I am late again all because the train was delayed again. Shelly thought to herself as she walked towards her place of work, deep down she knew that Maria would give her an earful.

Shelly dragged herself onto the property and she saw Mr. Vusi, the gardener removing moving the weeds. Shelly did not have to guess who it was that has sent him to remove some none existent weeds.

"Hey Mr. Vusi and how are you doing?” Shelly waved and smiled at the older man who was focused on his gardening.

"I'm fine my dear Shelly you better get inside the house, because the madam's sister is not so happy” Mr. Vusi informed her and that made Shelly really nervous.

"What is wrong with that lady? It’s not like anything new ever happens in this house Mr. Vusi" Shelly exclaimed but Mr. Vusi only smiled and shook his head.

"Well that is where you are wrong my dear Shelley. The Boss's son will be coming today from abroad and they will be hosting a big party for him" Mr. Vusi informed Shelly and this information was news to her ears. The worst of this news is that no one had informed her of this party happening today.

No one informed of this. Amazing, I miss one day of work and my boss's son decides to come home from the UK. Shelly thought to herself, perhaps her biggest fear was that she knew just how cruel Mrs. Elizabeth’s son could be.

"Ok Mr. Vusi, I'll go inside. Pray for me so that I'm not killed by the end of the day" Shelly joked. She unlocked the door and stepped into the house and she sighed. Before she could take another step further, Maria appeared before her.

"The madam of the house finally decided that she wants to show up at her mansion" Maria spoke and every word that left her mouth screamed sarcasm and Shelly knew that there was more where that came from.

"I’m so sorry ma’am, I was at the hospital with my son he had a—”

"Save me the excuses, get in the kitchen there's some work in there for you to do. The catering service will be here soon with a few waiters to help you manage— and Shelly my nephew will be home in six hours, so no excuses,” Maria warned her with venom in her words. She walked away from Shelly and walked up the steps, if there was ever a time when Shelly wanted Maria to leave then this was it.

If only I did not need this job, I would have left this forsaken place a long time ago. However, you know what they say: "beggars can't be choosers", in my case neither can house cleaners. Shelly hated thinking of herself as lesser than but whenever she was around Maria, she could not help but feel small.

Deep down she wanted to believe that not all rich people were the same but he could not convince herself to believe such, especially when someone as close to her as Richard had turned out the same way.

Three hours later

Shelly’s day had never been busier as she spent the entire day cleaning up and offloading cutlery and crockery off the delivery trucks amongst other things.

Even as she was busy with her work, Shelly heard the sound of a roaring engine and soon cheers followed it. Shelly rolled her eyes and it came to her attention that Mrs. Elizabeth’s son has finally arrived.

Shelly fought the urge to ignore the fact that Mrs. Maria might call out to her but she decided on going, ignoring Maria’s call might just end her into trouble and that was the last thing that Shelly wanted. She gently placed the glass onto the table and walked towards the living area.

As soon as Shelly got to the living room, Maria began her taunts, in front of everyone.

"Oh Shelly what are you waiting for? Go and get my nephews luggage” Maria yelled at Shelly, not even giving her a chance to reply. Before Shelly could leave their presence, she spotted Jackson’s hungry eyes on her. He walked past her and instinctively Shelly moved away.

"Hey Shelley my friend, I missed you so much!” Jackson said with excitement in his voice. He approached her by force and hugged her.

"We are going to have so much fun together my dear Shelley” Jackson whispered in her ear, so that only Shelly could hear him.

Hearing Jackson say those words sent a cold shiver down Shelly’s body; this was the exact reason why she dreaded Jackson returning home. She remembered the times where he would harass her and she could not even tell Mrs. Elizabeth about her son disgusting behavior.

**

It was late night and the party was in full swing, Shelly was busy as she ran between the party and the kitchen, refilling the drinks and food platters. She looked at her watch and it was already eight o’clock the night. Shelly asked Maria repeatedly if she could go home but Maria had refused to grant her request, the entire time that Shelly worked, she thought of no one else other than RJ.

"Shit!” She cussed at herself but continued serving the guests with a fake smile plastered upon her face.

"Hey Shelley come here” Someone called out to her and when she spun around, she saw that it was Jackson.

What does this idiot want with me again? Whatever he wants, it had better be good otherwise, one of us will probably end up dead and it will not be me. Shelly thought to herself as she made her way towards Jackson.

"Okay Jackson, what do you want from me? Because I certainly know you're not calling me to ask about my health,” Shelly scolded at Jackson who raised his hand, signaling for Shelly to keep her voice down.

"Come with me, let's go to my room and I'll show you what it is that I want" Jackson tugged Shelly by my arm and pulled her along with him.

"Stop it you're hurting me! What are you going to do with me?” Shelly tried pulling her arm away but Jackson was too strong for her.

"Shh! please be quiet okay” Jackson told her through gritted teeth.

"And what if I refuse to go with you?" Shelly asked Jackson who stopped and looked at her in the eyes. Jackson looked different now, no longer did he lustful but now he looked as though he was possessed by something.

"If you don't go along with me you might not leave early. Don't forget the fact that you have a son who is probably hungry and alone all by himself” Shelly knew that Jackson was right about that though. Shelly followed him up the stairs and into his room

Shelly was no child, she knew what men like Jackson did to women and how they used their power and influence to take advantage of the situation. Jackson locked the door behind him and Shelly rushed, grabbed the key from him and unlocked the door.

"What the heck do you think you are doing Shelly?” Jackson asked her, the look in his eyes murderous.

"I'm making sure that you don't do anything that would get me fired for good, because unlike you I don't have a family that has a tree that grows money on it. So tell me what you wanted to tell me before I go back to serving the guests?" Shelly informed him and not once did she flinch.

Jackson did not look offended by what Shelly had said, rather he smiled, a wicked smile revealing his pearly whites.

"Shelly stop playing hard to get, I know you want me as much as I want you. Think about it Shelley, if you sleep with me then I will marry you then you would not have to work as a house cleaner. I will even adopt that son of yours – what's his name again?” Jackson asked Shelly, the blood in her veins boiled. She hated how Jackson dangled the carrot of a good life before her even when she knew that he was lying.

"My sons name is RJ and for your information, I don't think I would ever marry a dangerous man like you!” Shelly spat out with anger clearly clouding her face.

"You Know Shelly, me and you could have made such great fuck buddies but no you just want to play hard to get and unfortunately for you, I've run out of patience” Jackson said. He then threw Shelly onto his bed and he tried removing her uniform while trying to place his other hand over her mouth so that she would not scream.

"Jackson let me go! What are you doing let me go?” Shelly fought him off. She kicked Jackson but he did not want to let go.

"What the hell is going on here?” Jackson removed himself off Shelly, only to reveal Maria at the door

Jackson quickly jumped off the bed and away from Shelly. It was Maria at the door with a shocked expression on her face.

"Aunt it's a good thing that you're here, I told her to leave me alone but she refused. She said that she wanted to have sex with me and that she's tired of being a maid in this house!” Jackson told his aunt while. The entire time Shelly was on the bed with the look of shock written on her face.

"Maria it's not like that he's lying to you he—" Shelly tried explaining but she was cut short by just Maria’s look. It was hopeless and not even her tears could move the older woman into believing her.

"Shelly there's a party going on down stairs. I don't want to create a scene so I suggest you go home quietly and don't you ever show your face here again” Maria informed Shelly and this left her shocked, she was being fired for something that she did not do.

Without saying another word, Shelly stood up from the bed, fixed her dress and left the room.