Chapter 1

Adrian walked around on barefoot in the garden, watering the flowers and the plants and making sure to use his fingers to uproot the little weeds that struggled for space beside some of the plants. 

He tended the garden with so much love and care. He glanced behind him, towards the now ruined tomato plants where Raymond Brooks' children had run around and squashed the tomatoes that were already ripe for picking.

He sighed despondently. He tried so hard to keep the birds and the rodents away. And in the end it was human children that turned out to be his greatest problem. 

“Adrian!” 

Adrian turned towards the voice. He couldn't see the person yet, but he knew that voice well. 

“Adrian?! Where is that fool?!”

He dreaded the voice. 

Sir Micheal Brooks' wife had never favored him. Nothing he ever did pleased her. And he always ate insults for breakfast, lunch and dinner whenever she was around. 

He rushed to answer the call. “Ma'am?” 

No matter what she said or what she did, Lady Barbara was still the wife of one of the richest men in the City, she commanded a great deal of respect and she was the mistress of the house. He didn't dare disobey her or even cause her any displeasure. 

She was standing on the porch that led into the kitchen, facing the garden. She was wearing her usual resplendent outfit. A heavy embroidered dress that didn't reach her knees, her hair done up in a way that was really more fitting for girls half her age. 

She wore makeup that tried hard to hide her 53 years and make her look much much younger. Possibly, she would like to be 16. 

“Adrian?”

He rushed forward, breathing fast from the dash out of the garden to come and meet her quickly. 

“Yes, ma'am?” He replied to her, standing with his hands folded in front of him and making sure he didn't look her directly in the face. 

“You imbecile. Tell him what he did wrong, Linda.”

Adrian turned to Linda. Now he could look in the face. Linda was kind of like the steward of the Brooks mansion, but she was also Lady Barbara's personal assistant when she was here, she was her cook, her attendant and her gossip partner. 

“Adrian, the tomatoes you planted are poisonous.”

Adrian stared at Linda in confusion. What did she mean his tomatoes were poisonous? And how would she even know that? 

She hadn't had any of this harvest yet. No one had. 

Linda looked like she almost always did. Harried and a little disgruntled by Lady Barbara. Linda was only a few years younger than Barbara. 

“The twins played in the garden and they say the tomatoes poisoned them. Their legs are itchy and a little red.” Linda explained.

“Not a little red,” Lady Barbara snapped. “Their legs are hideously red and scarred from all the itching. They are coughing up blood and Bree will not stop crying. You have poisoned them!” She pointed a red painted nail at Adrian. 

Adrian gasped. No he hadn't. And no plant in the garden was poisonous. He opened his mouth to tell her exactly that but Lady Barbara placed her finger over her lips in a hushing sign. “Shut up! Don't even bother denying it, you useless piece of trash. Just pray to your God that they get better and they get better fast. Otherwise I will have your head!”

With that she turned away and entered inside, with Linda holding the doors open for her.

Adrian was still rooted to the spot when Linda came out a couple of minutes later. 

She hurried over to him. “Adrian.”

Adrian turned to her. “Nothing in the garden is poisonous, I swear, Linda.”

Linda nodded wearily, waving him off. “I know, I know. You know how she can be. The twins shouldn't have run around in the garden and destroyed all that they did. Now they're upstairs wailing, as if someone beat them.”

Adrian sighed. This was not good. Now their father and mother would be furious with him when they get back as well. 

The entire Brooks family seemed to have a thing for humiliating others lower than them. All except for their father, Sir Micheal.

“Hideaway for the rest of the day, Adrian. Or they will chew you alive. Those twins are evil.”

Linda shook her head as she returned inside and Adrian went to pick up his watering hose where he had dropped it and turned off the water. 

He was definitely going to take Linda's advice and escape to the market. Maybe he would use the pretext that Sir Micheal asked him to prepare his special food for dinner.

Sir Micheal had been ill on and off lately and he had taken to eating only certain foods that he only allowed Adrian to make for him. 

Adrian rushed into his room in the small building that was separated from the main building, hidden away in the back, for the servants, the gardener, cooks, maids and drivers. 

He returned to the main kitchen, but only so he could check for what he needed to buy and then rushed off to the market. 

He returned to the house hours later, expecting everything to have died down. 

He went inside the gourmet kitchen through the back, he never went through the front, because lowly servants like him should only use the back doors. 

He had walked through the door when he heard the shout from somewhere in the house.

A little fearfully, and with a lot of caution, he followed the sounds and made his way silently to the huge living room. He got to the doorway and listened in, making sure not to show himself.

The living room was full of people, mainly the Brooks children. 

Raymond, the first son and his wife, Maria, with her foxy, bitchy eyes. 

Lazaro, the second son, and his girlfriend, Cynthia, who were engaged and soon to be married. 

Ada, who was the first daughter, and her own husband, Paschal, who stood with his rounded belly matching her own pregnant belly.

And the last child of the Brooks family, Savanna. Savanna was unmarried, but it was gossiped by the house maids that she was dating a man as old as her father and probably just as rich. But she was just 21. 

Adrian pressed his ear closer as he saw Lady Barbara holding an unfamiliar man by the throat, shaking him with her thin fingers. “Tell me, what did you say happened to my husband?”

“Sir Micheal Brooks is dead.”