I woke up the next morning feeling so groggy. I blinked several times to erase the blurriness of my vision and when it finally cleared, I looked around and noticed that I was in a strange place. At first I was confused. I almost jolted out of bed but the pain in my ribs quickly stopped that. I grimaced in pain and placed my hand on my hurting ribs. I swallowed hard and simply looked around. I noticed that I was in a beautiful room which had the touch of manliness in it. I stared down at myself and realized that I was in a clean oversized shirt and I gasped. Where were my clothes and who had taken them off?! I was trying to recollect what happened the previous night when I heard footsteps.

The door handle turned and the door opened. When I saw him, my eyes narrowed in disbelief. He was wearing no shirt and only had a pair of shorts on. Protectively pulling the duvet up to my chest, I asked

“Did we have sex?”

He scoffed. “God, no!”

I sighed, visibly relaxing. “Thank God!” I breathed and began to scan the room for my clothes. “Where are my clothes?”

“Um… I washed them… They are actually on the line drying.” He answered.

My eyes fell on the wall clock and I realized that it was past 9 in the morning. I panicked now. “Jeez! I have to get going now! My husband must be very worried about me now!” I started to slowly scoot to the edge of the bed.

He stopped me. “No, no, no!” He shook a finger at me. “You are not going back to that monster!”

“He is my husband!”

“Oh, please spare me that crap! Do you think the meaning of a husband lies in the title alone?! This man is going to kill you! Just look at yourself, you are a total mess! Have you even checked your ribs, you are badly bruised! What kind of a man hits a woman that way or even raises his hand at her at all?!”

“It’s not his fault. I was stubborn. I brought it all upon myself, Chris. If I hadn’t dragged him out of that car, he wouldn’t have hit me, I’m sure that he didn’t mean to.” I defended him.

“Oh, so you’d rather watch him screw another woman?! Gosh! What has the world done to you?! You are so susceptible!”

“You can say all you want but my marriage is for better for worse!” I retorted.

“I’m not letting you out of here until you break out of whatever spell your husband has you under! When will you realize that this guy doesn’t love, respect nor deserve you?! I’m not letting you go back to him just like that and I’m prepared to lock you in here if it requires that!”

“You wouldn’t keep me against my wish! That’s tantamount to kidnapping!”

“Say all you want but forgive me saying this, you are the most vulnerable woman I have ever come across! You have been treated so badly that you don’t even know your worth anymore!”

I frowned at his stinging words then I felt tears swelling at the back of my eyes again. They pooled at the bottom of my lids and spilled down my cheeks. He stared at me then heaved a sigh. Approaching me on the bed, he squatted in front of me and took my hand in his. “Hey, I never meant for you to cry…” He said softly. “I just don’t like the fact that you still haven’t realised that you are in a bondage in disguise of a marriage. I don’t wanna know how you met the d!ckhead, what I’m really concerned about is setting you free. You are so weak that you have just chosen to relax and accept whatever life throws at you. It doesn’t have to be this way. Not for you or anybody. Everyone deserves a good chance at life and you are denying yourself just that.”

I gently pulled my hand from his and he let it go. “You hungry?” He asked. “You must be hungry!” He concluded then straightened up. “I prepared breakfast. Can you get out of bed?” He asked.

I swallowed hard and slowly nodded. He took my hands again and gently helped me to my feet. I stood for a moment, gritting my teeth and trying to deal with the intense pain coming from my bruised ribs. Slowly, he helped me walk out of the room and down a flight of stairs.

“I don’t remember going up these stairs.” I told him.

He smiled, “I had to carry you. You were fast asleep.” He answered.

He led me past the sitting room to the dining room where he pulled out a chair and helped me sit before he sat down at the head of the dining table, very close to me. There were several balls of hot pancakes and two bowls of already-made pap, not to mention the two tins of peak milk set by each bowl.

“Did you go out to buy bean cakes?” I asked as my mouth watered at the sight of the food and that was when I realized that I was indeed very hungry.

“No, I made them myself.” He answered then glanced at me as he punched two holes each into the tins of milk and began to pour the milk on my pap. “Surprised?”

I smiled shyly for the very first time that morning. “Most men do not cook.”

“Well, I guess I’m part of the minority who sure knows how to cook.”

I took a spoonful of pap and milk and brought it to my lips and he quickly warned. “Careful, it’s hot.”

I nodded, blew some air into the spoon of pap before I put it into my mouth. As we ate, I noticed that he kept glancing at me. When we were done with breakfast, I attempted to clear the table but he refused, packed up the dishes and walked to the kitchen. Somehow, I decided to tag along but he made sure that I sat down on a kitchen stool so that I wouldn’t strain my injured side. As he busied himself with the dishes at the sink, I decided to ask him some questions about himself.

“Since you know so much about me already, do you mind telling me a little about yourself?”

He glanced over his shoulder at me. “What do you wanna know?”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m an architect.” He replied, “And I also run a spa on the island.”

“I see…” I slowly nodded. “So you live in this big house all by yourself?”

