His Collateral

Chapter 7

Alessandro had thrown the tray of food away, sending pieces of the plate, the coffee mug and food everywhere. He came closer, towering over me before speaking. The anger was evident in his voice. "You seem to have forgotten rule number 3."

"N..no actual-ly, the maid g-got.." I stuttered unable to form a complete sentence. His gaze was still on me.
"S..she burnt her hand. I was o..only helpin-g.." I cowered in fear and moved back as he took slow steps towards me. I thought my back would come in contact with a wall and just like yesterday I would have no where to go but instead, my leg came in contact with something sharp. I looked down to see that I was standing on the shards of the broken plate. My hands quickly found the nearest thing for support, the couch, as I almost lost my balance. My gaze went back to the floor and I saw red all over. My blood. I looked at Alessandro and he didn't seem shaken in the slightest bit, rather he looked irritated to say the least.

The maid walked into the office as well, scanning the place. I am sure she also heard the noise as she came in with some cleaning supplies. She was just as scared as I was.
"I'll c..clean this up sir." She stuttered reaching for the broom when Alessandro raised a hand to stop her.

"Leave it. You can go." He ordered still looking at me with his hands folded across his chest, and she left.
"You made the mess, so you'll clean it up." He stated. I looked at him like he had just grown a second head.

I made the mess? You were the one who threw your food away!

Was he being serious? I was injured, the least he could do was help me with a first aid or something.

"Do not make me repeat myself Bella." His voice was now low as if challenging me. I felt my eyes about to give way to the pool of tears it was holding back. I quickly turned away and walked over to the cleaning supplies the maid had brought and began cleaning up his mess while he walked over to his chair and to work.

While I cleaned, I couldn't help the feeling of being watched and noticed Alessandro staring at me from the corner of my eye.

He enjoys this?

My leg had stopped bleeding but I was still in pain. I finished the cleaning and gathered all the supplies, quickly making my way out of his office. The maid who was pacing nervously at the dining room made her way over to me. She took away the supplies in my hand and carefully lead me to the kitchen.

"I'm so sorry ma'am. This is all my fault." She said pulling out the first aid box and cleaning up the injury.

"Call me Bella... and it's fine." I said but my attempts to calm her down were futile. She nervously cleaned up my leg with shaky hands before putting a bandage on it. I placed my hand on hers.

"I never got your name." I said and she seemed to relax a bit

"Mary." She smiled subtly

"Nice to meet you Mary." I replied even though this wasn't the first time I was meeting her. And I had a lot of questions on my mind.

How long has she worked for him? Has he always been like this?

She knew that Alessandro made me clean up his office. Wasn't she suspicious? After all, it wasn't very husbandly of him. But I didn't bother asking, rather, I stood up slowly, and left her to go about her days task while I walked back to the dining to eat my now cold breakfast.

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Evening came by quite quickly. After breakfast, I had nothing to do, so Mary helped me with the TV since it was so confusing to operate and I spent the whole day binge watching movies on Netflix.

It was strange how I had nothing to do in this house. Mary had instructed I leave the work in the kitchen to her and she handled both lunch and dinner. And Alessandro, he was out of the question. Unlike when I was living with Uncle and Aunt, where there was always something to do.

Am I seriously complaining? Yes.

I checked the time on the clock and it was almost 9:00pm. I hadn't seen Alessandro since the accident at his study. Not that I wanted to see him, as matter of fact, I was happy that we hadn't bumped into each other.
I decided to head back upstairs. I was exhausted and I needed to lay my head somewhere. I entered the room and quickly changed into my night wear before going over to 'my couch'. I didn't want to shower tonight as I had this phobia of bathing the very day I had an injury.

I walked over to the light switch and turned them off, leaving only the lights on the nightstand on. I laid down on the couch, in the same position, only this time I was facing the bed and I felt my mind drift off. Thoughts of my parents, thoughts of uncle and aunt, even thoughts of Alessandro flooded my mind.

The people I expected love from either left me or didn't want me.

It was like my life flashing before me. I had learned to accept the fact that maybe, I was just one of those unlucky people in the world who didn't deserve love. Suddenly, the sound of the door opening drew my attention Alessandro walked in. He didn't seem to notice that I was awake. He walked over to the bed and started taking his clothes off. He started with his shirt and I tried to look away but it was like I didn't even have control over my own eyes. I watched him undo the buttons slowly, noticing the way his muscles flexed as he took his hands out of the sleeves, revealing his perfectly toned abs.
I heard the sound of his belt. He was about to take off his pants and I was still busy gawking at his body when he stopped . He looked in my direction for a minute, muttering something under his breath  before walking towards me. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.

I hope he didn't see me staring.

My eyes were still closed and I stayed still. Then I felt him close to me. He was standing right in front of the couch. My heart beat quickened.

He definitely saw me staring.

I waited for him to tap me or ask me to wake up but it never happened. Rather, I heard a beeping noise accompanied with the sound of footsteps getting distant and a door opening and closing. I slowly opened my eyes and noticed that he was gone and the Air Conditioner was now turned on.

Was he doing this on purpose? I had never slept in an air conditioned room before, not to mention I was sleeping on a couch with nothing to cover myself with.
Ignoring the rapidly decreasing temperature of the room, I raised my legs up a little to enable my long robe cover them properly before drifting off to sleep.

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