Chapter Seventy-Five

Chapter Seventy-Five
I stood by the kitchen cabinet, a knife in my hands and some vegetables on the tray which I chopped, in preparation for our dinner tonight.

While I still lived on my own and paid Nelson only visits, he never allowed me to cook. He hated to see me in the kitchen, or at least, that was how he made it seem, but since living with him, I had to start cooking up some nice dishes, mostly for myself. 

He still didn't care to eat all the time from me, but I knew I couldn't survive on takeout all the time, and I loved to cook too, so it wasn't much of a chore.

It had been a week and two days in Nelson’s house, and these days were by far the worst I'd ever had. I was not allowed to go out for any reason, because he always speculated that I would escape, and he was right about that. No one in their right mind would see an escape route and decide to remain in the dungeon.

For the meals I cooked, Nelson did the grocery shopping; the house supplies, toiletries, and every household item were shopped for by him and all I just did was laze in the house from dawn till dusk, cook myself a meal when I wanted, and watch TV.

It sounded like a dream but it was immense torture. After several attempts to inform my aunt of the recent development, followed by my blatant refusal to comply, he took my phone one night while I slept and texted my aunt, telling her that I just wanted some time away from work, and that I'd come to see Hayley soon. 

The following morning, when she called and inquired about the reason for my decision, Nelson stood right in front of me, coercing me to pretend that everything was okay and that it was just temporary.

Every day I woke up, I planned my escape and Nelson’s exposure but I needed a little more time to gather more concrete evidence against him, my utmost focus being his secret job. 

I missed my baby, Hayley, and her warm little hugs, her crankiness, clinginess, and forehead kisses. I missed being her mom and every day, I felt mom-guilt because I had to stay away from her, which was against my wish.

Poor, innocent girl without a father, and now lacking a mother’s love. I sobbed. She must have been feeling really lonely and neglected and this made me blame myself even more, because I was the one who let everything happen; the one without boundaries. 

Every day, I wished and prayed that I would make it out of here alive, but for now, I needed to be strong and watch out for a lot of information which would aid my peaceful escape and arrest of the beast whom I lived with. 

Tonight, I was making some chicken stir-fry with vegetables and rice. 

I'd washed my rice and chopped some veggies, and now I was letting my chicken chunks marinate in the sauce so that they could soak up enough flavour before going in the pan for some frying.

While I chopped some onions on the chopping board, I heard Nelson speaking and I knew immediately that it was one of his numerous hideous calls, with callers whose identities I did not know.

Nelson lived a very private life and so far I'd never seen him with any friends. He only told me he was hanging out with a close friend, the few times he stepped out during the day, but I never got a sight or even a picture of them. 

Besides not seeing him with anyone, he never got any visitors. It was almost like he lived in absolute solitude, a peaceful and scary life at the same time. 

As the conversation lengthened, his voice deepened, and I could hear him talk about the shipping of the bundles, but what bundles he referred to, I had no idea.

He spoke in such discreet language, and made references using general terms, like he knew someone was eavesdropping on the conversation.

I thought about confronting him as I got really inquisitive and disturbed about what this business might be, but I knew better than to do that. If I got killed here, he could get away with it as the neighbourhood was private and none of my family members knew my whereabouts.

Soon, I heard footsteps approaching and I knew immediately that he was the one. As they got closer, my heart beat faster, pounding hard against my chest as it did.

The mere sound of his voice sent shivers down my spine, and his presence made my legs wobble in fear because I was uncertain of his next move.

I quickly resorted to heating the pan with some oil in it. I didn't want to give him a clue that I'd been paying attention to the things he said; he could go crazy about my nosiness and pounce on me in anger. 

“Hey, baby! I can see you are whipping up a nice meal for yourself,” he said, walking towards me and he planted a kiss behind my ear. Usually that would have sent my body wanting more than a kiss, but this time, it sent a signal of fear, and I froze on the spot where I held onto the pan like my life depended on it.

“You okay? You look stressed. This is why I don't let you cook! I hate to see my girl stress! Damn!”

I looked at him making all the fake demonstrations that almost got me laughing in anger and disgust, except I kept my cool and held it in to prevent an outburst.

“I’m not complaining, Nelson. You know how much I love to cook and bake.” I mumbled slowly, my tone very low and uninterested. 

“Whatever makes you be at peace with yourself. Anyways, I hope to get a taste of this sumptuous goodness when I'm back.”

“When you're back? Oh! My bad! You have a meeting, I suppose,” I said confused, mincing up words. 

“Yes. I'm hanging with the boys, nothing serious or formal. And oh, I'll stay late into the night, so don't miss me too much. Have a nice time in the kitchen, and I'll see you when I get back.”

Nelson kissed me multiple times, on the cheek, neck, and lips before walking out of the kitchen. 

For a hot minute, I was going to melt for this part of him but I knew what it all was, an undercover. He knew how to blur traumatic memories with his lovey-dovey act, but I wasn't letting that get to me this time. Matter of fact, the most he could do was blur the experiences, but erase them? That was never going to happen! 

I tiptoed to the sitting room, and I was met with absolute silence. He had gone out and I had the whole house alone to myself.

“Search time…” I heard my inner voice whisper.

“Search time? Oh my God, I'm scared!” I muttered under my breath, my palpitations increasing.