Bernice waited for Kaizan to show up. Fuchsia had come to join her for dinner. The two talked about what was taking so much time for them to come downstairs and have dinner. When the servant refused, Fuchsia even thought that she would go and knock on the doors of their bedchamber and see what was keeping them. After all, she had really prepared her daughter to look so beautiful. Which man in their right mind would deny a beautiful girl who was so good with her culinary skills? But the moment Fuchsia reached the landing of the stairs, a guard stationed over there stopped them. 

"M'lady, this floor is only for General and his use. Even the servants aren't allowed to go up unless they have prior permission." 

Fuchsia's mouth fell to the floor. She didn't know that Kaizan would have guards stationed in the house. Irritated as hell, she came down mumbling curses at the guard and at Olivia. She huffed and sat beside Bernice, to eat her food. "I can't wait anymore," she said and filled her plate. "But I suggest that you wait here till they come and give it the face of Olivia to make you wait for so long. Don't you leave her!" 

Bernice was already seething with anger. "Yes, Mother," she replied through a clenched jaw. After Fuchsia left, Bernice waited and waited and waited. The servants had extinguished the candles in the chandeliers. Only the sconces and the torches outside the mansion were being lit now. The dining room was lit in the warm glow of the fire hearth. Bernice cradled her head on her hands that were folded in front of her on the table. She didn't know when she had gone off to sleep but when she woke up, it was pretty dark. The embers in the fire were glowing a red hot and unless she stoked them, the fire wouldn't crackle. However, Bernice woke up with a jerk because of a movement in the dark. She rubbed her eyes and became stiff when she saw a dark silhouette of a woman wrapped in a sheet with a shawl around her, serving things on a plate. 

At first, Bernice thought she was imagining an apparition and then when her eyes became wider, she realized that it was Olivia. She was bent at the opposite corner of the table. She had a sheet wrapped around her. She pushed the shawl to her neck because it was falling in front. Olivia noticed that the bedsheet was tied in a knot just above her breasts. She was slicing the duck with a knife. 

Seeing her wrapped in a sheet made her blood boil. So, the bitch was already trying to seduce the General? She wanted to hit her and claw her skin, her face so bad that the General would never see her ugliness again. A quick plan came to her mind. She got up from her place. "You thief!" she shouted and ran towards Olivia. 

Olivia snapped her head in Bernice's direction and before she could even speak, Bernice had already struck her hard with a ladle on her back. "How dare you steal food that is meant for the General and his wife? Is this what they teach you here? If you were in my place, they would have given you a hundred lashes and then thrown you in the dungeon."

A sharp pain rose on her back when Bernice hit her on the back. She fell in front of a chair. "Bernice!" she called her before her cousin brought the next strike on her skin. But Bernice struck her again. 

"You thief! Keep all the food back!" Bernice shouted in rage. 

"Stop it!" Olivia said as she struggled to get up. "This is Olivia here!" She scrambled away from her and shouted again. "Bernice!" 

Bernice stopped herself this time and looked wide at her cousin. "Oh my God!" she said as she released the ladle from her hand and pressed her hands to her mouth. "I am so sorry. I am so sorry." She rushed to Olivia. "I thought that it was a thief." Feeling very happy on the inside, she feigned gloom. "I didn't realize it was you. It is so dark here!" She grasped Olivia's upper arm and was helping her to stand up, when a masculine hand roughly removed her hand from there by holding her by her neck. 

"How dare you?" Kaizan growled. He had come out of the bedchamber with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist when he heard commotion on the outside and Olivia screaming with pain. Kaizan had grabbed Bernice's neck tightly and pulled her back. He bared his fangs and looked murderous. 

"General Kaizan!" Bernice coughed and struggled to remove herself from his hold. "Please, I thought it was a thief. I was only protecting you." She was sure her neck would snap.

Olivia had risen to her feet. "Kaizan," she said, rubbing her back which was stinging with pain. "Leave her, Kaizan." 

Kaizan growled at Bernice once again and then shoved her aside. Bernice fell on the floor on her buttocks so hard that she groaned in pain. She watched Kaizan rushing to Olivia and picking her up in his lap. 

"Olivia," he said as he held her tightly and inspected her wounds. His face was etched with worry as he rubbed her back. It was dark, but he could see that her skin was slightly raised where she was struck. It made him so angry that he wanted to wring Bernice's neck. He looked at her again as his lips peeled back and he snarled at her. 

Bernice flinched. She got up slowly from the floor, rubbing her buttocks. Her expensive gown was ruined and her hairdo was also in a mess. "Ge— General Kaizan," she stuttered. "Please forgive me." She got up and held the edge of the table to support herself. Tears rolled out of her eyes. "I didn't know that it was Olivia." 

Fuchsia came running from her room by that time. "What happened? What happened?" she asked, holding Bernice. 

Bernice shook her head. "It's nothing, Mother. It was my fault. I am so sorry about this." She looked at Olivia. "But why would you steal like this, Olivia? There is so much food in the house. You can eat as much as you like. Stealing in the dark doesn't fit your stature." She started sobbing. "I had made it all for you and the General. This is not the right way to do things." 

"Right way?" Olivia rasped. 

Kaizan gripped her waist tightly in his arms. He wanted to lick her injury in order to ease her pain and then wring Bernice's neck, in that order. When he heard Bernice, he raised an eyebrow and said, "What do you mean 'right way'?" 

Fuchsia intervened. "What she means is that Olivia was being like a robber and stealing food when all she should have done is ask Bernice to serve it to her." 

Olivia stared at her cousin and her aunt, speechless. 

A servant had come there by then and stoked fire in the hearth after adding a log. It came to life immediately lighting the room better. 

"Stealing food? Robber? What the hell are you talking?" Kaizan growled menacingly.. His aura became dark. 

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