A Call That Changed Her Entire Life

Hearing the noise, Jacob rushed inside only to be met with an image of a pained Emily sitting on the floor, aside a distracted, carefree Zola.

"What happened?" he exclaimed. Without waiting for an answer, he quickly stomped over to her, shoving Zola out of the way. The sight of Emily cradling her tiny, hurting foot stirred up a mix of anger and pain inside of him that his face could hardly hide.

"It's nothing; don't worry. I must have just stepped on something sharp." Trying not to call any more attention towards herself, she attempted to lift up on her elbows and palms but, just as quickly, Jacob placed his hands firmly on her shoulders, holding her down on the ground.

"No, don't move" he pleaded.

Concerned, he leaned over to examine Emily's foot. The wound looked much more serious than she had made it seem. It was swollen and heavily bleeding. It could easily get infected, and Emily's strong hold of her foot showed she must have been in a lot of pain. In spite of all that, Zola was seemingly daydreaming nearby, not even pretending to worry about her wellbeing. Jacob could not take it anymore. A rush of utter anger overtook him as he turned and shouted towards Zola,"What are you waiting for? Call the doctor!"

As if just awoken from a dream, Zola took a few seconds to come to her senses. Slightly frustrated by Jacob's concern, she simply complied and ran downstairs to call the doctor.

The doctor arrived shortly after and gently checked the wound. Emily had indeed stepped on a pushpin. He carefully removed the pin from the sole of her foot, and wiped the area clean with a few alcohol swabs to disinfect it and stop the bleeding. Even though in pain, Emily was not making a sound throughout the entire time. The pain started to subside soon after the doctor applied a generous amount of numbing antibiotic ointment to the wound. He then threw an oversized gauze pad over it and wrapped it up with some thick bandage.

"Miss Emily", he proceeded to explain,"luckily, the pushpin didn't reach too deep inside your foot. But you still have to watch out for an infection and I would recommend that you limit your walking to only what is strictly necessary." It wasn't what Emily wanted to hear but she agreed to listen to his advice. She had to, after all. Jacob would not let it be any other way. The doctor then instructed both of them on when and how to use the ointment, and left right after.

Still somewhat shaken by the whole situation, Jacob sat next to Emily at one end of her bed and asked,"Where was the pushpin?"

'Where was the pushpin?!' she thought. Emily hadn't thought about it until Jacob brought it up. After pondering for a while, Emily replied honestly,"I'm not sure. Maybe it was in the carpet and I just stepped on it. I couldn't tell there was anything on the carpet."

"Who cleaned this room?" he continued on an accusing tone. With his eyes narrowed into two angry slits, he piercingly stared over at Zola for a few seconds awaiting her reply.

Panicked, Zola replied,"Sir, this room was cleaned by Kate..." Then she briefly paused, perhaps feeling sorry for having thrown Kate under the bus. "It was all my fault," Zola continued. "I should have double checked the room more carefully..." Her moment of remorse quickly turned into a slight fear of possibly being found out.

Zola's face actually affected Emily. She always saw only the best in

"It wasn't anybody's fault. It was just an accident, and I'm okay now. I'll

With a raspy voice filled with resentment, he muttered,"Zola, make sure

sir," said the maid bowing her head. On one side she was relieved, but on another she knew

people go. But now that she thought about it more, during her time spent at the Tyrone Mansion, Zola seemed to be in charge of most duties. All the other servants obeyed and respected her the most, and Emily couldn't think of any other supervisory figure; so it must have been

confirm her deduction. "Jacob, when did Zola...

really thinking about her question. Now sitting even closer on the edge her bed, Jacob still couldn't shake off his worry and indignation at what had happened. The only thing that was making it all better was staring at Emily's tiny foot; so tiny that he could easily cup it in just one of his hands. She had such cute toes too, with her pink nail polish, clean-cut and shiny nails, as if the sea had

adorable, and her foot was the cutest

that he began answering Emily's question completely oblivious to her rationale. "Zola is my nanny's daughter.

whether the one in charge was Zola, Lola or anyone else for that matter. It was only after Emily moved in that he started stopping by more often. It was also then when he realized that Zola,

see..." Emily interrupted his thoughts. But her thoughts too were interrupted once she realized the intimate manner in which Jacob was attending to her. Her wounded foot

the stern request didn't even register. He simply responded by asking

gently over the wound, like a parent

shivers pierced every part of her body at the feel of his warm breath, followed by a numbing sensation in the affected foot. Jolted by the shivers, her other foot sprung up from Jacob's knee, kicking him strongly in

without

after having watched the whole incident happen. 'How dare she do

want to do is accept any help from a servant. He arrogantly slapped her hand to the side, stood up by himself and harshly

she had caused. Seeing Jacob's red face, she felt the need to say something. 'I'm sorry for embarrassing you. It wasn't my intention.' Emily intended to apologize, but she

unfairness with which he was treating her was all that she could think of. Zola's emotions were caging all her words in her throat. Perhaps it was better because she couldn't think of any right words to say. All she wanted to say was 'She hit you! She was the

to forgive her. With a calm demeanor, he adjusted his clothes, his sight lingering on her for a few extremely long seconds. Then, realizing Zola still hadn't left, he turned towards her and condescendingly asked: "What are you still

attitude he was addressing Zola with, made her forget why she had come inside the room in the first place. But after a few silent moments, she finally