2. Be Mine

“Young Master is inside and waiting, come in, Miss.” The thin man knocked on the dark brown door in front of him. After hearing the answer from inside the room, the man opened the door for Helga and invited her in.

Helga didn’t know what all that meant. Still confused, Helga entered the room, as soon as she passed through the door, the man immediately closed it, leaving Helga alone there.

Feelings of nervousness and fear immediately gripped Helga. Her attention was only focused forward, on someone sitting on a chair. The cold gaze greeted Helga, the flat expression on his face made the girl only silent.

The man rose from his seat without taking his sharp and cold gaze off Helga who could only freeze in place.

“Helga Novalie?” The man spelt Helga’s name in full, making the girl swallow her saliva when she heard his voice which was so heavy and cold. “Answer!”

“Yes!” Helga answered quickly then her eyes widened.

The gaze was intimidating, making Helga only able to stay silent like a statue, even unconsciously the girl held her breath. The man whose name was not yet known walked slowly around Helga. Then stopped right in front of the girl and stepped closer to Helga until their bodies almost touched.

The man brought his face close to Helga's side and whispered. "Breathe. I don't want you to die in my house, let alone in my office," he said.

As if controlled, Helga took a breath but couldn't move from her position.

"From now on you will live here forever," said the man after stepping back from Helga, giving a little distance between their closeness.

"What?" Helga was of course surprised to hear the man's words. "What do you mean?" Of course, Helga didn't understand what the man said.

"I bought you from your greedy and drunk father," said the man flatly. "So you are mine now!" he said firmly then.

Helga gaped in disbelief. Did the man think she was something that could be sold? Helga couldn't accept it.

"You just have to stay here. One thing you have to obey is never leave this place. If you break it, you will die." That was a warning that made Helga even more silent. The girl's heart was beating fast, afraid.

Her life was really unfortunate. Already unfortunate and poor, living in a rickety shack that was often visited by loan sharks because her father often had debts and lost gambling. Helga was often hurt by loan sharks.

"Okay, go." The man ordered then turned his back on Helga.

"Who are you?" Helga asked, not knowing where she got the courage to ask.

The man turned his head back and glared at the girl. "You don't need to know," he answered briefly.

"But I have the right to know," Helga said bravely.

The gaze was so sharp but strangely it couldn't stop Helga from asking.

"If you buy me, doesn't that mean you give a lot of money to those bastard?"

Silence. The man just stared at Helga coldly.

“At least I need to know who you are. If you don’t want to answer, I’ll have to ask someone else,” Helga said a little threateningly.

“Go ahead,” the man replied, folding his arms across his chest. “You won’t get anything.”

“Then tell me who you are?” Helga was a little demanding now. “I won’t obey anyone I don’t know. So, don’t expect to be able to pressure me, Young Master.”

Helga’s brow furrowed as she saw the man laugh. A cold laugh that made Helga able to remain silent again.

“I told you, you don’t need to know,” the man said after he stopped laughing and approached Helga again. “Or, you will die by my hands.” After saying that, he immediately left and opened the door roughly.

Helga was still silent in her place, but her gaze was fixed on the table not far in front of her, there was a name there, Helga spelt it, “Zean Wilder.”

The name seemed familiar to Helga but the girl forgot where she had seen or met him.

Helga was confused as she left the room, but the thin man who brought Helga to that place reappeared.

“Young Master has some business, Miss please follow me,” the man said and walked past Helga.

The girl followed behind and led Helga to another room not far away. On the second floor of the large and magnificent house, there were four doors. The thin man who brought Helga opened one of the doors and invited her in.

“This is your room, Miss.” The man opened the door wide.

Instead of entering, Helga turned around and realized that the door of the room faced the door of Zean’s study, the man the thin man called young master, the cold figure who spoke to Helga earlier. Helga wanted to know what happened.

“If you need anything, just call the servant or go downstairs. This area is specifically for Young Master so servants rarely come here,” the man said. “My name is Roan, you can call me anytime if you need help. Then I’ll excuse myself.” After that, the man who had just called his name as Roan left again.

Helga didn't know what to do, but the girl entered the room and was amazed by the spaciousness of the room. The room with a combination of dark blue and gray looked magnificent to Helga Novalie who had lived in a rickety shack with her drunkard and gambler father. Throughout her life, she has always been tortured. Helga had dreamed of a big house with a spacious private room and all the classy furniture. The twenty-five-year-old girl gave up on her dream because her father kept beating her until Helga had to stop working. At least, the girl managed to finish her school. However, Helga had to live in the hell of poverty and suffering given by her father. Her mother left when the girl was eight years old and took her older sister who was only three years younger than Helga. Now, Helga doesn't know where they are.

Who would have thought, that her little dream of getting out of the hell of poverty and being free from her father's torture was like entering a new hell that Zean might present? The cold man somehow intimidated Helga.

"Can I accept this?" Helga thought as she hesitantly walked towards the bed that was quite large compared to the one in her house. "What am I doing here?" Helga couldn't help but speak.

The place was spacious, many times larger than her rickety house. There were two doors in the room that were tightly closed but the sound of footsteps from behind her made Helga quickly turn her head.

"Hello Miss, we will serve you on the Young Master's orders." Several maids in black and white uniforms approached. There were about three female maids who came into the room.

Helga didn't understand but she didn't protest at all when the three maids directed her to the bathroom and prepared everything there. Helga felt uncomfortable and restless but the girl just kept quiet.

"You can go now," the cold voice greeted Helga's ears again, making her look back and reflexively cross her arms in front of her chest. Because the girl was still in the bathtub.

The maids obeyed and immediately came out of the bathroom, making Helga panic.

“What are you doing here?” the girl asked in fear, her body being pulled to sink into the foamy bathtub.

However, Zean calmly closed the bathroom door.

“You don’t need to know,” Zean answered briefly.

While Helga was scared, Zean remained calm, instead folding his sleeves and approaching Helga who was sinking deeper into the water. Zean suddenly pulled Helga’s face forcefully, surprising the girl.

“I said don’t die,” the man said in a cold, piercing tone.

Zean’s fingers that were on Helga’s jaw gripped her face tightly, making Helga even more scared and in pain.

“Sit properly,” Zean ordered then roughly released Helga’s face.

The girl obeyed, sitting properly in the bathtub filled with water. However, the soap bubbles that filled the bathtub had almost disappeared, making Helga panic, what if Zean saw her body without a single thread?