Changes

The following morning, Iliana woke up to the golden rays of the morning star glowing brightly in her room. It was late in the afternoon already. The ten year old stood up, brushed her teeth, bathed herself and changed into a pretty pink dress. She was glad Sugar plum wasn't around because she would have forced the female maids to give her a bath in scented roses and she always felt embarrassed being bare in front of three grown maids. Smiling, she went to her parents' room to greet them as she knew that they would be waiting for her. Everyone had breakfast together on Saturdays. When she got there, she knocked but got no response. Curious, she opened the door to find that the room was empty. Puzzled, she checked around all the rooms on the first floor and second floor thinking they probably wanted to surprise her.

After checking all fifteen bedrooms, she still couldn't find them. She walked along the passage, pondering on where they could be. Suddenly, she stopped in front of a portrait. The portrait was dusty, so it would show finger marks if one touched it, however,there were no finger marks on it.

'That means mama and papa aren't in there. It seems they left again, without even saying goodbye.'

A teardrop rolled down her face as she felt a sudden feeling of sadness spreading through her. She went back into her room and cleaned her face to prevent Sugarplum from getting worried. Hoping they would come back soon, she came out of her room and started her long walk down the stairs. Midway down the magnificent gold and white staircase that led to the first sitting room, she heard the news that crashed her whole world.

"Master and Mistress are gone!" Housekeeper Sonam cried in agony.

"Why are you crying Sugar plum? I know that. They will come back soon." Iliana said as she rushed through the remaining steps.

"No Lia dear. Th..they are....de....dead" Sonam replied while wailing.

"No! No! That is impossible sugar plum. They promised. They said they would always come back."

Iliana suddenly sat down on the floor and started shaking her head vigorously while repeatedly mumbling incoherent words to herself.

"No!No! This isn't true. They promised me. They did. They said they would always come back. You are lying to me Sugar plum. You all are lying." Iliana said as she looked at the helpers with a tear stained face. Without waiting for a reply, she stood up immediately and ran to her parents' room.

"Iliana dear, Iliana. Please come back" Housekeeper Sonam said while chasing after her.

"Iliana please open the door." Sonam pleaded while knocking on the door but there was no response. She ended up falling asleep in front of the door.

"Father, mother, where are you? I know they are all lying to me. Please come back. Please" Iliana begged while holding a family photo frame with her trembling fingers.

After crying for hours, fatigue set in and she fell asleep. 

"Fa....father! Mo....th..er! Is that you? You came back! Thank you for coming back to me. Now we can all live together again. I knew that they were all lying to me. Let's go back so that I can prove them wrong." Iliana said smiling.

"No Iliana, we aren't back and we can't come back. This is a dream." Her mother said with tears as she ran towards Iliana and hugged her. 

"You both promised me! You promised to always come back. So why did you leave me? Why?!" She cried with hot tears flowing down her face.

"Jasmine, we are really sorry. We never wished for this too."

"Okay...okay. Don't come back but please let me go with you father. Please!"

"No, you can't come with us. We love you Jasmine and don't forget to always wear the necklace we gave to you."

"I won't forget that but please let me go with you."

"No you can't, I'm sorry Jasmine, you can't" Her mother said with a sad smile as the two figures started fading away.

Covered in sweat and with tears streaming down her face, Iliana woke up to find that her parents were gone. She rushed into the bathroom, turned on the tap and splashed water on her face. Looking up at the mirror, she shivered at the sight of herself. There was a heap of face towels in one of the cabinets in the bathroom as her mum loved to steam her face with hot towels every night before she went to bed. With a sad smile, she took one of the towels and cleaned her face and dabbing at her puffy eyes. Sighing, she walked towards the door, took a deep breath and placed her small hand on the door knob while twisting it to open the door. Upon opening it, she saw a sleeping Sonam lying in front of the room.

"Sugar plum, sugar plum aunt, wake up." She said said while shaking her awake.

"Ili..Iliana, is that you? You are fine. Thank God you are okay." She said as tears gathered in her eyes and she pulled the little girl into her arms emotionally while patting her back.

Iliana was about to speak to assure her that she was okay when the doorbell rang from downstairs.

"Let's go check who it is dear."

