Author's POV
"Madam, please eat something!"
"Sir, strictly tell us in the morning before leaving the house to make you eat breakfast." The two maids looked at Angela with a worried face, as Angela didn't touch her breakfast for almost an hour and just asked them to let her leave whenever they tried to convince her to eat up her breakfast.
"I don't want to eat anything! Can't you all understand? I just want to leave this place! Just let me go...your boss can't do this to me!" Angela looked at them with a frowned face while her gaze was too sharp to look at her directly in her eyes.
"Madam, you know! We can't do that! Sir, warned all the servants that if you leave the mansion even the bedroom, during his absence. We all will get fired and put on the blacklist by Sir!" One of the maids tried to explain their struggle.
While hearing her, Angela gritted her teeth and her hands clenched on the bedsheets where on the edge she was now seated.
'Damn Eric!'
'You go so far this time...how could you threaten your servants like this…only to make me bound to stay in this place!' She shouted in her brain.
"Madam, we are sorry! We can't help you anyway...even if we want to…" Both maids looked at Angela with an upset and guilty look.
Angela always treated them like family members, but they couldn't help her anyway, their status and their money struggles got between them to take steps, as they needed to feed their family.
They can't go against Eric to help Angela.
Angela watched their sorry faces with an upset look, as she could sense their pressure and guilt towards her, for not helping her.
"You both don't need to apologize to me, I can imagine it's hard for you all to risk your job for me. As it's about your family!"
The two maids looked at each other with blinking eyes before they looked at Angela with touched gazes. They never thought Angela would say something like this and also guess their worries.
"Thank you, madam, for understanding our situation and we are sorry once again…" the other maid gave a sorry smile.
Angela nodded while she looked at the food tray which is held by one of them, for a moment before she spoke again," You both can go taking the food tray with you back…I'm not feeling like eating for now!"
Hearing her, both of them wanted to insist on her but Angela didn't want to listen to them more, or else she would immediately leave this place pushing them. Without caring about their job or their families.
"I said, you can leave then just leave...I don't want to eat for now…don't let me repeat myself!" Angela's voice turned strict, only then did both of the maids nod to her order, upset, and left the room, locking the door behind them.
Angela sighed and looked outside from the window where the day looked sunny but her heart was still clouded with darkness.
"Did she eat dinner?" Eric asked as soon as he came back from his parent's mansion. He just went to check on his mom and Erish. But his mom asked him to stay longer and it turned out the evening with blinking times, when he finally left their home and came back to his home.
He is thinking about Angela all the time but didn't reflect on his face in front of his parents, as he can't tell them that he made her locked in the bedroom.
"N-No, Sir…" The maid's voice shook up solely as she was completely nervous to report this to him. While her palms were sweating out with a heavy atmosphere.
"No?" Eric's eyes darken. He stared at the maid with a frigid gaze while next later he threw the vase in beside them from the table with anger and roared out only giving the maid feel terrified in her place.
"What do you mean by 'No'?"
As soon as his words were completed, the vase shattered down on the floor in a thousand pieces.
The maid backward while some more servants come out to hear the big sound.
"I...I'm a...sorry, Sir!"
"We t-tried to insist the madam eat her meal...b... but…. she refused directly... to tell us that...she's not h-hungry, whenever we went with a food tray…" The tears came out of the maid's eyes, her whole body shuddering with fear. All the servants silently stood there feeling sorry for their workmates.
Eric coldly glared at her while his hands turned fists to hear her words.
"Bring me food for her, now!" He ordered with anger.
The maid immediately nodded," Y-Yes Sir!"
As the maid left, he glared at all the present servants with anger, " What? You all don't have work to do?"
His voice was sharp enough to make everyone feel nervous and left the place immediately. Before his anger threw at them.
A few moments later, the maid comes with a food tray.
"H-Here…" The maid forwarded the tray which Eric coldly snatched and moved towards the stairs.
As soon as he stood in front of the door, he remembered their last night's talk and felt like choking.
On the other side, Angela who is standing at the window looking at the moon, suddenly hears a door opening sound thought one of the maids came back again with food to make her eat, so she didn't turn back her head to see on the door side. She just irritatedly announced, "I told you, I'm not hungry! You can go back!"
"But what if you still need to eat the meal?" Suddenly, Eric's voice echoed in the room only to make Angela surprisingly turn and look at him.
"You…" Angela's calm voice changed to anger as she moved fast to hold his collar between her fingers.
"Eric, you bastard! What the hell do you think! You can use this poor servant to bind me to stay here!"
Eric looked at her without expression as he didn't flinch from his place or try to release her hands from him.
"Yes, I can use them to let you stay with me!"
He announced without emotion.
Angela chuckled bitterly while she released her hands from his grips.
"You are a selfish monster!"
"You just wanted to see yourself happy, except that I and others do not matter to you…"
Her words made him feel a throb inside his heart with ache. While he didn't let her feel his damaged soul.