Remembering the self-defence tricks Jacques had taught me, I curled my body easily and went right to the floor, scrambling as fast as I could for the dagger.
No matter what, Lenard Lee had to go down tonight. Hearing his fast footsteps, I evaded his grasp in the nick of time as he made a powerful lunge towards me.
“Don’t come near!” I shouted, flashing the weapon in front of his eyes.
He just laughed.
“Stab me then! Go ahead, do it!”
He waved his hands at me with a sickening laugh. As he came closer, I held the dagger more firmly, swallowing hard. My hands felt clammy. I had never hurt a fly all my life, and it just scared me more of how I would kill him.
-One and a half years later- Saying goodbye was harder than it seemed. The time I spent with him made me love my life with Jacques, even if it was a loveless marriage. Two weeks after our second-year anniversary, we registered our marriage at the nearest district office. It was an intricate process as it involved us getting clearance from the embassy of our home country. However, Jacques settled it easily and in addition, he even threw us a special celebration. We restricted the private party to just the two of us, and it was a secret from everyone we knew. In my heart, I still wondered if it all didn’t come up to this, would I be walking down the aisle with Syl instead? Maybe then, yes. But now, it would never happen in this lifetime. It was a truth I found it
“Meal reservation, Miss?”I looked towards the stewardess with two weary eyes. This was the second time I was travelling on such a long-haul flight. The male passenger beside me appeared mysterious but I wasn’t inclined on knowing more, especially about a member of the opposite sex.On his opposite side, his female companion was engrossed in trying to get his attention. She was the perfect definition of artificial: plastic surgery, false eyelashes, and a fake attitude, which I caught easily. Fortunately, I had a seat near the window, so I could watch the view outside without a care for either of them.I shook my head. She turned to the man.“Whatever.”The stewardess checked her clipb
“Welcome back, Mrs Jensen.” At my city’s airport, I never expected a welcome from a stranger. Furthermore, she was an airport staff that checked travellers’ bags for any suspicious items. I just responded with a fake smile. There was a long queue, so by the time I got to my checked-in baggage, almost everyone in the same flight as me had gone. I thought of the job that I had just applied for in the short break while transiting, and it made me think twice after reading the negative reviews on an online forum. They painted the company as a shady place, and I believed it was so, since looking up the company’s corporate profile didn’t seem too convincing, like an empty shell company. Even if Kaiser Klef Solutions was shady, I persisted to apply with them because their ma
Kaiser Klef was no other than the male passenger who had offered me the newspaper he didn’t need. He stood before me, in a smart suit, unlike how casually his staff had dressed. My intuition told him he was the boss of the company, yet he took economy class during the flight.“Miss Piper Taylor, I understand you are a college dropout, but because of connections, they promoted you from an admin staff to corporate in your last job.” He eyed me warily, pronouncing every word icily and yet, carefully.“Yes,” I answered in a monotonous voice. “But I did nothing to get it. The CEO-”“Silence. You don’t have to answer questions I didn’t ask.”I swallowed. This man was such an authoritarian.
“Good morning.”Kaiser was up and staring at me with a self-satisfied smirk. He was the first man that I had slept with while not being in a relationship, and I was already enjoying the thrill that accompanied it.Whatever happened last night, I didn’t regret it.“You’re a hot one, Piper Taylor. I’m starting to regret hiring you.”“How does that add up?” I asked, teasing him by flipping my hair behind my naked back. An ample view of my cleavage lay exposed above the blanket wrapped firmly around me. He leaned closer and trailed down my chest with his fingers.Unlike the other guys, he didn’t ask if I slept well or enjoyed sex last night. He just went straight for it. He didn’t ask if I wanted any more, but I read his body language and spread my legs for him to take me.He tossed the blanket aside and threw off his boxers, inserting his hardened organ deep inside me so abruptly that made m
Kaiser Klef SolutionsI wore a bold black short dress with matching boots to meet Kaiser. The dress clung tightly to my abdomen and left nothing to the imagination. To increase the heat of my attire, I wore a matching set of black lacy undergarments. I didn’t know if Kaiser was going to toss me to the wolves today, but I had to be ready. I didn’t forget my confidence as I stepped into the building. Recognising me, the male receptionist dialled the number to Kaiser’s floor. I learned that he had a special office on another floor.“Miss Griselda would like to see you.”I nodded and entered the elevator. There was nothing curious for me to find out about this woman who I clearly remembered as Kaiser’s partner in the plane. Probably she already knew about our hanky panky yesterday. However, I recalled how Kaiser wasn’t very nice with her on the flight. Would she take this injustice she suffered against me?I told myself I had suffered more hardships than to be put d
