CHAPTER TWO

An hour later, she's woken up by the sound of her alarm. Groaning, she hesitantly reached out her hand to turn it off and slowly sat up straight. Yawning, she stretched her limbs before getting out of the king-sized bed and lazyingly made her way toward her joint bathroom to start with her every morning routine. She brushed her teeth clean and washed her face before getting in the shower. She moaned standing under the manmade rain, the warmth of the water washing off the last bit of sleep in her eyes.

She grabbed her candy scented hair shampoo and applied it on her hair before massaging it into her scalp. Washing the foam off, she proceeded to wash her body to her satisfaction and stepped out of the shower onto the fuzzy silver grey bathroom carpet. She got her bathrobe from behind the bathroom door and slipped it on before grabbing a towel from the towel rack. She wrapped her hair in it to dry while she got ready for school.

Leaving the bathroom, she walked into her walk-in closet and got her school uniform from one of the cabinets and lingerie from one of the drawers. She put everything on the leather sofa in the middle of the room and undid the belt of her bathrobe. She left it to drop on the floor and applied body lotion on her skin first before putting on her underwear then the rest of her clothing.

She walked out minutes later with a pair of Jordans in her hand and stopped in front of her vanity mirror. Pulling the chair back a little, she sat down and put on her sneakers before starting with her make up that always included a little bit of concealer to hide the dark spots on her face, a black mascara to keep her long lashes out of her eyes and a nude lip gloss. Smacking her lips together, she smiled up at her reflection satisfied with the results on her face and undid the tightly wrapped towel still on her head to do her hair.

Not bothering with a hair dryer, she ran a brush through the now clam hair. Put it all up in a high ponytail and decorated it with scrunchies matching the colours of her school uniform. With one last look at her reflection, she got up and walked to her study desk to get her backpack. She then went to her nightstand table to get her phone, turning it on to check its battery life and grabbed a phone charger when it read below 50% before leaving her room.

She walked down the long flight of stairs, heading straight to the kitchen in search of that breakfast her father mentioned earlier. Walking in, she halted in her tracks and placed a hand over her chest to keep her heart from jumping out of her chest from shock. When to her surprise the kitchen wasn't empty, a man sat in one of the kitchen stools with a newspaper in one hand and a sandwich in the other… her father's best friend, affectionately known to her as her uncle, Damon Arnold Michaelson.

Looking handsome, calm and collected in his black three piece suit. Brandishing a golden rolex watch on his wrist. The man was a business tycoon… owned a chain of hotels, clubs and casinos and only ever seemed to speak when he felt it was of utmost necessity except when he was with his niece. Well, that was until recently. Everything changed after the girl's sixteenth birthday about two years ago.

The man had suddenly turned cold toward her and kept his distance. His cold demeanour though never failed in enticing a lot of women hence he was well known for breaking hearts unknowingly including Liliana's. He looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, his lips stretching into a lopsided cocky smile when his eyes landed on the girl timidly walking past the door into the kitchen "Morning" he said in his baritone voice.

Licking her suddenly dry lips, the girl composed herself and said "good morning" walking around the kitchen counter to get to the oven where her father usually left her food and pulled the door open looking for her breakfast. She frowned, when she was greeted by the delicious smell of grilled cheese and ham but no sandwich and turned to the man.

With an accusatory tone in her voice, she asked "Damon where's my breakfast??" just as the man was about to take a bite of the other half of the sandwich.

Caught red handed, the man said "I can explain" and put the sandwich back down on the grey plate. Rolling her eyes at the familiar words, the girl moved closer to the counter and leaned forward to drag the plate toward herself.

She took the half eaten sandwich in her hands and took a big bite of the toasted bread before saying "I'm listening" with her mouth full staring at Damon. This used to be a normal occurrence between the two and if it was two years ago, they'd be bickering at the moment but things were different now.

"It's simple really" Damon started, shrugging his shoulders as if to say it was obvious and pushed his half drank coffee toward the girl too before adding "...I was hungry and you know I hate food served in planes" he had just returned from a business trip in France.

"You say it like you don't fly in a private jet" Lilliana scoffed, not buying into his excuse and took another bite of her sandwich. All he had to do was order someone to restock the plane full of everything he liked.

The man disagreed, folding his newspaper close and said "a plane is a plane little flower" little flower ...the nickname replayed in the girl's head. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she tried not to but couldn't control the heat that rushed to her face, turning her cheeks a tinge of pink at the sweet nickname. Hearing him call her his little flower was the one thing she could never get used to even though the man had been calling her that since he first found out her name was Lilliana ...Lily like a flower when shortened, it was the only thing that hadn't changed about him.

"Do you need a ride to school??" Damon snapped her mind back to reality and effectively changed the subject.

"Well.." the girl hesitated, her eyes moving to the blazer atop the table in the welcoming hall where her phone was ...deep in one of its pockets. She had already sent a text to her best friend asking her to come pick her up, but it wasn't everyday that Damon Michaelson took a minute out of his precious time to drive her to school so she made up her mind.

“...actually I do," she said, making a note to herself to not forget to stop her friend from coming to get her. Surely she would understand.

"Great, let's go then… I have an early meeting," the man said, grabbing his car keys from the counter and getting up to leave. Lilliana gulped down the rest of the coffee in the mug and put the mug in the sink before rushing out of the kitchen after him. Grabbing her backpack and blazer from the table, she followed Damon outside to his car parked in their driveway. He opened the passenger door for her before walking around the car to get in the driver's side and sat behind the wheel.

He pushed the start button to start the car's engine and waited for the girl as she locked the house. Jogging down the porch, she sat inside the car and dropped her backpack on the passenger floor before putting on her safety belt and smiled at the man to drive. Damon drove out of the Barnette residence and got on the road heading straight to Lilliana's school.

Taking out her phone, Lilliana sent a quick text to her friend telling her not to pick her up anymore and waited for her reply to be sure she saw the text before turning it off and putting it on a charger. The two drove in silence for a few minutes until the girl couldn't take it anymore and leaned forward to turn on the radio. Seeing this, the man frowned taking his eyes off the road for a second to ask "what are you doing??" Just as Lilliana switched from station to station searching for her favourite. He loved his peace hence never used the radio in his car or allowed anyone to use it either.

"What do you mean??" The girl asked, confusedly.

"...It's too quiet in here so I'm playing some music" she added, her hand never moving away from the radio button.

The frown on the man's face turned into a disapproving scowl "well I like the silence so stop" he said, stealing a quick glance back at the road before removing the girl's hand from the button. Replacing it with his, he turned the radio off himself. The seriousness in his tone let the girl know he won't like it if she insisted.

“Okay, I'm sorry" she mumbled, leaning back in her seat and turned her head toward the window instead with one question in her mind. Why did she even accept his offer??