Chapter 9


    Sofia’s POV


    “Matilda, Mrs Ri has been waiting on you for a while now.” Sarah, the housekeeper admonished the


    young woman who just walked into the kitchen. The said woman footsteps slowed down as soon as


    she spotted me sitting by the counter.


    “Oh it’s fine, Sarah. I don’t mind.” I quickly added once Sarah was done admonishing the Chef, Matilda.


    And also because I didn’t mind waiting here in the kitchen for the chef to arrive since for one, I didn’t


    have any else to do and forcing down a cup of coffee while exchanging a few, polite words with Sarah


    was way better than me sitting on my own, doing nothing.


    “Hello, Mrs Ri. I’m so sorry I took so long, theundry wasn’t dried off yet so I thought I could wait


    there until it dries off finish, because I thought you’d still be in bed, tired from all the stress from the


    wedding ceremony, and your wedding night–” Matilda choose the moment to mention my wedding night


    when I was about to force down another mouthful of coffee, which made the coffee go down the wrong


    pipe that finally resulted in me choking and coughing on the counter while Sarah and Matilda watched


    wide eyed.


    “Matilda!” Sarah smacked Matilda’s arm and I watched as Matilda’s eyes widened in horror for a


    second before she started apologizing immediately.


    “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean toe off as rude or nosy, the part about your


    wedding night which was none of my business and it just slipped out of nowhere, I really am sorry,


    ma’am.” Matilda started to apologize and each time she mentioned my ‘wedding night’, my stomach


    was always tightening up nervously and guiltily.


    Sarah offered me a ss of warm water and I epted it gratefully and quickly swallowed a little down,


    to wash the rest of the coffee away from the wrong part of my lungs.


    “It’s fine, Matilda. It really is.” I finally answered Matilda on a small sigh and she thankfully stopped


    apologizing.


    Atst.


    “I really am sorry, ma’am.” She said again after a few seconds, a guilty expression on her matured but


    wless looking face.


    Whelps, spoke up too soon.


    “Please refer to me as Sofia, and like I said, it really is fine.”


    “Oh, no, I can’t do that, ma’am. Can I do that?” Matilda mumbled thest part to Sarah who was


    currently mopping the few drops of coffee that had spilled during my coughing and choking fits.


    “I guess, it’s what the mistress wants, we have to do as she pleases.” Sarah replied with a small shrug


    of her shoulders without ncing up.


    “Oh, if that’s what you really want then, ma’am Sofia.”


    I shook my head with a tiny twitch of my lips, “No ‘ma’am’, just ‘Sofia’.”


    “Noted, Sofia.”


    “So what would you like for breakfast, m- Sofia?” She paused and nced at me before proceeding to


    list a variety of a thousand dishes that she could perfectly prepare, and all I had to do to get one of


    those dishes for breakfast was to request it.


    “How about waffles?” I asked and she hesitated before continuing.


    “Are you sure that’s what you want? You can request for something that isn’t as basic as waffles if you


    really want it, you don’t have to think about putting me to any trouble seeing as this is my job, and it is


    my job to go to any ‘trouble’ just to prepare you what you want.” She tried reassuring me while probably


    thinking I had only requested something as simple as waffles because I didn’t want to put her through


    unnecessary stress.


    She had no idea I had requested for waffles because that was something I was used to eating, and


    probably the only food I could stomach now without throwing up.


    “Yes, Matilda. Not to worry, I’ll keep in mind what you’ve said and would most definitely request for


    whatever I want, whenever I want it since you’re here to prepare it.” I started to say and watched as


    she nodded her head immediately before confirming again.


    “So, waffles? Just waffles?”


    “Yes, thank you.” I answered and stretched out my arms on the counter.


    “It will be ready in a few minutes.”


    And she proceeded to prepare the said waffles, the familiar, soothing smell clouding the whole kitchen


    some timeter.


    ******


    Sarah ended up taking me on a tour of the whole house once I was done forcing down the food.


    Matilda had unreasonably heaped my te very high, making me wonder where she wanted me to


    store that huge amount of food in. I only ended up stomaching a few of the waffles before giving up


    forcing it down when I started to feel nauseous.


    Matilda had not looked happy when she saw the amount of leftover food on my te, it looked like I


    had barely eaten a piece of the food, the crestfallen look making me feel guilty for a fleeting moment.


    I’d have eaten more if I could, but I couldn’t because my stomach said ‘nope’.


    Sarah and I, along with Matilda who looked like a woman in her early thirties, started the tour right from


    the kitchen. We stopped at the dining room first and I noticed how sophisticated and sparkling, clean


    and beautifully expensive everything looked. The dining room was widely spaced and there was a huge


    television on the wall directly facing the long table which was surrounded by lots of identical chairs.


    We left the dining room and went into the food store, a door which adjoined the kitchen. The store


    contained lots and lots of food, and more ovens. There was small sized transparent ss jars which


    contained different kinds of seasonings and preservatives. There were some bigger cupboards in the


    store as well, in which lots of grain food was safely stored.


    We left that ce and headed into the second andst adjoining door which led into the kitchen and I


    wondered why there was any need for another whole different room here in this kitchen.