‘Piper, you can do this.’I took a step forward, listening to my inner voice again. I told myself it wasn’t going to be so hard when you have your mind set on something. I focused on one word in my mind: REVENGE. Only by doing that, would I be free. Eternally.It had just rained. I turned back to see Griselda and Kaiser disappear, from a distance. Then I strutted my hips seductively and walked deeper into the dark alley. This was a place where gambling and crimes happened. Some women in scantily clad clothing accompanied men as they made bets in the sleazy establishments. I felt a hand on my bottom. “Hey, Miss, here for some fun?”I adjusted my uniform, taking a deep breath. He smelled of cigarettes and alcohol, like the other men hanging around there. “I’m from Kaiser Klef Solutions,” I said confidently. The man’s hand wouldn’t budge. I calmed myself and began to promote KK Sols’ products, despite the man’s disinterest.“Hands off her.” I heard a voice in the d
“Piper? Are you fine?”A man’s voice echoed across the room. I rubbed my eyes and sat up in the bathtub. It had been three weeks since seeing Syl after the harrowing encounter back in the Darkside, as Kaiser named it. We were in Kaiser’s hotel room after a long day of member ‘solicitation’. Fortunately, after the incident, I was lucky not to run into Syl again. That flabbergasted look on his face and how he ran after me just made me worried that he would find out that I had returned and was involved in this trade. If not that I had changed my number to the sim provided by Griselda, he would probably have attempted to contact me.On the day I formally started work with Kaiser, he had even bought me a phone when I showed him that the operating system of my phone didn’t support the latest version that was required to run the membership application. I presumed that Kaiser had the phone heavily tracked as well. For weeks, on and off, we had each other’s companionship. I
I thought about Jacques’ words to me as I spent the next three days in seclusion at the safe house. Lenard frequently sent people to visit me and ensure I was fine, and knowing he wasn’t coming, I just felt gladder. The discomfort in my body from sharing a bed with the person who hurt me in the past, plus how I was being used by Kaiser for his needs and then, slept with my ex, tended to make me dizzy.I had to strike eventually. Lenard and Lee Jung were why I was in this sorry state. If not for what happened to me, I would be living a happy blissful life with Syl now as his woman. Thinking of Syl, I recalled his dismayed face after we had intercourse. He wasn’t in love. I was just a fragment of his past affection for the easygoing and spirited Piper who was the best buddy of Sherry Summers.Not to forget that I now wished she was dead.
“What happened? Why am I here?”I fought the blanket, struggling to move from the bed. I don’t remember what happened after Lee Jung threatened to record the video. All I wanted was to get away from him, to escape. He had pointed a knife at my neck to make me do his bidding, gloating at me like how Kaiser Klef used a gun to force me to have sex with him.I am now in an unfamiliar bed. Some young men and women are attending to me. A girl wipes my forehead with a damp cloth and another scans my temperature with an infrared gun. Some are watching over me, and two men are guarding the door.“Is anyone listening? Why am I here?” I raised my voice, wringing my hands to get attention. The girl wiping my forehead cowers and retreats, stammering nervously from a distance.“Miss Piper, please don’t get mad. You were found in a disarray in a ditch, soaked to the skin and unconscious. You were also running a high fever.”I scrutinised the girl, unsure whether to believe her words. Lee Jung had us
Syl looked at me sympathetically as I told him about the agony I suffered at Kaiser’s hands, starting from the interview up to bedding his brother-in-law and then being sent to serve Lenard Lee. “I shouldn’t have trusted him.” I said, not allowing myself to shed any tears. “But I did, and I made the wrong choice.” “Piper,” he heaved a long sigh and took me into a bear hug. “I thought you were going to hate me for all I did to you then.” My heart numbed. If only I knew the truth, would things have turned out differently? I was still infertile and could never give him biological children. This was why I had left him in the first place, and things could never go back to the past. “I don’t hate you, Syl,” I answered after a short pause. “I just know we… can’t.” “Why not, Piper? After how I opened up to you about my secret of being an undercover agent? You still can’t trust me? Are you still mad about how I treated you then?” “It’s been so long, Syl. Of course, I can’t be still angry a
“What’s up? You’ve been quiet all day.”Lenard Lee glanced at me as I finished my food silently. My lower abdomen hurt like hell. I don’t know what beast the man I loved before had turned into after he consummated his relationship with Erica Gao. I regretted moving here, even though it was where Kaiser was allegedly from. What I thought to be a new start between us, turned out to be a total nightmare.Even my tormentor had turned into a different person overnight. I was clueless about what was happening, and why he had a strange side to him, but it wasn’t until the last two months that I discovered his considerateness. He had been rather harsh when Kaiser sent me there, but it wasn’t until I discovered he was seeing therapy himself, that I realised what was the reason behind his change of personality. His sweetness was starting to dissolve the hate I had for him, although I still feel inclined to have my revenge. I felt lost like I no longer had my sense of direction. From the day Ka
