Musky clouds shrouding the faint glow of the evening sun, a deep orange colour dying the sky over the Fox manor. Things are just the way they have always seemed to have been... Serene and still like an unmoving water.

Inside the Fox manor, on a queen size bed, Ariyah laid swirling a glass of wine between her fingers and staring at the rows of servant standing in front of her with sweet smiles on their faces.

Who knew that having everything that one could ever think of came with its own disadvantages. As narcissistic as that sounded it was true. You never know where the shoe pinches till you're wearing it. It was exactly because she was living this bland, empty life that she could truly understand what it felt like.

She reached out for the jug of wine on the bedside table but before she could even touch it, one of the maids rushed forward and took the jug up.

"Let me do it Young mistress"

Yeah right. How could she have forgotten. She wasn't allowed to even pour her own water. Talk more of pouring a drink for herself. Frustrated, she was now less interested in drinking the glass wine, she casually dumped it on the side table and waved for the servant to return.

This was the life she lived in.

She used to be a fan of those weak to strong female lead novels, where the female lead would be hated by a lot of people but still be able to rise to fame and stardom, it gave her a sense of responsibility and commitment... unlike her current life. Ariyah wasn't any female lead nor was she trying to rise to stardom, from the moment she was born, she was born into stardom.

Her parents were famous, not only famous but wealthy enough to have breakfast and dinner in the president's house. As she grew up, she too began to become famous from doing practically nothing, now she didn't even have a job nor did she have a life of her own, all she did was live in the shadows of her parents reputation but yet she was more popular than any celebrity you could think of.

Ariyah had everything she could ever ask, wealth and beauty that could topple a nation, the endlessly admiration from people wishing to be like her and on that an exceedingly peaceful life, no disloyal servant, no wicked stepmother or stepsister, no antagonist seeking for revenge, but she was walking on pins and needles. You could say the life she had was the very same antagonist of her existence. She couldn't keep friends because she had her father's legacy to safeguard, she couldn't casually be in a relationship because her parents were scared of being used as a political weapons. She was just a beautiful ornament waiting at the terrace of her father's house tills a path was created for it. It was peaceful and perfect yet frustrating and boring. What fun was there if she wasn't actually living?

It was funny cause many would pray for her life but if she was asked, she certainly was not interested in keeping her life. She wanted something interesting. She wanted to get to know what it had to be like getting to make life molding choices or plan her future by herself or perhaps struggles to improve her life, but she couldn't, her life was all made up, she would probably die the same way she was born... A Multi-zillionaire. That was it. There would be no personal achievement they knew her for only that she grew up to take over her father's company and died while doing just that.

She wanted to take a walk through her own garden and feel the warmth of the sun without having a 50mm thick umbrella blocking her view, she wanted to sit with people and laugh, have something to talk about and not just building knowledge she was going to only use probably when she was fifty. She wanted a real life, nothing too dramatic but definitely not this blur and she wanted to pour her own water, pick her own dresses and wear her own shoes by herself!

She waved her hand and signalled the servants to leave her room and they did. They might have left but she knew they were watching, the slightest bit of movement from her and they would probably come rushing in. With her hand on her cheek and her finger mindlessly tapping away on her chin, she began wondering if there was a way she could become her own antagonist, perhaps spice up her own life by herself. Not that she hasn't tried yet. in time past Ariyah had tried playing the unruly wealthy first miss but her efforts were futile. Now she was wondering if there was something she had not tried that would finally bring colour to her life. Or did she have to create a thousand identities for herself?

"l would give anything for a more interesting life" she whispered under her breath then picked up her phone. Scrolling through the internet, there's not a single dissing article about her, only news of an impending matchmaked marriage for her like her parents had always planned. Ariyah was already used to this that there wasn't even room to be displeased anymore.

Her boredom magnifies and in a moment of whim she decides to read a novel, randomly selecting a novel from her long list of lightnovels library on her phone.

She takes a quick glance at the synopsis then snorts. "Classic cliche, It's the same thing every time, isn't there a new plot to write about? it's not like people's lives are like this in reality."

First chapter, Second chapter and then till ten and she becomes fed up. She finds the characters annoying mostly all the female leads. They have the opportunity to make the right decisions yet always seemed to prefer making useless and illogical decisions that turns their life into a mess.

