"Humans will always falter when the right condition for them to do so is met but you have to remember that nobody is perfect and even good people stumble every once in a while."

That was something my mother said to me before mysteriously passing away six years ago. I found the way she said 'Humans' instead of just saying 'people' a bit strange but that's beside the point.

After being denied breakfast that morning, I returned to my room, my stomach was screaming before I decided to go downstairs hoping to appease it and now with no hope of appeasing it in sight, it was crying louder and even getting violent on me.

This wasn't my first time starving, I've gone a whole morning without food before because I wanted to experience what fasting felt like since my mother did it every now and then.

She could go a whole day without eating anything while I was only able to make it to 11:00 AM.

That was a painful experience but I didn't remember it being this painful maybe that was because I had my mother beside me the whole time cheering me on with a smile on her face.

"This sucks." I sunk my teeth into my lower lip before crouching on my bed while lying down.

I lay there for over fifteen minutes hoping to fall asleep and wake up by noon and have some food waiting for me but even that wish wasn't granted to me.

I couldn't fall asleep, I was forced to stay awake and endure this excruciating hunger for whatever was left of the hours of the morning which was a lot for a hungry boy like me or so I thought.

Just as the clock on my wall hit 10:27, I heard a knock on my door.

Unless it was in the early hours of the morning every two days when the maid in charge of laundry for the day would come pick up my clothes, there was only ever one person who would bother to come knock on my door.

Knowing that she had come to check up on me shone a bit of light on my already cloudy day but I lacked the strength to get up and open the door for her.

"Ezra." She called before knocking on the door again.

Fortunately, I happened to not have locked the door when I walked into my room so all I needed was to say the word.

"It's open, I think."

"Oh."

The door was slowly pushed open at that moment and in walked my sunshine.

A beautiful young lady with long glistening brown hair in a black maid outfit.

I said the other three maids had forgettable faces and that was true when compared to Cecilia's at least.

She had a literal spotless face with beautiful green eyes that were always brimming with warmth and positivity.

She was about six feet tall, had a slender build, and was quite well endowed compared to the other three who would all be top dogs in the running for flattest surfaces.

All these things were really nice about Cecilia but the physical aspect of her I liked the most was the sweet strawberry fragrance that was always surrounding her.

"Ezra." She gasped just after spotting me lying helplessly on my bed.

She made sure to close the door and lock it before quickly hurrying over to me.

I couldn't see it at that time because I didn't even have the strength to look up but she had a small basket with her.

"Oh, hey, Cecelia," I uttered in a weak voice not even showing any hint of gladness despite the fact that I was really happy to see her.

"Is this really what hunger can do to you in under thirty minutes?"

I was finding it hard to sleep just a few minutes ago but right now her voice sounded like a sweet lullaby and under its influence I found my eyes slowly closing in slumber.

"You really know how to make everything better, Cecilia."

I wanted nothing more than to fall into a deep slumber at that moment, however, I had already come to accept that my wishes didn't matter to whoever was in charge of the universe and he went on to prove me right once again.

"Come on, Ezra."

Before I could fall into the desired slumber, I found myself sitting on my bed and that state of my mind suddenly vanished forcing me back to the real world.

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"If you're so hungry that you can't function properly then eat something, dummy."

'What do you mean eat something?' I thought since I didn't have the strength to quickly say that out loud.

Nevertheless, I opened my mouth to convey my thoughts in response to what she said but before I could form the words I felt something a bit fluffy and really sweet in my mouth.

"Huh?"

My sleeping nose was immediately awoken at that moment along with all of my senses, I thought Cecelia came to just console me because there wasn't exactly anything she could do about the situation but she actually came with a solution, a temporary one but it was at least something.

What I had in my mouth was a cupcake which she had stuffed in there when I opened my mouth to speak and she had more in the basket she was holding now.

"A cupcake?" I muttered before slowly pulling the thing out of my mouth while swallowing the ones that were left in there.

"Yeah, you looked like you were about to die so eat up, I have more here." She said before pulling out another cupcake from the basket.

I stared at her with a deadpan face as she said all of that, with the way everyone else in this house treated me currently I was extremely fortunate to have someone like her by my side.

She looked nothing like my mother but she did always remind me of her, her warmth, her smile, and even the way she spoke.

"Um... Ezra?"

She noticed that I had been staring at her for quite a while now with my mind elsewhere and I guess she got uncomfortable and wanted to call me back to the real world. That was when I decided to say something that sort of caught her off guard.

"I love you."

I mean it made sense for me to love her given the fact that I hated everyone else in this house but it wasn't just that type of love.

"You mean as a sister, right?" She replied.

"Yes, but not just that." I shook my head before taking a bite from the cupcake in my hand. "Once I turn eighteen let's get married and get out of here."

Her first response to me was a smile before she proceeded to hand me the cupcake in her hand.

"When you turn eighteen, huh. Well, we still have a few years before that actually happens so let's save that conversation for when you actually turn eighteen." She replied.

Despite how she looked, Cecilia was just going to turn twenty in a few months, she was only four years older than me so I didn't think there was anything wrong with marrying her, and even if there was, sixteen years old me didn't care.

"Now hurry up and eat so that you'll have the strength to take that chemistry test."

"I told you about that two days ago but you still remember it?"

"Exactly, it's only been two days so why would I forget?" She retorted.

