The whole walk back to the estate Ava couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She held the books clutched to her chest as if her life depended on them while mentally deciding on which ones to read first. She still had the rest of her day off so she would be able to start as soon as she reached her room.

As she spotted another unfamiliar car in the driveway she made sure to take the side entrance again. Even if George was currently available to serve the guest she didn't want to risk another bad interaction with them.

After quickly wiping the dirt off her shoes she made a beeline for her room. To her relief, she made it without seeing anyone at all. She carefully placed the books on her desk before removing her shoes and jacket and grabbing the one she wanted to read. With a soft 'thump', she landed on the bed and her day of reading had officially begun.

She was almost halfway through her book when a knocking on her door shook her from her deep focus. After closing the book and setting it aside she curously approached the door before opening it. No one had ever knocked on her door, so she didn't have a clue as to who it might have been.

Turns out, it was Lauren standing in front of her door. "Everything alright here, Ava?" she asked, confusing her even more.

"Yes, everything is fine. Why?"

"Well, it's just I haven't seen you all day and then you missed dinner as well. I was worried you had gotten sick or something worse," she explained, making Ava turn around to check the small clock on her wall.

8:20 p.m.

It dawned on her that she'd been so into her story, she'd missed dinner. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to make something for herself, her previous employer's didn't. Once you missed a dinner you'd had to wait until breakfast to eat again. So she assumed the same rules applied here.

Not wanting to have Lauren think she's stupid, she lied. "Oh, I already ate dinner in town. Maybe you just didn't see me come in, then?"

"Oh, that's wonderful," the woman in front of her replied as the concern from her face melted away. "I must have missed you then. Well, my apologies for interrupting you, then. Oh, by the way," she said as she turned back to Ava, "Mr. Chastain's aunt is staying over at the moment. She'll need you to bring her a glass of water at exactly 5 a.m. tomorrow morning."

Ava disliked the idea of having to face another guest, but at least it would be a woman this time which usually wasn't as bad. She couldn't really refuse, anyway. Her day off ended at midnight.

"I know you'll have your sleep interrupted so you can start an hour later in the morning but it is very important you bring Ms. Addams her glass of water at exactly 5 o'clock, alright?"

"I will," Ava confirmed with a polite smile.

"Alright, very well. I'll take my leave then, I'll see you tomorrow and I'll leave some breakfast out for you," she said as she turned away.

"See you tomorrow," Ava called after her before closing the door. With a heavy sigh, she plopped down on the bed again. Her stomach chose this exact moment to start grumbling but at least it was better than to have it grumble in front of Lauren.

She decided to sleep early in anticipation of the interruption to her sleeping pattern and set the alarm for 4:45 a.m., giving her time to get dressed into her uniform before bringing the glass of water up.

She understood why this task had been assigned to her, she was the only one who actually slept in the mansion itself. She just really didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night to bring someone a glass of water. Why couldn't she just get one herself? She knew all the guest rooms had their own bathroom. She only needed to bring a glass upstairs.

But rich people didn't like doing things themselves, apparently. Before she drifted off to sleep Ava briefly wondered what it'd be like to be one of them.

The blaring of her alarm made her groan before forcefully turning it off. The estate was eerily silent as she probably was the only one awake. After quickly getting dressed she left her room to grab a pitcher of water, since she wasn't sure how much water the woman required, and an empty glass.

For some reason it didn't seem appropriate to turn on the hallway lights in the middle of the night, so she felt her way around in the dark. She'd gotten the hang of the place well enough by now that she was able to reach the guest rooms without hitting anything.

Ms. Addams, like all guests, would sleep in the guestroom closest to the stairs. All of them looked the same on the inside but it didn't make sense to have guests walk all the way to the end of the hallway to reach their room.

Before knocking on the door she took a deep breath to calm her oncoming nerves. After a few seconds movement could be heard in the room before she saw the lights come on.

A few moments later, the door opened to reveal a large woman who seemed to be in her fifties. "Oh yes, the water. Come in, girl, and close the door behind you, will you?" she asked as she turned around to walk back into her room.

Ava obediently followed her in before closing the door behind her. She didn't know what to do next, so she just stood there awaiting her further instructions while watching the woman reach for a bag.

She took out a few pill bottles and gestured for Ava to come closer, which she did before pouring some of the water into the glass.

"Thank you," the woman surprisingly enough said as she took the glass before taking her medications. With one big gulp, she'd swallowed them all and handed Ava back the glass.

"That would be all," she said.

"Very well, have a nice evening ma'am," Ava replied as she walked out again.

After closing the door behind her she needed a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark again after having been in the brightly lit room for a minute. When she felt confident that she wouldn't bump into anything she started moving again.

The stairway was the trickiest part. She had to feel her way around it but managed to make it down without falling or dropping anything. Feeling incredibly proud of herself, she continued her way to the servant's quarters.

But maybe she had become too confident, because when someone appeared in front of her she noticed it too late.

The large dark body let out an 'oompf' but otherwise didn't move, sending Ava flying backward and into the ground. Somewhere along the way she'd dropped both the pitcher and the glass in order to brace herself for impact, making the glass shatter and fly everywhere.

As soon as she landed on her hand she knew something was wrong with her wrist. A sharp pain shot through her arm but she didn't even process the pain because she was too worried about the body she'd crashed into, even if it had barely moved.

"Shit," the large figure cursed while crouching down, making her scramble to her knees.

Blind panic coursed through her, this was the worst thing she'd ever done and she'd been punished for a lot less before. She could only imagine what would happen to her now that she'd not only possibly hurt someone, but also now that she broke both the crystal pitcher and expensive-looking glass.