Ariyah can already see where the story was headed, she could imagine all the hardship the female leads would bring on themselves as they chase after love and useless things. Ariyah doesn't even have to read to the end to know that the main female lead wins anyway at the end, leaving the supporting female leads to suffer death or a life worse than death.

Ariyah loses interest in the book still she decided to jump to the last ten chapters. Just like she assumed the female lead had finally found her love somewhere in-between the story after almost losing her life and her family to the man she had thought she loved. Whereas the first Supporting female lead was forced to commit suicide from heartbreak. The second supporting female lead was far better than the first, even though she lost everything, she gained amnesty from the Female lead and male lead and was allowed to live her life

Ariyah gets discontented and closes that novel. A visible pout on her lips and a hungry glint in her eyes. 'I wish I could trade life with either of them, I'm sure I would live it better than they did' she thought in her heart and she meant every word. Ariyah moved to set her phone down but a sudden notification pops up.

She picks the phone back up and stares at the screen, it was one of those random pop up ads, she gets them a lot and they all end up getting swiped away from her screen, as custom her finger moves to swipe it away but her eyes catches what is written on the Ad.

[do you want a different life? click here!]

She's enticed, her finger hovers over the Ad for a few minutes. Ariyah is contemplating if to waste her time checking the Ad, she knows it's just a publicity stunt but still is very eager to see what is at the end of the Ad. She clicks expectantly.

Her phone screen goes white for a few seconds then returns to normal, the Ad does not open, Ariyah clicks a few more times but nothing happens this time, She should have known, most ads always end up like that from failed program design, she becomes disappointed and swipes the Ad away from the screen. She drops the phone and lies down back.

Staring at the ceiling with nothing on her mind, she suddenly gets the urge to drink something, she sits back up and grabs the glass of wine she has dumped on the table. The servants rush back in to assist fill up the glass of wine.

"Don't bother I just_" Ariyah waves them off angrily. Her voice trails off as her steps begins to stumble.

The firm room suddenly appeared to have been out on a rollercoaster. Everything in her sight was spinning faster than a hands of a fan.

"Young mistress are you okay?!" They rushed to hold her still.

Ariyah opened her mouth to reply but she seemed to have lost the ability to utter words. In the next moment a wave of dizziness hit her and she collapsed.

Has there ever been a moment you wished the world world burn in unquenchable flames, the joy it brought to your mind to imagine the world crumble and certain people lose their lives in a gruesome way.

This was what Ariyah was feeling at the moment, as she walked down the road barefooted with her six inches heels in her hands, she urged to glare at everyone who stared at her with a weird look in their eyes and to those who looked at her with pity she so much wanted to tell 'do not feel pity for me! Feel pity for yourselves that also live in this world' but she couldn't, because even with her miserable appearance, she was still unnoticeable to the world around her. How miserable it was to feel miserable and yet there was no one that even noticed.

She didn't even know which hurt the most anymore, was it her inexistence or the fact that life has chosen to use her as it's tennis ball. First she was damn ass broke, next she had a comatose mother to take care of and a perpetual drunkard Uncle. That was not all, life had just one way or the other to remind her that good people suffer more, she can't even start to explain all the misfortunes she has being going through... aish it's really not fair.

"Ariyah!" She had just gotten to her front door when she heard someone yelling her name, the anger in the person voice reached her heart without her even seeing who the person was.

First thing that came to her mind was the wrinkled angry face of an old man, sure enough it was the man she had guessed.

"Mr Patrick why are you here?" She asked frustratedly, working at a night club was absolutely harder than she thought, she has not even gotten over the streets and now she had to face this man.

"Why am I here?" The man asked in disbelief

He yelled angrily "Why am I here?! You still have the nerve to ask me that?!"

Ariyah sighed "I said I am going to pay you your rent at the end of the month, you don't have to keep following me around because of that, it's not like I am purposely not wanting to give you your money, it's because I don't have it"

"This is the end of the month!! Today is the 30th!" He announced.

"really?" Ariyah was shocked to hear this, she dug out her phone from her pocket and scrolled to check the date on her calendar, true enough, it really was the last day of the month.

How time flies!... It was just few days ago she told him she would give him the money at the end of the month and it was the end of the month already. The problem now was that she did not even have a dime with her, even if she did, she would be conflicted with whether she should give it to him or use it to pay for her school fees.

