Chapter 2: THE SITTER

"You are ruining my life!" Avena slammed the door in Aurora's face as she yelled at her parents. Aurora was used to Avena losing her cool with her parents; being the daughter of one of the richest landowners in the whole of Sicily, she was allowed her random outburst.

Aurora stood in front of Avena's door; from the outside, Aurora could hear her cussing her head off. Aurora was well aware of the type of girl Avena was but she could not help but feel for her. Often people would describe Avena as spoilt, conceited and downright crazy but Aurora could not help to think that there was more to her than that.

"Aurora!" She jumped up as she heard Signora Mia Russo call out to her.

"Si, Signora Mia, I am coming!" Aurora responded. Walking down the steps, she fixed her dress, making sure that nothing was out of place. The last thing she wanted was to upset the woman of the house.

Aurora arrived at the living room and stopped as she saw both Signor and Signora Russo. She bowed her head as to-not look directly into the eyes of her employers, one of the many rules that Signora Mia Russo had passed down to her employees… especially her.

"Greetings Signora Russo, good day Signor" Aurora greeted both her employers, knowing quite well that there was a storm brewing. Once again, she would have to pay for the mistakes of Avena.

"My dear Aurora, I told you not to call me Signor. Instead you could call me padre (father)" Signor Giovanni told her, he had told her on many occasions to refer to him as father, considering the fact that Aurora was an orphan.

"No, she may not call you father! Giovanni, you need to stop encouraging the helpers to call you by such names" Signora Mia scolded her husband. Their constant argument had become a constant theme in the Russo household.

Aurora stole a glance and just then Signora Mia caught her looking, trouble was definitely brewing.

"You can look up!" She yelled at Aurora who looked at both her employers, her hands folded before her and her legs together.

"Yes" she answered.

"Your only job in this house is to make sure that my darling daughter does not get into trouble, explain yourself," she asked Aurora who stood frozen on the spot. Aurora was well aware that Avena had been seeing a boy that she had met on one of her father's estate, he was a boy with big dreams but his lack of wealth made him an unsuitable match for Avena.

Aurora had listened to Avena talk about the young man countless time even though she knew deep down that their love was one that it could never be achieved. Standing in front of her employers, she knew that she was caught out for covering for all of Avena's mistakes.

"Signora, I was unaware that Avena had left the house" Aurora lied, hoping that this was not her last chance. Being fired would mean that Aurora would have no place else to go. Her mother had died many years ago and thanks to the Russo family who had taken her in at the tender age of seven and had even employed her as soon as she was legal.

Aurora knew no other family other than the Russo's and her being fired would also mean that she would be homeless.

"You liar, even when you stand in front of me you lie to me. I know that my daughter has been going out with that useless young boy" Signora Mia accused her, yelling so loud that the entire mansion must have heard them.

"Mia if she said she does not know then she must be telling the truth, you know how stubborn Avena can be when given the opportunity to" Signor Giovanni tried explain to his wife, who was not having any of it, insisting that Aurora was the cause of her daughter's bad behavior.

"She does know, my sweet Avena would never do anything wrong" Signora Mia defended her daughter whilst Aurora stood there silent.

She could stand there and tell them of all the times Avena had stolen sweets from the stores and blamed Aurora or every time she lied without fail. Aurora was always used as the scapegoat for it all.

Deep down Aurora was aware that Signora Mia knew that their lovely stepdaughter Avena was not the sweet and caring angel that she pretended to be, but she would do anything to make her daughter spotless before her husband's eyes.

Just like that their argument ended, again the focus was turned back to Aurora as she waited for her judgment.

"Just leave my presence but if this happens again young woman, I will fire you and there will be no more chances"

"Thank you Signora Mia" Aurora thanked her employers, bowed her head and stepped out of the room while holding her breath. That was another narrow escape for her as she realized that once again, she had almost lost her job and all that because of Avena.

Her outa exterior showed no signs of anger but deep inside Aurora was fuming, her hand bowled into a fist in front of her as she wanted nothing more than to hurt Avena. Standing in front of the door of Avena's door, Aurora raised her hand and knocked.

"Who is that!" She yelled angrily from the inside of her room. Aurora gathered all the strength in her and stopped herself from saying anything nasty to her.