I was discharged over the weekend. Lenard sent his men to get me, and I reflected on Kaiser’s words during the silent car journey. “We can torture her further. You just need to know you’re worth more than them. And how to execute your plan right.” Would he say the same about his wife? I watched the man guarding beside me flip his newspaper. There was an article about Kaiser Klef and Erica Gao. On the outside, they looked like any happy couple. But Kaiser hadn’t been going home for weeks now, and Erica probably was sick somewhere. I hoped that she was being kept at some mental institution because she deserved it. Not that I was any happier doing what I did. Lenard had been nice to me while I was in hospital but it didn’t change the fact I was not going to be his wife. I was his possession and sex slave. A lover was just a fancy word considering it was with someone who raped and broke me. I could never bring myself to be a lover of that monster. “I hope you’re better now that that j
After Kaiser left, I stayed for one more day in the motel, staring aimlessly towards the ceiling before I finally found the courage to return. It didn’t take me long before Lenard Lee’s men captured me and took me back to see him.I didn’t say a thing. They were very polite, but when I passed the main hall flanked by his best guards, what bothered me was not the sight of blood, but a woman being disrespected. The irony was this was the same woman who had lost me in the streets, Freya. Some cuts ran over her thighs and dried bloodstains over her back.But noticing how the men pleasured themselves with her body was more than I could stand. It was bringing back the traumatic past in me. I whirled around, screaming as I relived how Lenard’s men had used me like an object three years ago. How they shared with me and treated me like I was garbage like I deserved it. I hadn’t asked to be captured. I hadn’t asked to be raped. I just couldn’t fight back at that time because of the weakness in
I was in a daze when I woke up the next morning. Our clothes lay on the floor in a crumpled heap, and there were glasses of beer. I couldn’t remember when either of us left the room to buy the beer, because I was suffering from a tremendous hangover.Kaiser handed me a glass of warm water and some pills. It was already the second day that I was hiding with him in the love motel, and it couldn’t get any spicier. However, the fact that Kaiser didn’t have his phone with him, since he left it at the coffee shop, and that he wasn’t concerned about his businesses unlike before, aroused my suspicion.I laid back with my eyes closed, my back hitting the headboard of the flimsy bed. Honestly it was a horrible place with a weird stench and I doubted they had acceptable hygiene practice in handling food and water, but this was a place that didn’t hold records of the guests who stayed. It would be hard for them to track us down. The medicine started to kick in, offering instant relief from my m
We were gone for some considerable distance when Kaiser stopped me in a dark alley. There were a few shady love motels nearby, but they didn’t deter me. After all, if I murdered him in cold blood, his corpse would be barely noticeable. I clenched the knife closer to his throat and urged him to move faster.“Piper, it doesn’t have to come up to this.” His voice bore some emotions, playing with my mind. I didn’t want to listen anymore, but he still went on and on about our past and how he deemed me his woman. He just didn’t mention the word love, although I know that he had sacrificed me for some unknown gain. If it was the work of that b*tch, all the more I didn’t want to show him any mercy.“You f*cking played me, Kaiser Klef!” I roared at him, but my hand didn’t budge. I was scraping his neck lightly. He suddenly moved, pulling the knife and pointing it to his chest.“If you don’t believe me, Piper, then kill me now. The reason you haven’t made a move to do so is that you still love
The traffic lights flickered with a bright colour. Clear luminous digits appeared, indicating the countdown. I stared at the crowd outside. A beautiful young teenage mother with bright red hair, pushing a stroller, crossed in front of us, and the driver hummed. Pedestrians that took their time were infringing on his patience.Then, I focused on the door handle to my right. The doors of the car were unlocked. All I had to do was open it while they were not paying attention, and run out as fast as my long legs could take me. It wasn't even a plan, it was survival.'Piper, it is now or never,' the voice in me spoke. I mustered all the energy I had. Freya had her head turned to watch the young lady, mumbling something inaudible under her breath. Before she noticed, I had opened the door quietly, before I slipped out, making a roll on the ground. Then, I dashed out as if my life depended on it. Who was I kidding, of course, it did!I took shelter among the crowd, catching my breath. From a