On getting downstairs, they saw her aunt, uncle and two cousins extravagantly dressed while the workers were arranged in two lines as her uncle stood in the middle of the lines. Her uncle, Mark(her father's brother) spoke first.

"I'm sure you all know of the sad occurrence that happened to my brother. As a result of the fact that he has no other relatives and little Iliana is still too young to take over the properties and the Williams group of companies, I will be doing that on her behalf till she is of age according to her father's will." He paused trying to read the reactions on everyone's faces.

The Williams Corporation was extremely famous for their versatility in different areas of business. Their headquarters was in Philadelphia in Country M which is why Iliana and her parents decided to leave China to settle in Country M. Iliana's mother was a western woman while her father was a Chinese and they met at a business seminar organized in Country M. It was hard for both of them to convince their parents to agree to the marriage as Iliana's father had been engaged to someone when he was ten years old. The two families opposed the marriage and Brenda and Adam got married secretly and when their families found out, they broke all ties with them. Brenda's father and Adam's mother however later changed their minds and tried looking for their children all to no avail.

Brenda and Adam settled in Country M to establish their own company there since that was where they first met and the company kept expanding till it became a conglomerate. They were involved in textiles, fashion designing, entertainment, cosmetics and so many others.

"There will be changes in this place as I will now make all the decisions here. All the workers will have to stop working here from henceforth. We cannot afford to pay you all for your services. Please start leaving except from you two over there." He said pointing at a female and male whose names were Martha and Luke.

"But we do not have anywhere to go. This mansion is now like a home to us. Please don't do this." One of the helpers spoke up.

"Father, why are you still talking to these beggars. Why not just ask the guards to throw them out?"

"That's not the right way to talk to people Lina" Nechel grumbled.

"Guards! Please throw all the helpers out."

"But father...."

"Will you keep your mouth shut!" Mark bellowed in anger as he turned to face the thirteen year old boy.

"Sugar plum aunt is going nowhere." Iliana said as she stood defensively in front of her.

"Oh no, she is leaving my dear." Her aunt Juliana said with a smile on her face while eyeing her son.

Mark's men walked forward and throwing Iliana aside in one swift motion, they grabbed Sonam and dragged her out of the house. 

"Always remember that I love you Lia." Housekeeper Sonam said as she made a sign with her hands.

Iliana understood the meaning of the sign, that she meant that she could always call her on the phone for help at any time. She and Sonam made up their own sign language for fun when her parents went away. She used to talk to Sonam with that language when she didn't want anyone else around to understand what they were saying.

"Yes I will aunt. I love you and I hope that we will meet again someday." Iliana said while standing up as she wiped the tears and sweat from her face. She stood up from the floor as she watched Sonam's figure fade away at a distance while she tried hard not to cry. 

"Now my dear little daughter, we will all be staying here together." Juliana said with a fake smile on her face.

"No aunt. I'm not staying here with you. This is my house and not your's. I want my parents back, I don't want you."

"Cole, please take this girl and lock her in the basement." Mark said pure annoyance displayed on his face.

"No, I'm not going anywhere. Leave me! Leave me!" Iliana screamed while her cousin, Lina laughed at her and Nechel stared sadly at Iliana's struggling figure.

"She's such a cry baby." Lina said while laughing.

"Like you are any better."

"Enough both of you!"

"We need to prepare for the press conference now. Juliana, please prepare the black outfits for all of us." Mark said while holding Juliana's hand to calm her down.

"Yes, I will do that now"

Few hours later, the press arrived at the front of the heavily guarded mansion and saw the family of three standing outside while crying seriously. 

"We got the news that the plane which Mr and Mrs Williams used to fly to Beijing crashed. Is that true?" A male reporter spoke up.

"Yes it is true. My beloved brother is gone! I can't believe this! He didn't even bid me goodbye! Life is so unfair." Juliana cried as her figure shivered while her husband wrapped his arms around her.

"My brother and his wife have been confirmed dead everyone. Their remains weren't found because the plane caught fire immediately it crashed. The burial will be held in a week's time."

"We know Mr and Mrs Williams had a ten year old daughter though she has never appeared in the limelight before. Where's she? How is she dealing with the news?" Another reporter asked.