"It is me, Aurora," she told Avena who went quiet. The door swung open to reveal a red-faced Avena, in the short time that it took for Aurora to get her ears shouted off, Avena had cried a river.

"What are you doing here?" Avena asked her, not a care in the world that Aurora had nearly lost her job and all thanks to her.

"I would like to come in, please" Aurora asked her calmly even though every cell in her body wanted nothing more than to strangle Avena, who slowly moved out of the way to allow Aurora in.

"Thank you" Aurora said as she walked past Avena and entered her room. Aurora stood in the center of the room, gathering herself up for what she was about to say.

Avena walked right past her, threw herself onto her bed and placed a pillow over her face, screaming into her pillow as she always did when she was upset.

"I think it is best that you stop seeing Tommasa" Aurora told Avena who paused and proceeded to remove the pillow from her face.

"What?" she asked Aurora in utter disbelief.

"I mean that maybe you should stay away from him, find someone who is more of your class, someone with money, a good family and—"

"Shut up! don't you ever say such rubbish like that ever again, you do not know him like I do" Avena defended her boyfriend which only made Aurora even madder. She turned, face to face with a red-faced Avena and for the first time in her life, Aurora was not scared.

"Yes you are right, I do not know a lot about Tommasa—"

"Thank you!"

"But I do now that he is unemployed, living under a bridge and has no future aspects" Aurora told Avena blankly, it hurt her deep down to see the hurt expression on Avena's face and it hurt her even more to know that she was crushing her childhood best friend's dream but it had to be done.

Avena slowly got off from her bed walked towards her, face to face with Aurora, looking into her eyes with nothing other than hate.

"You do not know him" Avena defended him.

"Neither do you, Avena. This young man has no future and I suggest that you leave him be"

"You don't know that! He has a future, he plays good guitar and one day when he makes it, we will buy a big house and we will be happy" Avena told her and Aurora rolled her eyes.

It was only people like Avena that could think like that, all her life she had been spoon-fed, no idea what the real world was like. Living in her own make belief world, she did not know how cruel people were.

"Oh and you believe that lie!" Aurora tried getting through to her

"It is not lies!" Avena reached for her snowball and flung it at the wall, as it shattered into a million pieces, bringing the much-needed silence that they needed. Aurora was not fazed. Avena throwing and breaking things was not new to anyone that knew her, she was short tempered and this was the only way to rid herself of her anger.

Aurora stepped closer to Avena, so close that the two of them were centimeters from each other.

"Then prove it, prove to me that Tommasa truly loves you" Aurora challenged her and her challenged had shocked Avena so much that she could not even conceal the stocked expression in her face. Nevertheless, like the master of manipulation that Avena was she smiled.

"You do not know how it feels to never get what you want" Avena told her and her words infuriated Aurora, so much that her hands itch to slap Avena but she stopped herself.

"Cry me a river" Aurora heard herself say, she could stop her fist but this time she could not shut her mouth.

"What did you say?" Avena asked, shocked that Aurora had actually responded to her.

"I said, cry me a river" Aurora repeated herself, gritting her words through her teeth. All her life she grew up watching Avena have the best of all worlds while she struggled.

"I don't—"

"You don't what, Avena? You always complain of how the world is against you when reality you are your own worst enemy. You are twenty- nine years old and yet you cannot take responsibility for your actions"

"But—"

"But nothing Avena, I almost lost my job today because of you" Aurora explained, her heart broken that she had almost come close to losing her source of income and place to sleep.

"Mother would never have fired you"

"How do you know that? Avena you did not see the look in your mother's eyes and if it were not for your father, I would be out of here"

"Maybe it is best if you leave then, that way you could study to be a doctor like you have always wanted"

"It's not as easy as you think! Avena if I leave now then I will have nowhere to live and I am not done saving my money for college. Avena we can't all be like you" Aurora nearly cried out, trying to stick some sense into Avena's brain.

"Stop acting like I am some lucky girl, I was adopted after my parents abandoned me at the orphanage"

"At least you were adopted!" Aurora told her, but quickly shut her mouth. She knew that someone such as Avena would never understand what true pain felt like.