Chapter One: Will you marry me? Pt1
“Girl, how long are you going to be cleaning that area? I have some clothing pieces that need to be taken to the cleaners.”
As she wiped the sweat from her forehead, Resena could see her aunt Larna staring down at her with that same disgusted look on her face she had always had since she first moved in when she was 9.
“Well?! Are you almost finished or not!?” …
“Uhh, yes ma’am! I’ll be finished soon. Is there something you need me to do?”
Sighing in disgust, Larna simply rolled her eyes at her niece, she had felt this way about her ever since the day she came to live with her and even before then. Larna was the older sister of Resena’s mother, Lucena, but ever since they were children, Lucena always seemed to be everyone’s favorite. She took her niece in after the accident thinking there would be a financial reward. It turns out, Resena’s parents had a clause in their will, no money or dowry would be paid on Resena’s behalf until she wed. So, until then, Larna was simply stuck with this girl, of course that didn’t stop her from constantly abusing her niece. Every day had seemed like a personal form of torture, why had she been saddled with this runt! To make things “fair”; she had decided Resena should spend her days as one of the family’s servants,
“That’s the least this little runt can do but I swear as soon as she turns 18, I am marrying her off to first person I can find so I can get my money!!!”
Larna scowled down at Resena as she scrubbed the floor,
“I said I need some clothing taken to the drycleaners. Hurry up and get finished before they close!”
“Right away ma’am!”
Prior to moving in, Resena had only met her aunt once at the funeral of her grandparents. Her mother’s parents died in a mysterious house fire, the officials decided it must’ve been faulty wiring, but Lucena always suspected foul play. Though she never said so, it was clear there had been tension between the two sisters as Larna always accused their parents of favoring Lucena more. In truth, Larna was a spoiled child who never appreciated anything. She lived her life constantly wanting more. Larna was a very striking young woman, she had long dark hair with olive skin and large almond shaped eyes. She was tall with a slender but shaped physique; however, her mannerisms and attitude made her as ugly as black coal and dirt rocks. Over the years, her parents tried to instill values and morals, but Larna was a crude child and an even worse young woman, their parents feared she may never get married until she met her now husband Delvoy Lanster. Turns out he was just as cruel as Larna. They married once Larna turned 19 and three years later, they had their only child, a daughter named Marsell. Although very beautiful, Marsell had her parents’ quality traits of cruelty a behavior many were not aware of as she was a master at making people think she was the perfect person. She had taken a particular interest in making her younger cousin’s life a living hell during her stay at their house, in public however, Marsell displayed that of the perfect and concerned big sister. Only the servants knew the truth about the Lansters and how cruel they had been to Resena over the years.
“Well, well…what do we have here? And just where do you think you’re going dressed like that?”
Resena stood at the doorway wearing a worn-down dress and older shoes, her hair was tied into a ponytail and her skin was flaky and dry. Her wrists were thin, and her skin was pale due to vitamin and food deficiency. As a child, people would often dote on how beautiful Resena was in her hometown, but now, as she approached 18 Resena looked anything but beautiful.
“Um, Aunt Larna is bringing me clothes to take to the drycleaners.”
“Is that so? Well, I think I have a few things that need to go as well. Wait right here my darling cousin.”
As Marsell left for her bedroom, Resena stood in agony, the dry cleaner’s shop was a 3 mile walk to and from. Her aunt already had three bags of clothing and now Marsell wanted to add more. Resena had the slight suspicion Marsell only wanted to add clothing to make her walk more difficult. Over the years she had always done little things like that to add to her cleaning load and make things more difficult for Resena. “Oh, you just finished moping that floor? Oh, darn I need my bedroom floors mopped now”, “Did you just get finished washing all the dishes? Oops, sorry, I guess I still had a few things upstairs.”
“Always something” Resena thought. As she walked to the cleaner’s shop, her fingers began to numb from the heavy bags of clothes.
“At this rate it’ll take me forever to get there. Why’d they have to give me so much?”
In addition to Larna’s three bags, Marsell piled on two more. The other servants looked on in shame as they crammed the bags into Resena’s hands.
“How awful, maybe one of us should help her?”
One of the maids said to another.
“Not unless you want to lose your job. The head mistress informed us all when the young miss first arrived not to help her with any of her chores as it was her way of paying for her room and board.”
Another maid chimed in,
“Oh my god! Is that why Ella was fired?!”
Ella was a maid that worked for the Lansters, she was always super nice to Resena, whenever they would lie and say there was not enough food for her to eat, Ella would sneak her food and water. One day Larna caught her sneaking Resena some soup and tea after she caught a cold, she was fired on the spot. Afterwords, Delvoy sent out a mass message board to all the servants that disobeying the Mistress’ wishes or interfering with the raising of her niece would be an automatic termination. After that, the maids and servants were too afraid to even speak to Resena unless regarding work leaving her even more isolated and alone in that horrible mansion that was her home.