THE MAID'S SECRET

The scarf was too beautiful to wear.

Midnight blue, stitched with delicate gold leaves. It looked like something worn by queens not housemaids.

I stared at it on my bed for minutes, unsure what message it carried

A gift?, a message?, a warning?

Or something more dangerous than all three?

I folded it back into the box, hands trembling slightly.

Whatever it meant, i knew this much:

Chinedu was not finished with me.

"Who gave you that?" Sarah's voice broke the silence.

I turned. She was standing by the laundry door, arms folded, her brows raised with curiosity and a hint of something sharper.

"No one," I said quickly.

She smirked, I saw the box this morning. Looked expensive.

I shrugged, folding towels. Maybe Madam forgot it in storage.

Sarah came closer, lips pursed, listen, Tomiwa you are new here, so let me just tell you don't get comfortable.

"I'm not." I replied.

Good, because comfort is how girls like us get used, then tossed.

I wanted to argue, but i did not

Not because i agreed but because i wasn't sure she was wrong.

By afternoon, a new presence arrived at the mansion.

A sleek black SUV rolled through the gates, the driver uniformed, the windows tinted. I was standing in the corridor with a tray of glasses when the door opened.

She stepped out like she owned the world.

A tall and stunning woman dressed in a blood-red dress and silver heels, how hair was pinned up like a crown, and her lips painted to match her clothes.

She did not smile, she did not look around.

She asked only one question,

"Where is Chinedu?"

The air shifted.

I stood frozen as Madam Amara, the head housekeeper, rushed forward with a greeting, Miss Onyeka we did not know you were coming.

Onyeka?

The name felt like a slap.

His ex?

His fiancé?

His everything?

They did not say, but the way she walked past us without even glancing in my direction told me everything I needed to know.

She belonged, i did not.

And worse? She knew it.

The house became quieter after that. Chinedu wasn't seen for hours. Rumors floated between the staff quarters like smoke.

"She's back."

"She wants him to go to Abuja."

"She's rich like oil money rich."

I tried to stay focused, but it was impossible, every time i passed a mirror, i wondered if i looked too curious, too close, too guilty.

By nightfall, i could not sit still.

I went to the garden, needing air, needing space.

That's where i found him

He was standing by the fountain, sleeves rolled up, shirt untucked, as if he had been pacing. The moonlight hit his cheek just right, casting him in silver and shadow.

He did not look surprised to see me.

I thought you had be sleeping, he said voice low.

"I couldn't."

"Me neither." he said.

I came closer. Is she staying?

He shook his head. Not if i can help it.

"Why is she here?"

"To remind me of who i used to be."

That answer made my heart beat faster. And who was that?

He looked at me. "Someone i hated."

"I don't think i could ever hate you," i whispered.

His breath caught just for a second.

"Don't say that yet," he said. "You don't know what i have done."

"I don't care."

He came closer, just enough that I could feel the warmth of him.

"You should care."

His eyes dropped to my lips.

"You should run."

I am tired of running, i replied,

That cracked something in him.

He reached up slowly and touched my cheek with the back of his fingers.

Not possessive.

Not hungry.

Just soft.

Like he was remembering a version of himself he had not seen in years.

"You are not like them," he said.

"I'm not trying to be."

He stepped back suddenly, jaw tight. That is the problem.

I blinked. "Why?"

"Because Onyeka will see it, she always sees it, and she kills what threatens her."

I swallowed hard. "What am i to you?"

He did not answer.

But he did not walk away either.

Later that night, i lay in bed staring at the scarf again.

There was no name stitched into the silk, no scent, no message.

But everything about it felt like a confession.

And i didn't know which terrified me more

That he was falling.

Or that i already had.