𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺.

♥️

Two weeks later -

Nope, not enough.

I added two more drops of food coloring into the cake mixture and checked its consistency again.

Perfect!

I smiled internally doing a small victory dance to myself, now that my final exams are finished, I don't have much to do other than cooking all day which is why I've started baking.

I've always enjoyed spending my time in the kitchen.

Looking down at the mirror cake glaze my memory clicked back to stormy grey eyes I had looked into two weeks ago.

Alex Taylor.

He definitely did not like me.

No, wait!

Let me rephrase.

He definitely does not like Sara, which is why he did not like me.

Now that I think of it, it makes sense. Sara must have done something wrong with Alex when she had her photoshoot in Milan.

Unlike Sara, I've never really had boyfriends because I never really get to meet anyone.

Sara probably took a liking for Alex and went with the wrong approach.

Not that I have any experience but after reading a handful of Sophie Kinsella novels, I do know little about the outside world.

I looked up at the time and it was already 12:20 am but sir was not home yet.

Yes, I am busy with some mid-night baking.

One, because I was not allowed to sleep until sir came home and two, because I had nothing else to do while waiting up for him.

I shrugged and picked up the cake glaze again, slowly putting it on top of the cake a smile grazed my face again, it looked magical.

Just like the night sky.

After the cake was glazed, I put it in the fridge to cool down and limped to my room and pulled out my binoculars and dairy.

I am planning to figure out all the constellations tonight, Mary along with the rest of the servants had gone to the servant quarters while Sara was sleeping.

After about one hour, I looked back at the time and it was almost one-thirty am but sir was still not home.

I put back the diary and binoculars after I had recorded all my observations and got up, time to clean my face.

Momentarily forgetting about the wound on my ankle, I got up with full force only to fall back onto my floor mattress.

Ouch!

I looked down at my leg to find it getting a little red again, only a little, though.

A yawn left my body, but I immediately stilled.

I can not sleep.

I fell asleep by mistake before sir came home and was beaten by his leather belt for punishment after that.

I shivered at the thought.

The whole day I had to limp around the house because sir hit me on the ankle and I, did not want to go through the entire ordeal again today.

Can not sleep.

Sir has also been acting very aggressive for the last few days, I don't understand the problem, though.

Not like he would share it with me either.

I looked down at my ankle again, Mary had treated it well which is why the pain was bearable but my body was still in pain.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard the security door open and a car entered the house.

I ran out of my room and went straight to the kitchen. I heated up the pasta, which was made earlier today, and then I took out a bottle of red wine. As soon as the food was done, I hurried up to sir's bedroom and knocked.

He preferred having dinner in his room when he was late.

I knocked once again finally, sir opened his door and pointed to the table in the middle of the room "arrange everything, I will be back in a minute." His voice reached my ears.

"Yes sir." I nodded while looking at the floor.

Sir considered it disrespectful to be looked up in the eye and talked to.

Sir left the room while I set up his table quickly.

It was a little difficult because my muscles were paining, even lifting my arm was a difficult job.

But I knew better than to slow down.

A moment later sir returned back to the room.

He seemed to be in a more content place than earlier now.

probably because he went to wish Sara goodnight.

"Your food, sir," I mumbled quietly as he sat down and looked at his food as I stood beside him, I was supposed to be available at his service whenever he ate food.

While he ate I looked around his room, photo frames of Sara and him decorated the wall.

One thing was true, and I could not deny it.

He was a good father to Sara, he tried to give his best and come up to Sara's expectation. There was one picture of mom as well on the wall. Beside the picture, his name, mom's name, and Sara's name were craved.

I felt my eyes sting a little by seeing mom's picture, she was beautiful and breathtaking but whenever I looked at these photos it seemed as though I was not a part of this family.

I never was.

Dad and Sara never liked me, but I like to live in the hopes that if mom was here, she would have loved me.

Dad would love me as well, if mom was here I would have had the perfect family growing up.

The only problem was that If's don't come true.

It was my fault anyway, I was responsible for my own life.

I rubbed my eyes a little harshly and stood for ten more minutes until sir ate his food, once he was done, I took up his plates and went to the kitchen and disposed of the plates he ate in.

I took a glass of water to sir's room again and knocked.

Sir opened the door and drank his water not even looking up at me once.

He placed the water back onto the tray just when I was about to leave the room sir grabbed my hair and turned me towards him.

