Chapter 2

"What's the matter, Princess?" Lucas turned to her and asked, the earlier smile on his face now transformed into a frown.

"I...I didn't know that I was leaving tonight. Don't I need to pack? Also..."

"Hazel," Lucas called, cutting his daughter off.

Hazel nodded in understanding and pushed Isabella away from there, stopping her from asking any more stupid questions. When they were a little distance away from the living room, she stopped and went to stand before Isabella.

"What are you trying to do by asking that stupid question over there? Shouldn't you know that you are supposed to pack? You don't think Mr. Hunt would waste his money buying dresses for someone like you, right?"

Isabella was silent, not able to find any words to refute her mother's claim. In fact, she could not dare to do it as the scars on her body were not healed yet.

"Okay then. You should start packing now, I'll send Angela over to help you. Mr Hunt's driver is waiting outside already."

And she was gone. Isabella had to wheel herself over to her room which was not far from where her mother left her alone.

Back To Present.

Isabella opened her eyes to starry pink ceiling of her assigned bedroom in the Hunt's mansion. She raised herself up to sit on the bed, picking her phone from the bedside table.

She unlocked it the way her parents had taught her, and pressed on the speed dial one to call her friend. The call connected after the very first ring.

"Angela, can you come over to my room?"

"I'm right at the front of your door," Angela's voice came from the other side of the line, and the door was pushed open right at that very moment.

Isabella hung up on the call and waited for her friend, who was now looking around the room, to come closer.

"Good morning, Bella. Did you sleep well?" Angela asked, her eyes finally settling on her friend face.

"I think I did, but it's all because of this bed. How about you?"

Angela hurried over to her friend's bed when she heard that, her face screaming that she was scared.

"I slept well too, Bella, and that is scaring me. You met Mr Hunt yesterday, right? Was he as intimidating as the rumours say?"

Isabella sighed, her face beginning to show signs of fears too.

"For me, I think he was more than intimidating. But then, why did he assign us to good rooms? Or was it a mistake on the butler's part?" she asked.

"Then that's not our fault then. We don't have to be scared since we didn't choose the room ourselves," Angela reassured her, placing her own hand on her friend's clasped hands.

"Alright. Help me get on my wheelchair, Angela. He ordered me to cooperate with the butler so I think we need to get ready to work. I pray we get to work in either the kitchen or the garden; cleaning will be difficult for me..." Isabella trailed off as her friend slipped her arms under her, carrying her up to place her on the wheelchair.

Though she noticed the way Angela's grimaced in pain when she dropped her, Isabella was too sorry to apologize. Angela pushed her into the bathroom and left her there, waiting for her inside the bedroom.

Few minutes later, Isabella emerged from the bathroom with a bathrobe wrapped around her. She was surprised when she saw that Angela was still in the room.

"What are you doing, Angel? Go get ready too, I can help myself!" she exclaimed, watching as her friend walked out of the room.

As soon as the door closed after Angela, Isabella wheeled herself to her luggage which was placed in one corner of the room. Selecting a cloth which would be suitable for working, she combed her wavy blonde hair and tied it up in a messy ponytail.

She looked in the mirror and smiled, satisfied with her average dressing which would not draw much attention to her.

"You can do this, Isabella," she encouraged herself. Inhaling deeply, she wheeled herself out of the room and down the hallway, looking for a maid to ask where the butler was.

Ten minutes later, Isabella had wheeled herself around the south wing of the mansion where she was located, before she realized that the maids seemed to be avoiding her. At first, she had thought they were simply scarce in that part of the mansion but after she had seen two or three of them and each one had scurried away as soon as they saw her, her intelligent self was quick to guess what had happened.

'But why are they all avoiding me? I know I have always been isolated by people, but it wasn't because I was repulsive, right?' she wondered inwardly, when she heard a familiar voice from behind her.

"Isabella?"

Isabella jolted, recognizing the voice as that of Nicholas. She hurriedly wheeled herself around so as not to annoy him with her clumsiness.

"Yes?"

She saw the disappointment in his eyes as they travelled from her head downwards, and she felt her heart sink a little.

"Did you see Marcus?" Nicholas asked. Seeing the confusion in Isabella's eyes, he added, "I am talking about the butler."

"I didn't see him. I was just searching for him," Isabella replied.

Nicholas didn't say anything else and simply took out his phone from his pocket.

"David, come over to my study and bring the script over."

He hung up on the call as soon as he was done talking, and stepped closer to Isabella only to notice her flinch and wheel herself backwards.

Even though the movement was slight, Nicholas noticed it and stopped dead in his tracks, anger brewing in his chest. Simultaneously, he turned away from her and walked away from there. Just as he left, another man came running in her direction and stopped when he got to her.

"Mrs Hunt," he greeted simply before closing the distance between himself and Isabella. He went behind her and pushed her to the place where she had met Nicholas yesterday.

When they entered, Isabella immediately spotted him sitting in the chair behind the large desk. She wondered why he didn't ask her to follow him when he was coming to this same place, but soon reprimanded herself when she remembered how bothersome it would be. How would the almighty Nicholas Hunt want her to walk with him? As if she could even walk.

She watched as the man who had brought her here placed a sheet of paper in front of her, and another in front of Nicholas who removed an ear pod from his ear and placed it on his desk. Looking up in confusion to ask what to do with the paper in front of her, she was shocked when she heard Nicholas' next words.

"Read it," he ordered.