“Yes…”

“Why aren’t you married yet?”

“Married?” He scoffed. “Just haven’t found the right one.”

“Any girlfriend?”

“Broke up.”

“Why?”

“Some stupid tradition which says the oldest daughters must get married first before the younger ones. I went to see her folks but they said that I would have to marry her elder sister who’s already thirty-eight years of age.”

“And that made you quit?”

He paused to give me a look. “Are you serious right now?”

“Yeah, I mean, you could have just done a court wedding or something.”

“I am not going to marry into a family where I’m not wanted. I can’t do what they ask of me, I’m no Jacob who married Leah when who he wanted all along was Rachael. I’m not going to let anyone play a fast one on me.”

“So you guys broke up?”

“Well, she is married now… She met up with some dude whom she talked into impregnating her and her family had no other choice than to just marry her off to the dude. The little problem I have down at the village after my Father’s death also contributed to her hasty decision but let’s leave that. That’s a story for another day.”

“Well, you should have done just that… I mean impregnated her if it would have made you have your way easily.” I teased.

“There’s no way I’m going to stoop so low. I ain’t getting any child out of wedlock.” He stated firmly and by this time he was done washing and rinsing the dishes and he set them in the rack and the utensils where they also belonged then he joined me, pulled a stool and sat opposite me, leaning his elbows on the counter. “You know that I’m yet to know your name, right? I’m tired of calling you hey.”

I smiled. “It’s Victoria.”

“Perfect. My mum’s namesake.” He grinned. “But she’s late.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” I said.

He shook his head. “It’s nothing. She died years back when I was in secondary school…” A short silence passed between us and he slowly lifted his hand and reached out to gently caressed my bruised left eye with his thumb. “Does it hurt?”

“Not really, it’s just numb. Feels heavy.” I answered and slowly drew my head back out of his reach. The way he was treating me like I had never been treated before by a man was slowly getting to me and I knew I was bound to fall for him soon if I wasn’t careful. “I should go take a bath.” I said, cooking up an excuse to stay away from him. I needed some time alone to clear my head before I did something foolish like kissing him. I needed to remember that I was married and shouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize my marriage.

“You can use the bathroom in my room.” He said as I got off the stool. “Need some help?”

“No…” I blinked. “I can very much take care of myself.”

“You can grab a shirt in my closet if you need to change into something new.” He told me and I simply nodded and walked out of the kitchen even though I could feel his eyes boring into my back.

As I took a shower, I thought of him. He occupied my mind all through and as the water gushed out of the shower head and cascaded down my body. Shame suddenly engulfed me and I began to cast out the devil who was implanting such thoughts in my mind. I was married and it was inappropriate for me to be daydreaming about any other man besides my husband.

“It’s okay to daydream you know?”

I was suddenly startled by his voice and I turned to find him sitting on the bathtub. Although the glass walls of the shower had grown foggy from the warm water I was bathing with but I felt totally naked. I quickly squeezed my thighs together and wrapped my arms around my body to conceal it from him. “What are you doing here?” I asked him through the glass.

He had his head down and was not staring at me. “Forgive me, I just found myself being worried may be you are alright”

I turned off the shower and eyed the towel I had hung on the rung outside the shower, he seemed to have read my mind and he simply rose, grabbed the towel, opened the shower glass door and threw it towards me with his head still hung down. I carefully collected the towel from him, making sure that our fingers didn’t meet. Quickly wrapping the towel around my body, I stepped out of the shower and asked, a little bit annoyed.

“Do you invade the privacy of every female guest you have?”

“No, just you.” He answered and I could tell that he was being sincere.
“How do you feel now?” He asked.

“Refreshed.” I answered and started for the bedroom and he followed. I found a big t-shirt spread neat on the bed with the bold writing on it: HE IS MINE. “What’s this?

“A t-shirt.” He answered. He had his hands in his shorts’ pockets now as he watched me.

“I know what it is quite alright, I meant why this t-shirt and whose is it?”

“My ex… Don’t worry, she never even got the chance to see it. We broke up before I could give it to her.”

I stared at the t-shirt for a moment, contemplating whether to wear it or not. “The words on it are inappropriate.” I complained.

“Yet harmless.” He countered.

I sighed then said, “Fine, could you at least give me some privacy?”

“Sure.” He turned to leave when I said:

“And please, put on a shirt please.”

He paused and partially turned to look at me, “Do I intimidate you?”

“No… Not really…” I stuttered. “You are all ripped and-” I trailed off and I kept mute immediately

“I get it.” He said in understanding and walked to the closet. He soon emerged, dressed in a almost body-hugging red t-shirt. “Better now?” He asked.

“Yeah, sort of…” I said and he walked out of the room. Immediately he was gone, I heaved a sigh and sat down on the foot of the bed then I ran my hand over the printed letters of the shirt as I thought of what next step to take concerning my husband. Should I go to my parents and beg them to follow me down to my house to help apologize to Daniel on my behalf? Or should I go to my sister-in-law and hope that she could help settle things between us.

To Be Continued…… Watch out for Episode 8.