    The door led into… a freezer.


    No,


    A frozen room.


    A frozen room which housed a lot of frozen food like different kinds of meats, vegetables, beverages,


    lots of frozen, liquid seasonings, and a lot more things which I didn’t bother checking out in there.


    Matilda and Sarah had looked at me like I had suddenly grown two heads when I asked them


    If I coulde into the frozen room anytime.


    “This is your house, Mrs Ri. Of course you can go into every part of the house whenever you like.”


    Matilda eximed like she thought I’d have figured that part out on my own since I was now married to


    Luca.


    “Oh,” I stated, not knowing what else to say. Matilda and Sarah had thankfully only smiled softly at me


    before turning back around and showing me different angles and corners in the frozen room.


    We finally left the frozen room and went from the first sitting room, to the second– and third sitting


    room.


    I had no idea people had more than one or two sitting rooms.


    We toured the whole house and ended the tour beside a tall ck door which had tiny designs in gold


    and silver lining the four corners of the door. There was also a small note in anguage that looked so


    much like Spanish, carved into the middle of the door.


    “I know I said you’re free to go to anywhere in this house, but this office is limited to my Ri only. I’m


    sorry, ma’am.” Matilda suddenly blurted out, rephrasing the words she said to me in the frozen room.


    “It’s fine, Matilda. I have no interest in going in there anyway. Also, it’s ‘Sofia’ and not ‘Ma’am’.” I


    reassured Matilda, which was totally true. I was goingpletely stay oof this particr room each


    time Luca stay home to avoid mistakenly running into him.


    ******


    The car gradually slowed down then came to a stop and Ethan, the guard that wasn’t behind the


    wheels quickly walked around the car to pull my door open for me, but not before thoroughly ncing


    around the surroundings to ensure there wasn’t any lurking danger.


    “Thank you, Ethan.” I thanked him as I alighted the car and clutched my small purse against my gown,


    feeling a bit uneasy.


    I’d have appreciated the fact that this was my first time being here, and that the whole scenery


    surrounding here looked really weing, had my stomach not been in an ufortable knot.


    I was already used to this kind of routine all through my life while growing up. Although I was already


    used to the guard and my I and my brother’s driver, I most definitely wasn’t being treated like this back


    then.


    These guards were treating me like I was as fragile as an egg.


    Which I definitely wasn’t.


    Ok, maybe I am fragile.


    But not fragile, fragile.


    The dress I had changed into when the guards had announced that it was time to go get me a phone,


    was a warm summer dress. It went high a few inches above my knees and was a stunning ck and


    white color. I had added a light coat of lip gloss, eyeliner and mascara to the attire. I had been wearing


    makeup since when I was fifteen, the age in which I had started getting treated as a part of society.


    Ethan led the way into the huge building we pulled up in while Ryan slowly followed closely behind. We


    all got into an elevator together and they kept a respective distance between our bodies while standing


    on both sides of my body. The elevator started it’s journey upwards and I scowled at our reflection in


    the elevator walls. The fact that I was in a three inches heeled sandals could only bring my head to


    both men’s shoulders, they were also so broad and wide looking like I appeared really petite between


    them.


    Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g


    We stepped out the elevator once it stopped and made our way into an office tagged ‘High ss’ and


    everyone in there immediately turned around to stare at us as we made our way deeper through the


    racks and walls of different kinds of phones, before finally arriving at the counter.


    “Good afternoon, Mrs Ri.” The man standing behind the counter quickly rushed around it to stand a


    few feet before us and greet me.


    I flushed in embarrassment as the mention of the word ‘Mrs Ri’ made more people throw more


    curious nces our way before everyone started murmuring all at once.


    Just how many people knew about my marriage that urred yesterday?


    The man quickly ushered us into a smaller but very ssy looking office, but not before a few people


    started taking pictures and videos of me.


    I had turned into a celebrity overnight.


    We were offered seats but I was the only one who ended up taking a seat, while the guards had


    remained standing out of respect.


    I declined all offers of refreshments and asked if we could quickly start checking out some of the


    phones. I fell in love with the iPhone 13, but shrink back away from it on hearing how much it was. I


    hesitated some more before shrugging off the small feeling of guilt that I was spending that much of


    Luca’s money, a day into


    the marriage when I remembered that he was a freaking billionaire and wouldn’t even feel a thing at


    this amount of money being debited from his bank.


    I ended up getting the iPhone 13 pro max, and made sure I could understand all the important basics of


    the phone before finally exiting the office with my two guards nking my front and back protectively.


    The price of the phone was directly mailed to Luca’s direct inbox, on his request.


    We headed straight to the bank and on alighting the car, a few paparazzis were on us immediately,


    trying to get me to tell them how I honestly felt about my new marriage and whatnot. Ethan dealt with


    them immediately, shoving them harshly to the side since they themselves never cared whether they


    were invading a person’s privacy or not, while Ryan led me into the bank.


    We made it to thest floor of the bank which was exclusively for VIPs only, and after spending about


    thirty minutes on signing and reviewing lots of documents and information, I finally exited the exclusive


    office with a sparkling ck card.


    I headed back home that evening, with a new phone, and a ck card that has no limit.