She made a good point, who would forget something two days after you let them know about it? Well, you can go tell that to my father who forgets anything important that I tell him in less than twenty-four hours.

"Anyway, I have to get back to work now so eat to your fill, there's some water in the basket so you don't have to come down to get some." She remarked before getting up on her feet.

I expected to head for the door almost immediately but she just stood there and stared at me before a smile found its way to her face.

"You look much better now."

"And you look breathtakingly stunning today." I blurted.

"It's not a competition, Ezra."

"I know, I was just complimenting you."

She shook her head in response to that before turning to the door.

"Your father won't be back this afternoon and he instructed us not to give you any food while he's not here." She disclosed as she opened the door.

"Oh, I see."

My voice dropped at that moment as I slowly brought my gaze down.

"But don't worry, I'll make sure to sneak something out for you." She whispered before placing her finger in between her lips.

My face suddenly lit up with a smile at that moment as I raised my gaze to see that she was smiling back at me.

"You're the best."

"Well, thank you." She said before taking a step out of the room. "Before I leave, here's something I forgot to say, I love you too. But only as a little brother, okay."

"Did you have to add that last part?" I pouted, stuffing my face with the cupcake in my head.

"Yeah, it was necessary, now bye."

She kept her promise of bringing me lunch that afternoon and she even stuck around to have a nice long chat with me since she didn't have anything to do and it wasn't just that day.

I had to start going down early for breakfast and dinner starting from that day and since he no longer came back for lunch probably because he wanted to make sure I suffered during that period unbeknownst of the fact that Cecilia had me covered during that period.

She was the best friend and sister a boy like me could ask for in this current situation, she was the only person in the house who would never do anything to hurt me be it for work or personal reasons, I mean the man told them not to feed me in his absence and she was going out of her way to disobey him and bring me food. Well, I did actually believe that until that night.

It had been seven days since my father created this rule of not feeding me in his absence and I guess he got desperate.

He came back from work early that day and because of that, we were going to have dinner early.

I decided to join him a bit later than usual that night and when I got there, he was already slurping down his, a fine plate of spaghetti and as expected there was nothing on my side of the table.

"Good evening, Father." I greeted before slowly taking my seat and just as always there was no response from him.

The man used to be so clean but since my mother passed away, he's been letting his beard overgrown, he stopped putting in the effort to take care of his hair and he was lacking sleep now and had dark circles under his eyes.

He pretended I wasn't there as he ate his meal and I also pretended that he wasn't there as I waited for whoever was in the kitchen to bring me my food.

It didn't take long before Cecilia showed up with a plate of pasta in her hand and I couldn't help but smile as soon as I saw her but for some reason, she didn't return the smile which I found to be strange because she always returns my smile even in front of my father.

She didn't say anything to me and just dropped the food in front of me before stepping back to stand by the side.

I could see a hint of sadness in her face but I also wasn't sure because she was trying hard to keep a straight face.

'Maybe father told her to stop smiling at me?'

That was what I thought at that moment as I picked up my fork but before I could dig into my meal my nose caught something.

I forgot to mention before but I've always had a sensitive nose, especially for food and I could tell that something smelt different about the spaghetti on my plate and the one my father was eating, I couldn't exactly put my finger on it but I could smell something that I have never smelt in any of the food I've had in this house before.

I turned to Cecilia at that moment and this time it was clear, she really did have a sad expression on her face and it wasn't just that, it looked like she wanted to tell me something but wasn't able to.

"You can leave now, Cecilia, there's no reason for you to stand there." My father said.

"Okay, sir," Cecilia responded.

I could see the clear hesitation in her steps as she walked out of the area and after walking a few distance, she turned to look at me before moving on.

I turned to the food on my plate after that, and after staring at it for a while, I got up on my feet.

Something just didn't feel right to me.

"And where are you going?" My old man asked.

"I want to grab something from the kitchen, I'll be back," I replied already making my way into the kitchen.

It was just my intuition but I hoped that I would find whatever I was smelling in my food in there.

Looking for something I had no reference of was bound to result in me finding nothing especially because Cecilia was the one in the kitchen that night, she always cleans every nook and cranny of the kitchen after she's done or so I thought.

I got tired after looking for a while and I couldn't afford to stay there for too long or my father would get suspicious.

I rested my hand on the fridge and was about to give up and go back when my gaze slowly shifted to the trash bin which seemed to still have some stuff in it.

'She didn't throw it out?'

I made my way to the trash bin and as soon as I got close to it, my eyes widened because I could smell whatever was in my food in there except that the scent was stronger now.

I reached for the basket and in no time I pulled out something, a small black bottle, and taking a sniff at it, I could tell it was what I was looking for.

My face sank in shock at that moment because the bottle had the word 'Cyanide' clearly displayed on it.

'Cyanide? This stuff is known to kill people in seconds, why would Cecilia put this in my food?'

I didn't want to believe it but the evidence was staring me in the face.

'Did he force her to do it? But even if he did, Cecilia would never agree to do something like that, she wouldn't.'

I was in utter denial, I could have died that night and my blood would have been in her hands.

I was still struggling to comprehend what was going on when I heard the back door move.

It was pushed open a second later and when it did, Cecilia could be seen standing there with a small plastic bag in her hand and the moment she caught sight of me, she froze.