Chapter Fifteen
Lucas went to work and Violet cleaned the house, cooked and did the laundry. The boys were busy checking out their new books and stationery.
When free, Violet sat down to draw up a menu plan for her bakery. She included a comprehensive menu plan including sweet as well as salty savouries, cakes and desserts. She named her bakery, Violet's Delights. She made design templates for her promotional ad pamphlets to be distributed.
It was nearly evening and Violet sat with the boys as they went through their books. "Violet, what are reflexive pronouns?" Asked William.
"Show me the book?" Said Violet. She read the paragraph and explained, "Reflexive pronouns are words that are used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same. For example, I believe in myself. Here myself and I denote the same person, so myself is a reflexive pronoun. The nine English reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, himself, herself, oneself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. Understood?" She asked.
"Yes. Then see this sentence? Here, itself should be the reflexive pronoun. Right?" Asked Walter as he solved an exercise on a rough sheet.
"You're a pretty good teacher too, Violet. Tell me what you cannot do," said Lucas, looking at her with appreciation.
He strode into the room with three women accompanying him. One of them was literally hanging from his arm. They had heavy makeup on their faces and designer expensive clothes. The smell of their strong perfumes filled the air as they walked in wearing stilettos. They looked down their noses at Violet with disgust.
"Violet meet, Miranda, Vanessa and Leilani. They were my old school and college friends and came down to my hotel for a party today. Ladies, this is Violet, and those are Walter and William," he introduced and the woman on his arm, Leilani looked at her with malice in her eyes.
"I'll have a lemonade. What about you girls?" Asked Leilani to her friends.
"Same as you," they chorused.
"You, get us lemonade," Leilani ordered Violet.
Violet's face fell. She got up to go to the kitchen. "I'll help you Violet, " said Lucas, following her to the kitchen. Violet made the lemonade silently. Lucas took the tray of drinks to the women. He didn't like the way they treated Violet but he knew Leilani and her bitchy ways. He had always tried to stay away from her clutches. She pursued him like an obsessed witch all her life. He hated the sight of her. He knew that she could stoop to any level.
He didn't wish to meet them ever but they had other plans and forcefully followed him all the way to his house. He wanted to introduce Violet as his girlfriend but thought against it with the fear that Leilani could create misunderstandings. Violet was too innocent to see through her bitchy lies. He just wanted them to leave but to his dismay, they stayed till late.
"Ask your maid to serve us dinner," said Leilani, trying to sit as close to Lucas as possible.
"She's not my maid," corrected Lucas, moving away from her. After making their lemonade, Violet had retired to her room and didn't come down. The twins went to their rooms and locked themselves inside. They hated it that Lucas's guests misbehaved with their sister and Lucas just watched, not saying a word to them.
"Whatever, your housekeeper, then," said Leilani. Lucas went to the kitchen and served them the dinner Violet had cooked. "You should throw her out Luca if you have to do all her work, " said Leilani in her nasal tone. Her friends agreed and they laughed and talked about how worthless servants had become nowadays. Lucas silently sat with them, thinking when the torture would end and they would disappear.
"Ladies, I have an early morning flight tomorrow, let's wind up here tonight?" Asked Lucas and they all agreed.
"Where are you going, Luca honey?" Asked Leilani.
"Europe tour," answered Lucas. He had to check out some of their hotels in Europe and although he didn't wish to go, he had no choice. It was a two week ordeal and he didn't want to stay away from Violet. If the twins didn't have school, he would have taken all of them with him.
The women left at last swearing to catch up with him once he returned back. Lucas sighed with relief and went to the boys room to see that they had gone to sleep on an empty stomach without eating any dinner. Feeling awful, he went upstairs to Violet's room.
She opened the door, her face pale and quiet, her eyes sad, as she waited for him to speak. "I have an early morning flight tomorrow. I'm going away for two weeks on a Europe tour," he said, waiting for her to react. When she didn't say a word, he continued, "Let the twins go to school. Here, take my card for any expenses that you may need," he said, handing her his card. He took her mobile phone from her hand and punched in Billy's number.
"That's Billy's number. Call him whenever you need help," he said, handing her phone back.
Lucas was confused by her behaviour. She didn't say a word when he declared that he was going away. Did she not like him at all? He nodded and went away to his room.
Violet softly closed her door. She had heard everything that Leilani spoke about her. The truth was Lucas didn't once inform them that she wasn't a maid or a housekeeper here. She was confused. Was she a housekeeper here? Who was she to Lucas? A friend? A housekeeper? A new toy? Or a maid?
Silent tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought about Lucas. When he had such beautiful and rich friends, why would he love an ordinary teenage girl like her?
The next morning, she woke up and went downstairs to make coffee. She found a note from Lucas beside the coffee machine. It read,
Leaving now. Stay safe. Call Billy whenever you need him. Use my card. Lucas
She sat and sipped her coffee. It was just six in the morning. Lucas left an hour ago. He didn't even kiss her goodbye. Did he go with those women who came last night? The thought made her blind with jealousy.
She tried to put all thoughts of them behind her as she proceeded to take a shower and then make breakfast. The twins had school and would wake up anytime soon. By 9 o'clock in the morning, Billy came to take the twins to school since it was their first day.
She cleaned Lucas's room as well as the twins rooms. She made lunch for the boys and walked about the empty house, missing Lucas.
She picked up her apartment keys and thought of hiring someone to have it cleaned. She would talk to Billy when he came in the afternoon. She called Mary Jane and had a chat with her.
It seemed that all the culprits had been arrested and Mary Jane shifted with her family to the hotel's affordable housing complex two days back. As she disconnected the phone, the twins came home. Walter came rushing inside.
"Where's Billy?" She asked him.
"He got a call from the hotel, so he left," said Walter.
"Come outside quickly, Violet. Those bad women have come again," said William, rushing inside the living room.