I whimpered in pain, but soon sir slapped me and pushed me towards the mirror "lookup Sierra, in the mirror!" I wiped the blood which started flowing from my lips and looked up.

I gasped when I saw that one of my contact lenses was missing. One eye had the lens and was brown while the other was teal.

I stood up slowly "I-I am sorry sir, I don't know when it happened. It was a mistake." I whispered.

"Oh yeah? Well, let me tell you, you make a lot of mistakes for your own good, Sierra. The first mistake was that you killed my wife and then your second mistake was that you went to sleep yesterday and now your third mistake, you lost your contact lens. You know what the problem is, Sierra? You are a problem, a big mistake which took place years ago and destroyed everything, even my family. You took my wife away from me as well, you are a bloody murderer."

Tears fell from my eyes while I tried to control them.

Sir did abuse me for years but this was the first time he called me a murderer, my own mother's murderer.

But he is not wrong, is he? I have never served any propose in life all that I do is become a replacement.

Snapping out of my thoughts I try to get up but fail because my body is paining horribly.

I gather up enough courage and push myself up to my feet "I am sorry for coming into this world sir." I mumbled and ran out of sir's room while I heard his room door bang shut.

Closing my own door, I sat on the mattress in my room, all the workers around the house think I am innocent but they don't understand that I am a murderer and that I deserve what I get. If I was not born mom would not have to give birth to me, she would not have died giving birth to me.

I tried to lie down on my bed, but it was difficult and it hurt my muscles.

I deserve this.

With my thoughts wandering around mom I went to sleep.

The only problem is that my own existence has started haunting me.

I felt someone's hand slide through my hair, groaning I opened my eyes and saw Mary smiling down at me.

I looked up at the time and sure enough it five am.

I closed my eyes for a second as thoughts from yesterday flood into my mind.

Think happy thoughts Sierra happy thoughts.

I opened my eyes again and smiled back at Mary. I placed my head on her lap and wrapped my arms around her.

I took a moment to be myself; the only affection I got in my life was by Mary.

I did not have to act happy around her all the time, she understood me.

In my mind, I know I don't deserve her and her love but I, craved for the little moments of affection I had with her.

Finally, after composing myself back to normal I got up and pushed the hair off my face.

"Good morning" I wished Mary, as she got up from the mattress along with me.

"Good morning darling, freshen up and come down, I have made the breakfast instead of you" I smiled "thank you," I said and hugged her again ignoring the pain in my arms "I can see your lips, Sierra, don't try to hide what happened yesterday night."

I stilled for a moment and slowly took a breath in "he was just a little angry, don't need to worry." I whispered

"I have been taking care of you for years darling, I am fully aware of when you are in too much pain, and when you are not." I tightened my grip around Mary.

After some time Mary left my room and I, freshened up as well, I went down to the kitchen where I saw Mary making cookies.

"I think we are up for a delicious treat in some time!" I laughed and helped Mary with the cookies.

"We are, do not for a second think that the cake which was pushed to the back of the refrigerator has gone unnoticed by me. " I giggled.

After almost two hours, we were almost done with making the cookies.

I loved up at the staircase to see sir and Sara come down, both of them completely ignore me.

They swiftly moved to the dining area and took their place.

I served them breakfast quietly and slip out of the dining area from where the father and daughter enjoy their breakfast in each other's company.

Once they were done with breakfast, I took their plates to the kitchen and washed them.

"Sierra" I hear sir's voice echo in the house and ran up to his room, I knocked on his door and within a second his door opened.

"I have some work for you." Sir said while I nodded before replying "yes sir, how may I help you?" Sir turned towards me.

"You have done a good job pretending to be Sara whenever needed so I need you to do it one last time."

Last time?

Was he going to accept me?

"you've never really seemed of importance to me all you do is make a liability on top of me which, Is why for once you're going to be of actual use to me," confusion stirred inside me, what was he talking about?

"My company needs money to survive, a lot of it, and Alex Taylor is ready to fund all he wants in return is my Daughter, Sara. For revenge. But I won't let anything happen to Sara you that don't you Sierra?"

I nodded, still not understanding what this was all about .

"Well, Sierra, get ready because my daughter will not be a pawn in his game, you will. You are, after all, a replacement. Go pack your bags because lucky me, I will never be seeing you again."

♥️

𝓥𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓐𝓷𝓭𝓕𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀

𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮- 𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪.𝘩𝘢𝘩𝘢

Q. Burger or Pizza?