I don't know how long I've been kept in this basement. I can't really say for certain, but what I do know is that I've been tortured with icy water that was dunked on me. I've been slapped around and beaten within an inch of my life. I've almost been raped but the scorned woman said she didn't want any of her men to touch me so I could be tight enough for all the men I would get to sleep with at the brothel I will be taken to eventually.
The funny thing is, with every taunting word, every action, and every little thing I go through, I grow more hardened, more determined to live. If this is how people are reborn into criminals, then I'm going to be a living example and I'm not backing down. The scorned woman comes to see me every day expecting me to grovel and beg for freedom as well as for my life, but when she sees the blazing fire in my eyes and the determination, it only drives her around the bend and then she devises a new round of tortures on me in the hopes that I'll break.
I .will. not. break.
For Lily, I will stay alive and fight.
I hear the click-clack of shoes coming down the stairs indicating the arrival of the scorned woman and I brace myself for the next round of inventive punishment. I wonder what it'll be this time. Last time I was tied by the leg and hung from the ceiling for hours. All the blood rushed to my head and I couldn't feel my hands and legs within seconds. My head felt swollen and my eyes. . . let's just say I don't think I look like me anymore.
I close my eyes and feign sleep as the sound of her heels approaches me. I hear another set of steps but I refuse to give in to the lure of opening my eyes. What's the point? It's probably one of her men coming to do her bidding. Last time there were five of them. I wonder why there's just one with her now. I continue to listen as the two sets of footsteps stop directly in front of me, still, I don't budge. I'm curled onto my side in a fetal position on the cold ground and I'm shaking from nerves and cold.
"Get up, bitch, I've got a surprise for you!" Her high-pitched voice is like an arrow to my ears but I continue to feign sleep. "See, this is what pisses me off." I don't know if she's talking to me or the person beside her but I don't budge.
She can go for fuck herself for all I care.
I anticipate it before I feel it but I brace myself. The sharp kick she gifts me in my stomach would have debilitated me if I wasn't in a fetal position. I untangle my hands from around my body and scoot up but I'm not fast enough to avoid another kick aimed at my stomach. I block it with my hand but it doesn't take away the bite that seesaws up and down my arm.
"Stand the fuck up now!" Her voice has gotten a whine in it and I vaguely wonder what Ash ever saw in her in the first place. Yes! She's absolutely beautiful, albeit with surgeries done on her body, but she's as shallow and empty as a pan.
I get up sluggishly, which I can tell drives her around the bend but as I watch her eyes light with glee, I know whatever surprise she has in store for me is going to top her anger at my indifference toward her.
"Look at who came to see you." Her voice is now toned down to a sultry purr.
Beside her, the man chuckles and even if I were asleep, I would know that voice. I whip my head to look at the person standing in the shadow a few paces from her. He steps into the light and I grow rigid.
It can't be. No! This is some vivid macabre dream I'm experiencing. It's made my mind think it's real. I try to pinch myself, to wake up, but I can't move. The warmth of the smirk on his lips is a total contrast to his eyes which are as cold and devoid of warmth as they settle on me. I watch in horror as the scorned woman hooks an arm around Ash's waist and practically melts into him. I notice with a sinking heart that they're both wearing their wedding rings. Actually, she never took hers off, but Ash. . .
Oh! My god. Ash has gone back to her.
"That's right, bitch, he's mine," Scorned woman purrs from Ash's embrace. I notice his hand is rigid beside her waist which gives me some smidgen of hope. Maybe he's acting, but then he cocks a brow as if daring me to say something, when, still looking at me, he turns the woman's face to his and caresses her cheek.
Without saying a word, he takes his eyes off me and closes the little space between them. He kisses her slowly, passionately, and I have to listen to the long-drawn-out moan emanating from the scorned woman's lips. This is what finally does it for me. This is what breaks me down as tears roll down my eyes.
"Come on, baby, let's go make love." Is what Ash says to her.
If I had been in pieces before, well. . . you can imagine how I feel now as he places his hands on her well-defined bum and squeezes hard before drawing her away. I don't realize I'm on the floor, I don't even realize I'm sobbing my heart out that's in so much pain until I hear a woman screaming.
That woman. . . is me.
*
At some point in my despair, I must have drifted off because I feel a buzz go through my body starting at my shoulders. When I make sense of it, I realize something is shaking me. No. Someone. I try to open my eyes but they've got a mind of their own and stay glued shut.
"Lemme alone!" I flay my hands feebly at whoever is trying to rouse me. "I want to die, I just want to die."
"Well, that's gonna come another day, because I'm getting you out of here now."
The words of a madman do nothing but make me throw my head back and laugh out loudly. Or maybe I'm just hallucinating that Ash is talking to me.
"I mean it, Hazel eyes, get the fuck up now because I'm not leaving you here to die."
This grabs my attention as I force my eyes to open. They do so, but grudgingly and only into slits. They're swollen, that much is obvious but I can still see Ash staring at me with a worried expression on his face.
"Thought you were going to make love to your wife, so what are you doing here?" I sound petulant. Heck, yes, I am.
His gaze softens as he helps me up. "The only person I want to do that with is you."
His words eradicate the pain in my chest and make fresh new tears break out from my already-swollen eyes. I stumble backward and away from his hold. "You. . . you kissed her."
"A ruse." He replies immediately.
"You touched and fondled her." I fold my hands across my chest and wait for his answer.
"An unfortunate episode and I already made sure to wash the filth off my hands."
But I'm still not convinced. "And where is she now?"
"Tied up in her room but not for long because her men could find out and intercept us."
His eyes are pleading with me to accept his words, to accept him. I look around the basement that has been my prison for goodness knows how long, searing the image in my mind, before I turn back to him and nod, allowing him to lead me toward the stairs.