Chapter Twenty-nine Estera Roberts’ POV (Ten Years Before)

“Argh!!” I groaned as soon I realized Aunt Sophia had forgotten to leave the key to the bungalow for me. I was soaking wet and the rain was pouring as if heaven was planning to come down. It had been a long day, and I was on my feet most of it. The only thing on my mind right now was to have a hot shower and pass out -- literally. But I suppose that would have to wait. I removed my phone from my leather strap bag and dialed her phone. It rang and rang but she didn’t pick up. I paused when I heard a faint ringing sound coming from inside the house. Wonderful! She forgot to take her phone with her too! I thought that was funny when she did it four times before I enrolled in the community college for my pre-med course. I had to run after her to give her the phone each time. I suppose that came as a result of not being responsible for anyone but herself most of her life. She sighed, smiled sheepishly, and made a joke about why my mother had turned out to be the smarter one. I laughed then but it isn’t funny now. It’s been almost eight months since my parents' death and I was forced to move here to Charlestown. I grew tired of lounging and skulking about the estate after school hours, and decided to get a job. And Aunt Sophia was able to secure one for me in a swanky restaurant in town. My supervisor was a very patient and kind older woman unlike some of my colleagues. They seemed to be uncomfortable that I got the job with no prior experience or perhaps it was the fact that Aunt Sophia was able to pull it off with the Sterlings' influence -- even if the family in question have no idea of my existence. Whatever their problem was, it only motivated me to do better. I am Estera Roberts, an aspiring doctor, no way am I going to let the simple task of taking food orders and getting them right to serve the customers with uttermost decorum defeat me. After three weeks at the job, I could say I was doing great! ‘Take that, Jo! And your condescending gazes. Ah!’
But after running for miles in the pouring rain through the pathway in the woods, I was beginning to question my sanity to why I would give up staying in my comfy room after hours of school—studying or reading fiction Novels—to subject myself to five hours of torture every day. ‘Because you are trying not to be a moosher,’ I thought to myself. But it wasn’t a simple decision. The choice of books on Aunt Sophia’s shelf made it a greater sacrifice indeed. Although, technically the books belonged to her employer. The only thing I suppose that belonged to my aunt in the swanky house was her clothes.
The bungalow was a fully serviced one with such luxury that would normally be overboard for a housekeeper. I, for one, was glad the place was luxuriously furnished. Aunt Sophia said the Sterlings intended for it to be a guest house but thought because her status was above the regular maids she should be given a place that was befitting and separated from the servant quarters. Fortunately for me, the bungalow was secluded and about a good one kilometer away from the Sterlings mansion, surrounded by tall trees, a well-tended garden, and groomed pine trees. The regular servant quarters; a two-story building of equally fully serviced, one-bedroom self-contained apartments was east of the bungalow and about a kilometer away. Which made hiding my existence quite effortless. Especially since the estate had a walkable exit to town from Aunt Sophia’s house and there was hardly any reason to go all the way to the estate's grand entrance. Thank goodness! I am all for walking and exercising but that would be excessive. Walking to town in the mornings was okay though, the weather was always cool then and it normally gave me a chance to listen to music from the newly invented portable music device, iPod, a gift from my dad, or read while walking. Luckily for me, the path was paved and always deserted. There was nobody to watch my shenanigans and luckily I haven’t tripped yet. Because sometimes I get pretty carried away and do stuff like talk to myself or scream at a character in the book when they were about to do something stupid that would make me suffer a secondhand embarrassment on their behalf.
The sky rumbled, snapping me out of my musing. I let out a sigh, then looked down at my dripping wet outfit. Fortunately, I had the good sense to wear denim but my top was cotton fabric, a three-quarter sleeve blouse with a pearl button that was now clinging to my upper body. A cold breeze blew my way and I shivered. I figured then that I had two choices: wait outside and get sick or ignore Aunt Sophia’s warnings and ninja my way to the Sterlings' mansion and hopefully devise a way to get her to come outside. Either way, I was majorly screwed.
Bracing myself for the weather onslaught, I ran out from under the porch shield and towards the path, leading to the Sterlings mansion, silently praying that the entire family was out of town on some holiday or event or whatever crazy rich folks do on Friday evenings.
I’m not going to lie, I was a bit curious about the family, maybe not the entire family but the paragon of virtues Aunt Sophia couldn’t stop talking about, Evan Sterling. The only heir of Edward and Charlotte Sterling. According to my Aunt, he was already partly in charge of the running of his parents' businesses and properties. I learned from her that Charlotte Sterling's family were generational bankers and Edward Sterling only took over his wife’s family business when Charlotte’s father died. I figured she must really trust the man to give him such power since my aunt said she was a full-time socialite and philanthropist. Which to me translates to a rich ass woman who has plenty of money and doesn’t know what to do with it. She also said Edward Sterling was a career banker and I suppose that must be another reason. But I couldn’t help wondering what kind of an arrangement they must have. Or perhaps I have read too many books and was automatically expecting drama. A rich wife with a working-class husband must surely have an ugly twist somewhere. I giggled to myself. And this Evan fellow would suddenly find himself laden with a dozen other little Sterlings when his father passes on.
“Oh, excuse me, sir, I think we might be related,” I mimicked the imaginary sibling’s male voice, and just being plain silly.
“Over my dead body would I let you have what is mine!” I replied to the obviously evil imposter son, pretending to be Evan Sterling.
A bolt of lightning flashed and a loud thunder rumbled, making me pause my strides and look ahead. The stately mansion stood about a mile away now. ‘Thank goodness,’ I muttered. I decided to go to the back of the house, imagining there must be a back door to the magnificent house. It was dark now and a few of the garden lamps were put off, making the surroundings dimly lit. The warm glow of the light shone on the rose and sunflower garden by the side of the house making it look quite breathtaking. A lone brick bench was stationed at a small clearing to the side with a round fire pit at the center of the ground. I imagined myself curling up on the chair reading and a small smile tugged the corners of my lips. I let out a sigh.
Focusing on the task, I started peering through the openings in the draping of the glass-covered sidewalls, and the long floor-to-ceiling windows to see if I could sight my Aunt. The first glass wall appeared to be framing a foyer with double grand staircases and no one was in sight. I trailed along down the side, looking back now and then to be certain no one saw me until I got to the backyard and swallowed a gasp. A free-form swimming pool was a few feet from the back porch, and the pool was the biggest I have ever seen. White-colored lounge chairs were lined under a double-wing high-length umbrella on the side. The color of the pool was the perfect ocean blue, and coming out of it was a tall, broad shoulder perfectly formed man that got me rooted to the spot.
He wore a black trunk that clung to his well-rounded ass and when he turned around, dear Lord! I could see the outline of his endowed member. I must have gasped, cause the man suddenly halted his action and turned his face in my direction, looking directly at me. My brain asked me to run but my body was another thing entirely, it refused to accept nor recognize the danger alert transmitting from my brain.
“Hey! Who the hell are you?!” the man called out gruffly, stalking forward, and then was when my body finally decoded the message to run! I turned and felt like I was in a horror movie where a psycho killer was upon me, and I was too heavy to do much to save my skin because what could be the possible, and logical reason why I barely took two strides before I was roughly grabbed and forcefully turned around to face the tall demon! Okay, maybe not a demon, per se because he looked … really really good. More than good. He was perfect and um… glowering down at me.