CHAPTER 10
ANOTHER week has passed inside the hacienda Montefort. Another week of being Amara has passed to Casey. She spent those seven days inside the large luxurious room, sleeping, healing her fake plastic face, thinking, and exploring every piece of furniture of Amara.
Casey sighed. She didn’t expect that she’ll survive the whole week without a smartphone or laptop where she could write everything in her thoughts. And, up to this day, she’s still thinking of how she will contact her colleagues to inform them that the scandal news writer of their network is still alive and just waiting for the perfect timing to come back.
“How long will I stay like this?” she asked herself. “How long will I stay as Amara?”
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, followed by her server’s voice, saying that her food is ready. “Miss Amara? Should I come in?”
Casey looked at her wall clock. It says that it’s time for lunch, but she felt it’s already dinner time. She wanted to get out of this room, smell the fresh air, and see people around. She wished to get back to her life as Casey, the scandal news writer of Speedy.
“I miss my editors, Art, Miguel, and Sara...” Tears started to pool in her eyes. “I miss them even they’re a pain in the ass sometimes. I miss getting paid by exposing scandals of different personalities. I miss being an asshole writer.”
“Miss Amara?” Thelma called out and knocked again.
“I’m not Amara...” she murmured and lie on her bed. She pulled her bolstered pillow towards her and hugged it tightly. “I’m not Amara...”
Tears started to fall from her eyes. Her chest hurt so much that it began to tighten. She wanted to get out of here and live the life that she really wanted. She doesn’t enjoy Amara’s fabulous but sinful life.
“Miss Amara?” She heard the sound of the opening door, followed by footsteps walking towards her. “Miss Amara, it’s time for your lunch...”
“Why are you all treating me like a disabled person?” Casey asked without turning to the maid. “I have hands and feet. I can go down this prison and eat on the dining...”
“Miss Amara—”
“Don’t call me in that name!” she snapped. “Don’t speak to me as if I’m a highly individual. I don’t want to be treated like a queen...”
It took seconds before the maids spoke again. “The doctor said that you have to rest for your total recovery. That’s why Sir Alexander told us to bring in your room everything that you need so you won’t have to use your energy going down the stairs.”
“Absurd,” Casey cut off. “Alexander just doesn’t want to see me...” She shifted on the bed and looked at Thelma. “Why everybody hates me?”
The woman swallowed hard. “Hmm... I-I don’t know, Miss...”
“I know you hate me too,” Casey said and started to cry. “Even Billie hates me...”
Thelma sat on her bed and smiled at her. “Miss Amara, I don’t hate you. I don’t have the right to hate you because I don’t know you personally... But I must admit, with the things that I saw and observed here...” She trailed off and hesitated. “I don’t know if I have to say it.”
Casey sat up from her bed. “Tell me, Thelma. Am I a bad person?”
The woman avoided her eyes, then stood up. “Miss Amara...” She lowered her head and stared at her hands. “Before the accident, I saw you...” She bit her lip. “I saw you kissing one of your bodyguards at the garage. You caught me looking at the two of you, so you confronted me and threatened me that you will kick me out here if I tell Sir Alexander what I saw.”
“And, you kept it?” Casey asked. She couldn’t believe that Amara can do these evil things to Alexander.
Thelma nodded. “I can’t lose this job because I’m the breadwinner in my family...” Her shoulders shook until she started to cry. “But, I can’t take it in my conscience anymore. Sir Alexander is a good person.”
“I know, I know...” Casey said and squeezed her shoulders. “You don’t have to worry about it anymore. Alexander already knew about it.”
The woman looked up at her in disbelief. “I-I swear, Miss Amara, I didn’t tell what I saw to anyone. I kept it in me.”
“I believed you, Thelma. But I guess all secrets are just really meant to be exposed,” she said and sighed. “What important is I’m here now, the better version of Amara.” She looked at her food. “I think I should eat to have more energy.”
Thelma pulled the cart towards her. “You’ll be able to have a walk at the vineyard very soon, Miss Amara,” she said happily. “I can see that your face is already healing.”
She groaned and touched her face. “I don’t like this face...” she said and picked up the hand mirror on her bedside table. “It looks so fabulous for me. I don’t like it.”
“But you used to say that you admired your face,” Thelma told her with a slightly knotted forehead. “Your face now looked younger than before.”
Because I’m younger than Amara, Casey wanted to say. “Well, I guess the plastic surgeon that Alexander got is really a good one.” Her eyes reverted to her vanity mirror, and she remembered the locked drawer she’s been trying to open since she woke up. “By the way, did you see the keys on my drawers?”
Thelma shook her head. “You told us to not touch everything here in your room,” she said on a knotted forehead. “You forgot where you put them too?”
Casey scratched her brow. “Except for Alexander and Billie, I forgot everything.”
“Do you want me to help you find it, Miss?”
She shook her head. “No, but thanks. I don’t want to be a burden to you. I know you’ve got a lot of things to do here.”
Thelma gave her a warm smile. “Miss Amara, I still couldn’t believe that you really have changed. What you are now is far from the woman that we knew. Even Aura is shocked when you addressed us in our names, because before you called us...” She pressed her lips, and say, “you called us your dogs.”
***