FIVE

Yasmin had mastered the house rules clearly in less than 48 hours at the villa.  She had learned Ali's father was addressed as the master of the house; his mother was addressed as young masters by all servants. Then his only cruel daughter from her,  Amy as miss. Ali's mother was addressed as the mistress of the house while his maternal grandmother who visited from the next villa like to be addressed as Umi by all. She believed herself to be the caretaker of all due her giving everyone advice on certain aspects in their lives.  Now this boy Amir was notorious for luring maids into his certain areas of the large house he called his hub then he would assault them. Rumour had it he had impregnated at least six maids who were all forced into abortions. Now his parents looked upon him with disgrace, he was arrogant. But Jasmine could see no wrong in anyone, she just thought he must have been through something that made him this way, in fact, he felt sorry for him. Mr Al Masi’s other children were all overshadowed by the three siblings. No one pretty much seemed to care what they did, were they went or who they met except that they were taken care of. Spoilt even more that Ali as a child.Ali's father seemed like a gentle looking tall slim man in his sixties It was barely believable that this man had forty- three children with seven different wives, three divorced, and he had built such a large successful empire and Ali was his crown heir. His mother obviously despised her the  moment she launched her eyes on her. She was blonde, afghani looking the splitting image of Amy. Ali's looks fell more on the father's side. Even though she found out later he was not his real father. She did what she thought was the right thing to do. She hid the secret from Ali exactly what Mr Masi paid her for. He had run a cold sweat when he found out Yasmin had overheard his and   his wife's conversation on the topic."You have to relieve her of her duties habibi" She now knows too much! You can get new help for Amir! I can't risk Ali knowing you're not his real father!" She had told her husband. "It's ok Isminah, I'll talk to her!" Her husband had replied. " No, you simply can't trust the help, these servants love gossip, you know that as well," she said in a cold harsh tone. "I said get rid of her NOW!"  The poor Yasmin stood outside the room while weeping in fear of losing her job. Now her husband had lost his temper, Jasmine heard the sound of a slap coming from the room, followed by Mr Al Masi' s quiet angry voice."Know your limits Isminah! I am your husband and I am  not one of your sons!  You cannot speak to me like that! You can't always have things your way!" "I said she is staying! That poor girl has no where to go and you simply cannot get rid of her because of an error on our part." He then marched out slamming the door behind him, which made the weeping Yasmin even more anxious. It brought back all those memories back home when  her  father would slam  the door after assaulting her poor mother in the kitchen. Were all men like this? She thought. Although she hated to admit it, Yasmin had grown to despise men of  her culture a lot.  After the incident, Ali's mom sat in the room crying and complaining to Grandma umi the whole day about how her husband  didn't  love her, how he beat her, then Yasmin was punished by placing her hand over an open flame for an hour while making an oath to never tell the secret to any living soul. The girl stood repeating the words over and over again in front of her evil mistress while tears were streaming down her face. The mistress stood holding her hand in place over the flame, staring   in pleasure at her distressed face. Amir stood behind the gigantic door way watching the ordeal as if it were some pleasant movie. He giggled to himself every now and then. Then later he tried to comfort Yasmin and  aided her  reddened  swollen  hand. The  skin on her palm had been burnt off revealing a red patch of  flesh.  She was  crying  in agonizing pain. When Ali head of this, he was enraged and demanded to know why this had happened. Though he was more pained watching Amir sitting next to Yasmin while applying  medicine and bandaging her hand. He felt a little jealous but dreaded admitting  it to himself. "Shes just the help." He whispered to himself in a tone of embarrassment while approaching  them. " I broke  mistress's favourite  tea set." She had lied.   By  evening, Mr Al Masi had heard of everything and beat  his wife even more for her  cruel ways. Her  cruelty didn’t end there.... One time  Ali   had  had requested  Noora one of the maids at the villa to serve him   coffee instead of the traditional Arabic tea that everyone consumed daily; the young man sat  by the gigantic  oak dining table with his family  smiling  with a newspaper in hand… reading and thats when the accident occurred.  Noora came from the kitchen holding the mug with shaky hands, she was twenty-three at the time, timid and it was her first day on the job. She spilled the hot coffee on young master Ali’s leg as she was about to set  it on the table , sending the young man flying out of his chair screaming in absolute agony. Mrs. Al masi had been so enraged she slapped the woman that she lost her balance and fell to the floor while Ali tried to reassure everyone that he was fine. Mr. Al masi was not happy by the behavior displayed by his wife that he went to the  now weeping and apologetic girl and helped her up. Later on Yasmin would find that Noora had been the first victim of this brutal punishment as she was accused of having an illegitimate relationship with Mr Almasi. Everyone thought it was all well and done with until the next day in the afternoon a piecing scream from the kitchen broke the silence and everyone rushed to see what the commotion was all about. Noora was lying on the floor covered in food, hot potatoes with gravy, tomatoes, and other vegetables. Apparently Mrs. Almasi wanted revenge, her craving for retribution was so powerful, so abundant that she took the large pot of potatoes boiling in gravy that was on the stove  and spilled all the contents on the poor unwary woman sending her  crashing on the floor with the  pot still on her head. She was rushed to the hospital with second degree burns.  The matter was never reported and Noora was not allowed to quit her job because of the contract she had signed with Mr. Almasi. She still possessed scary scars from the burns when she returned from her sick leave. It was to be kept a secret because nobody wanted the mistress of the house to end up in trouble with the police. Ali's father's first wife was in her fifties but had only bore him daughters, one can understand why she wasn't a favourite due to the culture that favours men to women. 'Then his other two wives were young in their thirties. Some of their children we're still toddlers. She learned one lived on the second floor of their villa with her children  and the other lived with his parents in the largest  villa. She had only met them a few times but she learned the villa had been designed for the comfort of specifically three large families. The mansion had multiple entrances, three balconies, and an underground floor. It also had a built in heated pool were notorious young Master Amir would spend his evenings seducing the maids at the mansion while consuming alcohol.   She then learned that no one live in the glassy villa, it was only to be cleaned on casual days during the month. She learned there were levels of hierarchy  even with savants.  Those assigned to be personal servants of the family members were viewed at the top of the hierarchy. Then there were others who we're assigned to do tasks like cleaning and tidying up , others were only allowed to work in the kitchen with the chefs, the lowest were the one that attended to the gardens, pool area and sports field.