the horizon gushing as if in perpetual worship to the family wealth. Maria Langley lived like a queen in a gold prison. Maria enjoyed the luxury including a heavy wardrobe filled with different attire and a line-up of maids and housekeepers waiting to take her orders. But every night, as she slept beside her husband, she felt lonely and not cherished. She was lonely. Victor Langley was powerful, respected, and completely captivated by his business. He spoke to her on schedule, not in whispers. His hands were more used to signing contracts than to the curve of her waist and the caressing of her breast. Maria often wondered in her quiet time if he had noticed recently how quiet she had become, or how long her stare wavered in the air, as if she was waiting for something just beyond her understanding and comprehension.
That afternoon, the summer heat wrapped about the mansion. Maria sat on the balcony, sipping a glass of wine, wearing a robe; she could see the workers (young men )her husband had employed to repair the pavilion from above.
Men worked and moved in a regular beat and motion, their voices sharp, while the sound of hammers punctured the still air. Then—her stare fell on him. He was new, and she remembered Victor saying his name in passing: RichardLawson. He is a handsome young man, from guess should be in his midtwenties.
Maria's heart sprinted as she saw him effortlessly carry the wood across the yard. Sweat was on his shirt, showing the outline of muscles that suggested hard work rather than pleasure. Richard appeared genuine in comparison to the people in Victor's world, who were polished and sophisticated. Maria convinced herself she was just looking. As the lady of the house, she naturally kept an eye on the laborers working below. She looked longer than she was supposed to, admiring his skin color to the way he paused to wipe his face, and the line of his jaw as he bowed his head. She felt an unusual squeezing in her chest, a warm sensation unrelated to the wine. When he moved, his gaze raised. Richard briefly looked up at her balcony. Their gazes met. Richard could have quickly looked away and bowed his head just as any young worker his age will do before the mistress of the house but he rather maintained an inquisitive and questioning look.It only took a split second for him to resume his duties, but it was enough to arrest Maria's curiosity, and she dropped her glass quickly, as though it were burning her fingers." What am I doing?"She corrected herself. She was the wife of Victor Langley. To look at another man in that manner was risky and dangerous, but the harm had already been done. The image of Richard's face played on her thoughts like a forbidden song she couldn't stop singing.
Victor, her husband came in later in the evening, his phone clamped to his ear as he gave orders in deadline and negotiation language. He kissed his wife absentmindedly on the cheek before retiring into his study .At the dining table,she ate dinner alone as the varieties of unfinished dishes stared at her and the set of golden cutleries gleamed under the chandelier. Like a second skin, loneliness had crushed down once more. Maria excused herself and went upstairs. She changed out of her outfit and into a robe before going into her vanity. A leather-bound diary sat there, a quiet haven for things she dared not express openly.. She opened it and allowed her pen to move, the words streaming as if pulled by unseen hands." I saw him today. Richard - The new employee. I shouldn't have looked at him, but I did. He is a young, unpolished man who has the power to lift my spirit and make me happy. For a moment, our eyes met, and I remembered what it is like to be desired—not as a wife or an ornament, but as a woman". Her breathing increased as she wrote, and the words almost trembled on the page. She knew this was insane. To even consider such things constituted treason. With every sentence and words she wrote down in her diary, a spark of energy and liveliness flowed from within her, reawakening her spirit after months of isolation.
The sounds of approaching footsteps scared her and quickly brought her back to her sanity but it was the maid who came to inform her of Victor staying up late at night in the study. She quickly took the diary and hid it inside her drawer full of cosmetics as if they were contraband.
Downstairs, the men her husband had hired to work were rounding up their day activities as the men chit-chatted with sounds of laughter mixing in the fading sunlight.She saw Richard through the window again. His top was bare as he was now hanging his shirt on his shoulders as his broad chest and nipples were exposed to the fading sunlight. He laughed at something his colleague said to him, just his laughter echoed throughout the garden.Maria's heart raced than usual just as she placed her hands on her chest to feel the pace of her heartbeat as she was torn between laughter and embarrassment .She should quickly look away. She should close the curtains, dismiss the thought, and return to her safe, peaceful marriage.
However, she didn't. She remained at the window until the men began to leave, her gaze following Richard as he vanished beyond the gates. The sun had set, but something inside Maria had begun to awake. She realised, with unthinkable excitement, that it was just the beginning.