"I'm sorry I had totally lost track of the date but I promise give me a few more days and I would pay you the money okay?" She pleaded as she hurriedly tried to open the door, but the key lock seemed to have a problem, the key did not fit into the lock no matter how she tried. She looked at the keys in her hands and then at the key lock then she noticed they were not meant for each other.

Realisation hit her, she turned and looked at the old man that was looking at her with so much derision in his eyes "did... did you change the locks?"

"Yes! Since you don't have my money you and your incompetent uncle should go sleep somewhere else till you have it, I'm tired of your excuses!" The old man exclaimed.

"But_" Ariyah was going to protest but the man cut her off.

"But your head! Don't call me till you have my money!" He harrumphed then turned and left.

Was this how she was going to end up homeless?

In this cold weather where was she going to sleep? She made up her mind and ran after him wanting to go explain but the man got into his car faster than a scared rat and drove away. Ariyah stood there and watched his car drive off and felt even more despaired.

She thought about her uncle who was not yet home and was even more despaired, he would have nowhere to lay his head when he comes back drunk. Not that she pitied him, he deserve it!

How could he leave an 18 year old to fend for herself and even him?. Right now she doesn't even want to think about him.

"ahhh!" she yelled to the open heavens.

like the heavens too were against her, the clouds all of a sudden began to rain down. She stood there with no where to run to. Slowly she began getting wet from the rain. There was no need to avoid the rain anymore, she began walking away inside it, her phone had died on her way back home so there was no way she could call anyone at the moment, she continued walking with only one destination at heart_her boyfriend's house.

People used to say that every human had an equal number of misfortune and fortune, that might not be completely true but it was true that everyone had to be fortunate once in their life. For Ariyah, she was fortunate to have met her boyfriend Nate, he was the only reason she was fighting to succeed against all odds!

In terms of status, they were worlds apart. He was the Prodigy of the renowned Mullins Family, with fame to his name and billions waiting for him to inherit whereas she was just the Abandoned— no scratch that— Runaway Second daughter of the Hart family that people either ignored or looked down on. Yet fate played it's part in making their paths cross. Crazy right. Even she most times didn't know what she did to deserve such a good promising young man in her life. He was her happiness.

As she thought about him while going on her way, drenched in the rain, a bright smile appeared on her face, people looked at her like she had lost her mind but she didn't mind. It was quite a distance from her place to his destination still she was going to walk the way there, she didn't have any money to board a car and besides she was used to walking miles already.

When she got to her boyfriend's place, she didn't directly walk in. she found a place to hide and wait for her clothes to get dried a little bit. The last thing Ariyah wanted was for her boyfriend to see her in this sorry state. Despite all her problems, she minimized what she told her boyfriend, All he knew was that she was low on cash because she was trying to create a life for herself by being independent but he didn't know that she had to shuttle through countless part time jobs, Ariyah didn't even tell him about her fight with her father or her drunken uncle, all he knows was she had decided to be the bigger person and leave her father to enjoy his marriage with her step mother after he got remarried with her step mother.

She wanted it that way. How else was she supposed to let the Mullins family accept her if they didn't see her effort to grow herself?

When her body had dried a little, she walked to the front of his house.

"Miss Ariyah?" The guard at the entrance called out when he saw her. This wasn't her first time visiting Nate's residence so the guards were familiar with and sort of knew that she had a relationship with their young master. Compared to their pampered young master that live with their parents, Nate had asked to live alone despite only being a High school student. Thus his parents had gotten this place for him and also employed a few servants to cater to his daily needs. She was quite familiar with the servants that worked here so she expected there would be no obstruction anytime she came to visit.

Contrary to her expectations, the guard looked at her uncertainly and didn't show any signs of intending to let her her.

Ariyah's brows creased a little. This was a first.

"Is anything the matter? I'm here to see your Young master, surely you recognise me right?"

Of course he did, he had already called her name so it was even strange that he was still not letting her in.

"Indeed I do. It's just I am not sure this is the right time to visit. Why don't you return and come back some other time?" He sounded warm, but aside that there wasn't even a hint of politeness in his tone.

Something was definitely off!

The fact that he had directly turned her away instead of asking for her to get permission from Nate shows that he had either been informed that no one else was to come in or he was aware that her presence wasn't truly needed in the house at this point.

No matter how Ariyah thought about it, she could not help but feel unsettled. Even times in the past that Nate was not at home, they would still let her in and wait for his arrival but now she was being chased away like a plagued. Her insecure heart could only read bad omens from this.