Chapter no 4
The Maid's Promise
Marla had seen many things in her lifetime — births, heartbreaks, storms that tore roofs from houses — but nothing unsettled her more than watching a child grow up unloved.
Especially this child.
Lina was different.Quiet, gentle, observant.She carried sadness the way other children carried toys — constantly, unknowingly, like a weight too heavy for her small shoulders.
Marla noticed everything because she could not look away.
The way Lina's eyes followed her mother with desperate hope.The way her father's footsteps made her shrink into herself.The way she sat alone in the cradle for hours, humming to comfort herself because no one else would.
It broke Marla more than she ever let show.
The Day of the Bruise
One morning, Marla found Lina sitting in the corner of the storage room, her knees pulled to her chest. The sunlight fell across the side of her face — revealing a faint purple bruise near her temple.
Marla froze.
She crouched beside the little girl. "Lina… what happened?"
Lina didn't answer. She just looked up with wide eyes, filled with the kind of fear no child should know.
Marla gently brushed her fingers along the bruise. Lina winced.
"Did you fall?" Marla asked softly.
Lina shook her head.
Marla already knew the truth.
Anger surged through her chest — hot and immediate — but she swallowed it quickly. Raising her voice would only make everything worse. Her hands trembled as she wiped dirt from Lina's cheek.
"You didn't deserve this," she whispered.
Lina tilted her head, not fully understanding the words, but leaning into the touch because it was warm.
The Necklace
Later that day, Marla opened the old wooden box she kept hidden beneath her bed. Inside was a small trinket — a simple necklace with a faded blue bead. It wasn't valuable. It wasn't magic. But it was the only gift Marla had ever received from her own mother before she passed.
She stared at it for a long time.
Then she closed her hand around it firmly and went to find Lina.
She found her in the yard, sitting alone under the shade of a dying tree, tracing shapes in the dirt with a stick. When Lina saw Marla approaching, she looked up with a shy smile.
Marla knelt before her.
"I want you to have this," she said, placing the necklace into Lina's small hands.
Lina blinked in surprise. "For me?"
"Yes, sweetheart. For you. It's special, and so are you."
Lina held the bead carefully, as if it were made of glass. For a moment, she seemed afraid to touch it — as though good things weren't meant for her.
Marla tied the necklace gently around her tiny neck.
"There," she murmured. "It suits you."
Lina touched the bead with her fingertips, eyes shimmering with a quiet wonder.
"Th…ank you," she whispered, forming each syllable with soft effort.
Marla bit back the sting of tears. "You don't have to thank me for being loved."
The Argument
That evening, Lina's father returned home just as the sun dipped behind the hills. He saw the necklace immediately.
"What's that?" he demanded.
Lina froze, clutching the bead instinctively.
Marla stepped forward. "A small gift. To keep her comforted—"
"We don't waste things on her," he snapped. "Take it off."
"No," Marla said before she could stop herself.
The room went silent.
Her heart pounded as the man glared at her.
"She needs something of her own," Marla continued, her voice trembling but steady. "Just one thing. You have taken everything else from her."
Her defiance shocked even herself.
The man took two aggressive steps toward her — but then his wife's weak voice called from the kitchen:
"Leave it, just this once."
He scowled but turned away, muttering curses under his breath.
When he was gone, Marla let out the breath she'd been holding. Lina crawled into her arms without being asked, burying her face against Marla's shoulder.
Marla hugged her tightly.
"It's alright," she whispered. "I'm not letting them take this from you."
The Promise
Later that night, long after the house had gone quiet, Marla sat on the edge of Lina's small bedding area. The child was already half-asleep, holding the blue bead tightly in her hand.
Marla brushed hair off her forehead.
"I don't know what kind of life you will have, little one," she whispered, "but I promise you this—"
Lina's eyes fluttered open, watching her.
"I will protect you. As long as I am here, you will never be alone."
Lina reached up sleepily, her tiny hand finding Marla's again — always Marla's.
Her thumb rubbed the maid's knuckle gently, like a child thanking someone without words.
Marla felt her heart melt.
She lay beside Lina for a moment, listening to her quiet breaths.
"You are meant for something more," she murmured."I can feel it. The world may treat you cruelly, but one day… someone will come for you. Someone who will love you in ways you've never known."
Lina's eyes slowly closed again.
The room darkened.
And then, as if answering Marla's words, a faint shimmer appeared — just for a second — near the ceiling.Two luminous hands hovered in the darkness, watching. Protecting.
Then they vanished.
Marla didn't see them.
But Lina, half-asleep, reached her tiny hand upward toward where the light had been… and smiled softly without knowing why.