Chapter 5 *You Lost What!*

Vanessa's POV:

My days started pretty early with my brother, Victor, waking me from my sleep. "Vanessa, aren't you going to work today?" he asked, his voice tinged with concern. I rubbed my eyes and tried to shake off the remnants of sleep. He was wearing an apron and I could perceive burnt food in the air. Did he cook? I asked myself and wondered why he went to the kitchen again as I remembered, he was an awful cook.

Seeing his stern look, I realized that he asked a question earlier. "Work? I lost-" My tongue slipped, almost revealing my secret. Panic surged through me, and I quickly recovered, "I mean, I'm on off."

Victor raised an eyebrow, giving me a suspicious look. "You lost what?"

"N-nothing," I stammered, my heart racing. "I mean, I didn't say lost. I said I'm on off." I corrected.

He stared at me for a moment longer before letting out a sigh. "You're getting so many days off recently. Did you do something wrong?"

I swallowed hard, my mind racing to come up with a plausible ex