I was in and out of consciousness several tis, I felt my whole body burning, but a mont later I was cold.
Probably this was a dream, but I found myself in the master bedroom with sunlight streaming in through the open window. I was no longer in that basent, surrounded by darkness, sleeping on a cold floor and no food.
"Mada, you’re awake? How are you feeling?" The maid asked.
I nodded weakly and sat up despite the pain. My body felt heavy and my throat burned and felt sore. I needed sothing to drink. I rembered having a fever after being exposed to the cold for so long. I was freezing to death before everything went dark.
"Water..." my voice cracked. I could barely speak.
The maid grabbed the bottle of water from the nightstand and handed it to .
"Here... mada, drink this."
I took a sip of the water, it moistened my parched throat like a cool balm, causing to pour the whole liquid down my throat as though I was afraid soone would take it away from .
"Do you need more?" She asked, looking at like I would collapse anyti soon.
I shook my head.
"I’m okay."
"You haven’t eaten anything for a long ti. You must be hungry." As soon as she said that, my stomach growled causing her to smile. "I will get you so food. I will be right back." With that, she went out, leaving alone.
I lay back on the bed. My eyelids felt heavy, but I tried to keep my eyes open and not fall asleep.
After soti, the door opened again, I turned my head, expecting to see the maid, only to find Alexander striding inside the room.
My chest tightened in rage upon seeing his face. What did he want?
"You’re awake," he began nonchalantly, looming over . I glared at him faintly and turned to the other side of the bed. Even his voice now irritated .
"You should go eat and get dressed, we are eting your father."
A shiver ran down my spine at the ntion of my father. What? He was going to take to him?
"I’m not going anywhere... I am not okay yet." The last thing I wanted right now was for my family to know that I was alive, not now, not soon.
"It doesn’t matter if you’re well or not," he said. "I have already scheduled a eting with your father, we shouldn’t keep him waiting."
His words felt like a punch in my gut. I didn’t know where I got the sudden energy from, but I scrambled out of bed. The room spun, yet I steaded myself and faced him, my eyes blazing with anger.
"If you wanted to go with you, then you shouldn’t have locked in the basent. I’m not going. I won’t."
That must have angered him. He crossed the distance between us and grabbed my hand, pulling closer to him.
"You will," he said with a lethal voice, "if you don’t want to return to the basent."
It took a mont for his words to sink in, and when it did, a dry, bitter laugh escaped my throat.
"Is that all you got? Take to the basent? Co on, try more. You’re a man, you should do what n do," I said, mock sweetness lining my tone.
His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Do what n do?" He repeated, his voice low, and before I knew it, he pushed down on the bed, pinning down with his body. "I should show you exactly what n do to people like you." He said through gritted teeth.
Fear shimred through . I put my two hands in his chest to push him away. But he grabbed my wrists and pinned them down on the bed above my head, before reaching for my dress.
"No... stop it..." I yelled, squirming beneath him.
He didn’t stop. He ripped off my dress as though it was soft as tissue, then dragged my underwear off my waist and flung it across the room.
"Why are you doing this...? Stop...!" my voice trembled as the cold afternoon air caressed my bare skin.
"You shouldn’t have challenged ," he said savagely. "I made a mistake. Always do. I should have thrown you outside to roast in the sun and freeze to death at night. You should have been glad I offered you a basent."
Be glad that I was dying, starving and cold in that darkness? Was that what he ant?
I tried to speak, but the lump in my throat was too painful from holding back tears. Then the tears flowed freely out of my eyes, blurring my vision.
"Please..." I whimpered when I felt his hand squeezed my breast. Never had I been touched like this before. I wasn’t my father’s proudest daughter, but no one would even dare degrade like this.
"Please? Has it dawn on you how power works? Those with power exploit as they want. Because you know why?"
I scread in agony when he pinched my nipple so hard that I felt so much pain.
"Powerless people have no voice. No matter how loud they scream, nobody cos. Just like you now."
More tears stread out of my eyes as he assaulted every inch of my body.
"Don’t cry," he spoke, almost softly, as his rough fingers gripped my thigh. He was going to do it. Oh God... please save ! "This is nothing to what I planned to do to everyone of your kind. It’s just getting started."
Now, I wasn’t listening to him anymore. I was horrified. My heart was beating wildly in my chest as I thrashed my body with all the energy I had left, trying to free myself one more ti. Yet.
Exhausted, I just shut my eyes, painfully awaiting whatever would happen.
However, he suddenly stopped.
I slowly opened my eyes to see what happened, why did he stop? He released his grip on and climbed down from the bed. I quickly sat up and grabbed the blanket to cover myself, watching in confusion as he put his pants on with his back on .
"What is on your stomach?" he asked. I didn’t reply because I thought I must have misheard him.
He repeated, his tone sharper, "I’m asking you what is that on your stomach? Who has done that to you?"
Why did he act like he cared? He was no different from the people who hurt .
"It’s nothing..." I muttered.
"I asked." He turned around to face , this ti, no hint of warmth in his eyes. "For the last ti, what is that scar on your stomach?"
"And I said it’s nothing," I snapped, trying to mask my fear with arrogance.
His fist clenched into a ball, he marched towards and gripped my chin, forcing to look at him. "You still don’t get it, do you? Being this way won’t get you anywhere. It will only bring more mysteries to you," he uttered. "Be obedient and don’t try to be on my bad side."
’As if I am not already on your bad side,’ I didn’t dare to say that aloud.
He straightened up, his eyes never leaving . "The food is getting cold. Eat and get ready. You have just thirty minutes," he instructed, then walked out of the room without waiting for my response.
I stayed there for a long mont, too tired to do anything. Eventually, I got out of bed, holding the blanket tightly to my trembling body, as if it would erase the fact that a man just saw my nakedness. I wanted to scream, to hit sothing. How could he do that to ?
I filled the bathtub with warm water, then let the blanket slide down my body before sinking into the water. I closed my eyes to relax, but the image of Alexander’s hands on , sliding all over made my eyes snap open.
It was haunting, a mory I could never get rid of just like the scar on my stomach. That scar. My fingers found my stomach, feeling the slight roughness of the skin. Why did he want to know? Did he find it ugly? I didn’t know... I was confused, scared and hungry. I just lay in the bathtub, feeling the soothing warmth of the water, massaging my bones, and before I knew it I fell asleep.
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