Our mansion has open windows. But that's just to make people think we're not hiding anything. There were two major secrets of my life. One: I had wings. Two: My "dad" abused me. He's actually my biological father but he acts nothing like he should. He created me at a lab in California and then helped me escape three years back, when I was twelve. Now we lived in Virginia and he owned a mansion from his new job there – he moved to a different lab. At first, he was the nicest guy ever. He taught me how to read and write, how to add and subtract, the basics of school so I could be enrolled. He even taught me how to fly. But now, since his wife died he's kept me a secret to the world. I never knew who my mom was and never will. But now that you're somewhat caught up, I can tell you about my life right now.

It was Sunday night and I was cleaning the entire mansion . . . in a maid's outfit. I never had to wear it except for on Sunday's. That was the night that Jeb (my "dad") would bring someone home. It was always a different lady every week. It made me sick. So I had to act like his maid. That's what I meant by him keeping me a secret to the world. I had my duster and was swiping it up and down the decorative columns on each side of the staircase. Jeb walked inside with a woman clinging to his arm and laughing. They came straight toward me and stopped.

"Jessica, this is my maid, Max." He smirked at me but I ignored it and smiled at his new girlfriend.

"It's very nice to meet you." I was truthfully sincere. I liked Jeb's girlfriends, but not him.

"It's nice to meet you too. Oh, and this house looks beautiful. You must work very hard to clean it." She turned to Jeb. "May I?" He nodded and my stomach dropped. Jessica pulled out her wallet and gave me twenty dollars. "Keep up the good work."

"Why don't you go on upstairs?" Jeb asked. "I'll be up there in a minute."

"Okay." She turned behind the wall while climbing the stairs and I handed the money over to Jeb. He slapped me across the face.

"You don't need this, you worthless piece of shit." He stuffed it in his pocket and then poured the beer he was holding out onto the floor. Once it was empty, he dropped the bottle and let it shatter. I stared at it and he leaned forward to my ear. "Clean that up." He whispered then chuckled. He started up the stairs and turned around to face me one more time. "Oh, by the way, the sheets are gonna need cleaning tomorrow." He winked at me and left the room. I sighed and started picking up the biggest pieces of glass. I brought them into the kitchen and threw them in the trash and then got a wet wash cloth to wipe up the fibers of glass and alcohol.

I got on my hands and knees to clean it up and immediately snorted in disgust. This outfit was so short; it was almost showing my underwear. I quickly wiped it up and threw the wash cloth into the laundry room at the other end of the house. I opened the secret door in the linen closest and climbed up two flights of stairs up to the attic, my room.

When I reached the top stair, I opened up a hatch in the ceiling. I pulled myself up through it and when I was in my room, I slid it back into place. There were no windows in my room, unlike the rest of the house where basically every wall was a window. I sighed and looked over at my ripped up mattress on the floor, then at my pile of clothes for school. I finally changed out of my maid outfit and hung it up on a hook nailed into the wall. Then I changed into my one pair of pajamas and went to bed.