"I'm so sorry," she gasped out. Without thinking, she reached out to gather the glass in her hands. Her only instinct was to clean it up as fast as she could in the hopes it would lessen the repercussions.

"Don't touch it," the voice hissed as the figure reached out, but Ava was barely able to hear it. She struggled to sweep together all the small pieces with her hand and she wasn't sure where a good portion of the pitcher had gone.

"I said stop," the voice demanded as both her wrists were grabbed, making her drop all the pieces she'd so painstakingly gathered before. She didn't dare pull away her wrists, even if being grabbed like this scared her to death. The voice hadn't sounded mad, but she knew that sometimes people would get so mad they'd talk calmly. But it meant that they were absolutely furious.

She carefully lifted her eyes from the floor to the person in front of her, who was now close enough that she could see. Where she expected eyes filled with white-hot rage she only saw the concerned brown ones of Mr. Chastain looking down on her hands.

"Why'd you do that?" he muttered while turning her hands to inspect them. But Ava didn't know if it had been an actual question or if he'd get angrier if she talked. So she chose to remain silent.

As they sat in silence for a bit and the adrenaline rush wore off she suddenly noticed how hard she'd been shaking. She willed her body to stay still but it refused to listen.

All sorts of punishments ran through her mind and she just hoped it wouldn't be a physical one. She'd been hit hard enough once to leave a bruise on her cheek and it embarrassed her every time someone would look her way. Like a semi-permanent reminder of her fuck-up.

"Let's go to the kitchen," he suddenly said as he moved to stand up, gently pulling her up with him. She didn't understand why he'd be nice to her, did the idea of punishing her delight him so much that he couldn't even pretend to be angry anymore?

He let go of her wrist but the implications were clear, she had no choice but to follow him. After turning on the kitchen light he turned his attention back on her. She could now see that his hair was ruffled and he wore grey sweatpants with a pristine white t-shirt. Those were probably the clothes he slept in and she briefly wondered why he'd gone all the way downstairs in the middle of the night.

"Come here," he instructed. Forcing her feet to move forward, she walked until she was in front of him while still keeping an acceptable distance. Again, he grabbed her wrists and turned her hands around but this was the first time she'd actually looked at her own hands.

They were a mess. Cuts lined her hands and blood was smeared all over them. From one or two particularly large once blood dripped down her hand and into the floor, and she just prayed she hadn't left a trail to the kitchen.

"Fuck," he said as he hovered his fingers above her hand as if that would allow him to know the extend of the damage done.

"It's fine," she automatically said, wanting the interaction to be over with. But he didn't allow her to pull her hands from his grasp. "It's really not," he replied before dragging his eyes away from the cuts and up to her own.

He'd bent down to inspect her hands, his bad posture at the moment made it so that they were at eye level. His gaze intimidated her but she was surprised to see no anger in them. And no evil glint either. Just... Concern.

She didn't understand why, it had been her fault after all. She didn't deserve compassion for being stupid, certainly not from him.

"Why'd you grab the glass?" he asked again.

"I wanted to clean it up," she replied weakly. The spot where he'd been holding her hands had starting to burn, surprising her with the pleasantness of it.

The look he gave her in return was one of disbelief and she regret her answer immediately. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it. After a few seconds, he spoke again, "stay here," was all he said before letting go of her wrists and walking out the door, leaving Ava alone.

She briefly considered making a run for it so that she'd never have to face him again but she didn't know where to go. It was pitch black outside and the road didn't have any lights, making it extremely dangerous to walk along.

Mr. Chastain returned after a few minutes with a medical kit and set it on the counter next to her, embarrassing her even further. "I don't think that's necessary, sir," she offered. He didn't even take his eyes off the kit as he answered, "you do realize there's a pool of blood around you, right?" Upon looking down she, unfortunately, found that he was right. Her hand had been dripping more blood than she'd realized and maybe something did have to be done about it.

"I can do it myself," she whispered loud enough for him to hear in the empty house. "You shouldn't bother, sir."

"With what hand did you want to do it yourself with?" he asked her while raising an inquisitive eyebrow. She realized he was right, again. It seemed that everything she said at the moment was dumb and she should probably just shut up.

After taking out a roll of bandages he set it aside on the counter. He gestured for her to come closer again and turned on the faucet. Gently, he grabbed her wrists again and put them under the smooth stream coming down. As the blood washed away the extend of the damage became clear, there were a few really deep cuts on her palm. One even still had a piece of glass in it, which he carefully removed.

"You should go see a doctor," he concluded after turning off the tap and seeing the pristine water be replaced by dark blood almost immediately. With a cloth, he dabbed away the excess water before carefully placing the bandages around her hand.

"I will, sir," she replied distractedly after realizing he was right. She couldn't take her eyes off his fingers as he worked and admired the way they moved with impossible grace.

"No, I mean now. Go get your shoes," he told her after finishing up the bandages.

Confused, Ava looked up at him to see if he was joking. He wasn't. 

"I don't have a car, sir," she replied. The nearby town didn't have a hospital of any kind, forcing her to go to the biggest nearby town which definitely wasn't within walking distance. She'd have to wait until the morning to catch an early bus out, but she luckily was allowed to start an hour later than usual so she should be back in time for her shift.

Bewildered, he looked back at her.

"I'll take you," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. But to her, it wasn't. And she didn't know how to reply.

------------------------------

Awhh someone is getting taken care of, maybe the scary ceo does have a heart? Or is it only for her?

Nah, it's to early for any feelings.

Or is it?

hehehe

Let me know if you liked this chapter!

xx May