Chapter 4: A Family's Dark Secret

All that I got is an empty space next to me when I started to move my hand in search for the young master. I am sure that there is no way he'll be able to walk on his own without my assistance. Opening my eyes. I indeed woke up to an empty space next to me. I could no longer find the young master. Eyes flying to the spot where I left his wheelchair last night. Panic started to spread all over me like a wildfire because I couldn't find his wheelchair too.

"Y-Young Master?" I shouted, faking the calmness in my voice. I waited for a few seconds and when I didn't heard anything in response. I picked up my clothes on the floor one by one and dressed up myself. In time with me finishing the last button. The door to the master's bedroom opened. I was filled with hope that it's the young master making his way inside and yet that hope of mine shatters as my eyes laid on the old woman who is staring at me with no judgement and yet pity is flowing from her eyes.

Miss Jane didn't say anything. Her hand reached for my head and back as she hug me, caressing the small of it. I didn't even know that tears were falling from my eyes until she started to hush me and I saw the fabric of his uniform getting wet.

I pulled away from her, holding her arm. I swallowed and tried to compose myself.

"Do you know where is the young master Augustus? Is he perhaps out to get his vitamin from the sun together with Butler Jurie?" I asked. He is crippled, disabled. There is no way he'll runaway like those that I've seen in movies and read in book after a one night stand, right?

Why would he do that to me? He wouldn't do that to me.

"The young master needs to deal with an urgent matter. He'll be back here once he has settled everything, but for now," she mumbled. An uncertainty lies in her eyes. The female butler knows that what she is about to do is wrong and yet the only choice that she can is do to do what she was asked for.

"What is that?" I asked her, eyes full of question after she handled me a small box. The only thing that would probably fit in here is a ring and yet I tried not to assume that this is a ring given to me by the young master.

"See for yourself," the only thing that she said. My jaw dropped the floor. Eyes jumping back and forth between her and the diamond ring. I extended my arm and urge her to pinch me. I just woke up. I could still be dreaming or maybe I am still sleepy enough to imagine things like this.

"This feels like a dream, Miss Jane. Pinch me. I need to know that this isn't a dream. This is a diamond ring right? Is the young master proposing to me? Am I going to be the lady of this house?" I winced in pain and glared at her for a moment. I wasn't ready when she pulled a tiny piece of skin in my arm to pinch me.

"Ouch, that is too much, Miss Jane!" I pouted.

"Say no to this, Ava. This isn't a dream. At first it might look like a dream but I already know how things will end. You'll regret saying yes to a Luciano," she pleaded to me, trying to take away the small box with a diamond ring that she just handed to me.

Stepping away from her. Miss Jane started to scare me as she insist on trying to get the box from me.

"Jane!" Butler Jurie walks in on us. He pulled and hide me behind him. Tears pooling on her eyes. The female butler glance at her husband and then back to me. Miss Jane shake her head and tried to once again take the ring from me but I am already wearing it in my ring finger.

"Jurie, we both know that this is a cursed family. Ava is just nineteen years old! She doesn't know what she is doing with her life," she said sounding so desperate for her husband to hear her, for me to hear her. Butler Jurie lowered himself to whisper something on her ear and whatever it is that he had told her surely work for she slowly calm down until she is back with her usual and rational self.

Miss Jane darted her eyes at me and smile. She even slightly bow her head, greeting me as if I am a royalty.

"Congratulations on your engagement to the young master, Ms. Ava."

Trailing the path that Miss Jane took as she leave me all alone with her husband. I got hundreds of question swirling in my head.

"What happened to Miss Jane? Why did she called the Luciano a cursed family?" I asked Butler Jurie even if I can feel that I'll get no answer from him and then he smiled at me.

"You're about to become the newest member of this family, Miss Ava. You'll surely find more about the family once you are one of them." I was about to ask one more thing but Butler Jurie already bow his head to me, took a step back before he turned around leaving me all alone in the master's bedroom.

Looking around the master's bedroom and the realization that all of this is now mine put a smile on my lips. I throw myself back at the bed and stared at the diamond ring in my finger.

"Miss Jane is probably jealous of me. This couldn't be so bad like what she is trying to make it look like. I am marrying a billionaire. There's no dark secret of the family that could make me turn my back and runaway from this."